Red Roses attack coach defends route-one tries as France lie in wait

Women’s Rugby World Cup semi-final: France v England

Venue: Ashton Gate, Bristol Date: Saturday, 20 September Kick-off: 15:30 BST

England have only “scratched the surface” of what they are capable of so far in their World Cup campaign, says attack coach Lou Meadows.

England have scored 38 tries in four matches en route to Saturday’s semi-final against France at Bristol’s Ashton Gate.

Twenty-two of those scores have come through England’s dominant forward pack however, leading to concerns that the backline is yet to show a cutting edge before facing tougher opponents.

“I don’t really listen to the criticism or read it too much, I’ve got too much work to do,” said Meadows.

“It comes down to our execution sometimes, there’s moments of brilliance and if some of those last passes had come off, we’d be celebrating champagne rugby.

“With the weather, you don’t want to put the handbrake on and get cautious – you want to go handbrake off and attack it and that is what we have done.

“That has come with some errors – we’ve only scratched the surface and I think there’s going to be more to come.”

Meadows joined up with the Red Roses in April 2023 with the aim of adding more dimensions to a team that had lent heavily on an up-front power game.

“I thought they were far too prescriptive, really obvious in what they were doing,” she told RugbyPass in October when asked for her impressions of England before she joined.

However, Meadows admits England are still some way short of their aim of changing expectations around women’s rugby with their style of play at the tournament.

“Talking about redefining the way the game is played – I don’t think we have got close to that yet,” she added.

Full-back Ellie Kildunne missed the quarter-final win over Scotland, only able to offer support from the touchlines after suffering a concussion in the pool-stage win over Australia.

However, Meadows is optimistic that the 26-year-old is on track to pass the test necessary to be available for selection to face France.

“Ellie is tracking really well,” said Meadows.

“She is very keen to get back as you can imagine – she is quite a twitchy person on the sidelines – and we are all excited to have her energy back in the squad.”

Helena Rowland filled in at 15 in the last eight with Gloucester-Hartpury specialist Emma Sing on the bench.

The fourth-ranked side in the world earned their last eight spot by fighting back from 13 points adrift against Ireland.

France were 24 down earlier this year in their Six Nations decider against England at Allianz Stadium, and fought back to within a point.

Two years before, on the same stage, France had been 33-0 down at half-time against England, but finished only five points behind, with the final score 38-33.

And at the last Rugby World Cup three years ago, France again outscored England in the second half on their way to a narrow 13-7 loss.

“On home soil, it’s about that second half because we know that France are a team that will come out and throw the kitchen sink at you and will literally give you everything they’ve got,” Meadows said.