The big one. Canada v England, Saturday, 4.00. BBC1

[Which Tyler]

Ref: Hollie Davidson
TJs: Aimee Barrett-Theron, Clara Munarini
TMO: Leo Colgan

Canada:
1. McKinley Hunt
2. Emily Tuttosi
3. DaLeaka Menin
4. Sophie de Goede
5. Courtney O'Donnell
6. Caroline Crossley
7. Karen Paquin
8. Fabiola Forteza

09. Justine Pelletier
10. Taylor Perry
11. Asia Hogan-Rochester
12. Alex Tessier
13. Florence Symonds
14. Alysha Corrigan
15. Julia Schell

16. Gillian Boag, 17. Brittany Kassil, 18. Olivia DeMerchant, 19. Tyson Beukeboom, 20. Laetitia Royer
21. Gabrielle Senft, 22. Olivia Apps, 23. Shoshanah Seumanutafa

England:
1. Hannah Botterman
2. Amy Cokayne
3. Maud Muir
4. Morwenna Talling
5. Abbie Ward
6. Zoe Aldcroft
7. Sadia Kabeya
8. Alex Matthews

09. Natasha Hunt
10. Zoe Harrison
11. Jess Breach
12. Tatyana Heard
13. Megan Jones
14. Abby Dow
15. Ellie Kildunne

16. Lark Atkin-Davies, 17. Kelsey Clifford, 18. Sarah Bern, 19. Rosie Galligan, 20. Maddie Feaunati
21. Lucy Packer, 22. Holly Aitchison, 23. Helena Rowland

[Puja]

Same team named. Good to have continuity and it is the team that dug themselves out of trouble against France, but I am worried about how our specifically narrow defence is going to cope with the specifically wide-attacking Canucks.

Puja

[fivepointer]

Canada look ominously good but i think we'll just about have enough. Going to be very tight.

[Which Tyler]

Canada are the form team at the moment, while England have the higher ceiling - but are playing way further from it (and haven't been challenged to find any further gears).

Canada are the team that worried me the most pre-tournament - they've got the tight game to defend our rolling maul, and the vision/speed to get around our narrow defence. We'll have to see something from England that we haven't seen so far (but know is in there somewhere) to come out on top.

That said, England will have the home crowd... and the pressure of expectation.
Canada will only really have positive motivations - a last chance for many of their players, and "you've seen what we can do, now fund us" to their union, and technically, the underdogs (based purely on world ranking).

I think Canada get on top fairly early, and England will adapt and finish stronger - but will it be enough?

[Mr Mwenda]

I also wonder if Canada will start feeling the pressure. It'll all be very real now.

[pjm1]

What an exciting match up this is.

Canada’s insane ruck speed will need some new tactics from England. Rather than the usual monster double tackles (except on de Goede who needs two) I’d prefer to see one up tacklers and then rather than attempting jackals (it’s Holly reffing so need to be clean) i think we will get change out of blasting two would be jackallers past the tackle - don’t go for the ball, go for the player looking to secure the ball. Not playing the 9 only applies at rucks so don’t form a ruck - just assume the arriving attacker will look to pick and go.

I think Canada will be better at defending our maul, but only to a point. They would do well to avoid kicking to touch - keep it in play and engage in kick tennis with our backs. We’re good at that, but it’s probably less risky than us mauling and getting a penalty or 20m. And Canada in broken play is terrifying - so they should lean into that.

Definitely double up on de Goede tackles and accept fast ball into the next phase. She’s then out of play so we can aim to blast over the subsequent tackle instead.

Our transition defence is definitely a concern. There was a good analysis from Squidge on us folding front rowers across to “midfield” open side defence duties - which then on a switch back leaves us light. I’m sure there something clever in this development beyond having monster double tackles, but so far it seems to create more risk than it prevents.

Beyond set piece (except bloody restarts) England’s strengths are kicking and taking aerial balls (except Breach). Our wide defence against atypical / unstructured attacking plays is a fairly big, exploitable weakness. However our superpower is the quality of our bench meaning opponents probably need to be 2 scores up at 60 minutes.

Canada’s strength is speed of ball which allies well with instinctive, unstructured capable players across the park. Their only real weakness is ball in air (in either direction) as against any other team than England, their set piece is good - just not quite as dominant as ours.

As often, it may just come down to those fine margins - who wants it more, who gets a lucky bounce and who plays the conditions the best.

[Which Tyler]

delighted that England have found at least one of those gears they haven't needed before today

[Mr Mwenda]

Yeah, best red roses performance of the tournament. Just killing all Canuck momentum. Might not be able to shut them down for the whole second half but it feels pretty comfortable now.

[fivepointer]

Well, they did it. And it wasnt the close game that we thought it would be. We won well based on a superb defensive effort .

Nice to see Kabeya get some recognition but all of the forwards were excellent.

Great effort from everyone.

[loudnconfident]

If the Canadians had scored twice after Botterman's YC - and it was close - the game might have got tricky..
But congrats to all, of course!

[Mr Mwenda]

If the Canadians had scored twice after Botterman's YC - and it was close - the game might have got tricky..
But congrats to all, of course!

Yeah, that was the only time England were rocking on their heels. Showed some smarts there. Pity in a way, would've made things very exciting.

[pjm1]

What an awesome performance by RR. And I suspect Canada were a bit overawed by the situation. Hard to imagine what it would be like and as a first experience of it, it must be both awesome and pretty intimidating.

Well done to both teams for doing their best. Obviously delighted that England’s was good enough and the girls deserved it - they put in a serious shift!