England make a statement ahead of next year’s women’s Rugby World Cup as Red Roses beat New Zealand 24-12 at the Allianz Stadium

If England women’s side produce a repeat result to the one we saw here in a little over 12 months, then the bigwigs at the RFU will be more than happy.

On September 27 next year, English rugby will host the final of the 2025 World Cup. 

In all likelihood, that game will be a meeting of these two sides, so while this was a pre-season friendly with nothing on the line, it still represented a significant statement by England’s Red Roses.

It is their global showpiece to lose. Ultimately, they were too good for New Zealand, despite being nowhere near their best. England’s first quarter was poor and they allowed the opposition back into the contest when they were in control.

It must be noted that both teams will improve on this. Do not discount the Black Ferns’ ability to upset the apple cart come the World Cup but it remains the fact England haven’t lost since the 2022 final defeat by their southern hemisphere rivals.

The win over New Zealand represents a significant statement for England ahead of World Cup

‘When you’ve got your foot on the throat, finish it,’ England’s Kiwi head coach John Mitchell said when asked what lessons his team would learn with the World Cup in mind. ‘Our discipline in the last 20 metres of the field let them off the hook but I’m pretty happy with where we’re at.’

Mitchell’s players were the first England side to play at the newly named Allianz Stadium since the RFU’s decision sell the naming rights to a venue that for most will always be Twickenham.

England’s tackling and kicking wasn’t up to scratch early on as a crowd of 41,523 watched on. The RFU want to nearly double that figure and sell out the 2025 final.

England still scored three tries through captain Marlie Packer, a trademark Abby Dow effort and Ellie Kildunne. Zoe Aldcroft’s yellow card for a high tackle and Holly Aitchison running out of time with a conversion attempt were negative moments. But while it’s right to demand the highest standards of what is by some distance the best women’s team, the reality is that England still had enough in the tank for victory.

When their backs move the ball in attack no team can live with them and the ability of their forwards to break the line in phase play is a potent weapon.

Scrum-half Natasha Hunt grabbed a fourth before Katelyn Vahaakolo finally got New Zealand some reward for their enter- prising attacking play with a quickfire double.

England fly-half Aitchison’s missing of touch after a scrum surge was the sort of error her team can’t make in closer matches, but in the end this wasn’t one of them.

John Mitchell’s players were the first England side to play at the newly named Allianz Stadium

Mitchell was unconcerned by injury concerns to forwards Maddie Feaunati (cramp) and Amy Cokayne (arm) ahead of England’s next assignment — the WXV1 tournament in Canada later this month.

New Zealand co-captain Kennedy Tukuafu said a World Cup final with England would be the ‘pinnacle’ but acknowledged her team made too many errors in their first game since July.

Mitchell also pointed out that his team still had a degree of early-season rust about them. This victory followed last week’s win over France.

‘We could probably have buried them but we didn’t quite do that,’ Mitchell said. ‘It was a satisfying performance. We worked through a patchy start to put on some

pressure but I can’t be too hard on the girls. This game was exactly what we wanted.’