England coach John Mitchell likened his team’s opening Women’s World Cup hammering of USA to a pre-season friendly and then handed out a warning to his tournament rivals.
Mitchell’s Red Roses ran in 11 tries in front of a tournament record crowd of 42,723 at Sunderland’s Stadium of Light despite being far from perfect.
This was England’s 58th-straight win.
They are firm favourites to claim global glory this year and the worry for their opposition is they can significantly improve on this performance.
As they always seem to do, England’s back three of player of the match Ellie Kildunne, Abby Dow and Jess Breach ran riot.
But they benefited from some fine work up front.
England try machine Ellie Kildunne (right) celebrates one of her team’s 11 scores against USA
England started their bid for Women’s World Cup glory with a win despite not being perfect
Jess Breach goes over to score. England are firm favourites for global glory on home soil
‘There is so much growth left in us,’ Mitchell said.
‘This group is eager to get better. It’s almost pre-season for us, so we’ve got to get better as well. We know our game works but I think we’ll get better.
‘There were some really good signs. We built into the first half. We challenged the girls about building the intensity in the second and we got a good balance between forwards and backs. We lifted it really well.’
England scored four first-half tries, but the opening 40 of their home World Cup contained a number of errors and inaccuracies.
On what was a big occasion, nerves seemed to play a part, perhaps understandably.
There were restart issues, dropped balls and line-out spills.
Sadia Kabeya and Hannah Botterman scored.
But England weren’t as dominant as expected, not initially at least. Erica Jarrell-Searcy responded for the USA after missed tackles from Natasha Hunt and Breach.
Zoe Harrison kicked superbly from the tee but also booted one touch finder dead.
Ilona Maher, the world’s most followed rugby player, was part of a well-beaten USA team
A tournament record crowd of 42,723 watched on at Sunderland ‘s Stadium of Light on Friday
Kildunne, the world’s No 1 female player, was the game’s headline figure in Sunderland
England’s rustiness was helped by a yellow card for USA’s Alev Kelter who was harshly sent to the sin bin. The Red Roses made the most of a player advantage, Maud Muir and full-back Kildunne ensuring a bonus point.
But the interval scoreline flattered England.
Meg Jones was the hosts’ driving force, however, and flyers Dow and Kildunne put the game to bed at the start of the second half. From there, the USA fell away.
Their fitness didn’t last and England unloaded their bench, using their impressive strength in depth. Their scrum was dominant.
Centre Jones’ physicality, which included a monster first-half tackle, stood out. Amy Cokayne, Breach and Lark Atkin-Davies all crossed as the scoreline exploded.
Kildunne, the best female player on the planet, then worked wonders to send Breach over again and there was still time for replacement hooker Atkin-Davies to become the third player to score twice.
‘The tournament will get tougher but there were some really good signs,’ Mitchell said.