England overcome shaky start to set up Scotland quarter-final

England coach John Mitchell admitted room for improvement as England's Rugby World Cup campaign survived a slight scare at the seaside.

The 40-point winning margin over Australia looks a solid return from this day trip to Brighton, but you don’t need to dig too hard into the stats to realise it was far from flawless.

The win sets up a quarter-final with Scotland in Bristol next week and means Mitchell's side will avoid either defending champions New Zealand or world number two Canada until the Twickenham final.

But perhaps this was the feisty arm-wrestle required to stiffen the sinews after blowout wins over the USA and Samoa.

Starting off her 50th cap right 👏

Jess Breach surges forward for the try 🙌#RWC2025 pic.twitter.com/yY2Vqf4un6

— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) September 6, 2025

"We didn't start well, we looked clunky and untidy but I still thought our defence was outstanding," said Mitchell. "We sold ourselves a bit short but we'll go back on reflect for next week.

"I didn't see the Scotland game but it's great to take them on, we've a rich history and they've played really well in this tournament. We'll go back and look at our Six Nations game with them and learn from this performance too. We need to get away their edges and Scotland and Australia play quite similarly."

All the wisdom says this is a tournament at England’s mercy and, while they stretched their unbeaten streak to a record-equalling 30, this show might just slow the hype train.

Mitchell talks about a relentless focus on themselves, so a game punctuated with errors will give him cause for concern with tougher tests to come.

Line-outs were lost, wires were crossed, passes were fumbled and a lack of discipline proved costly as, for the first time in 536 minutes, England went behind in a match.

Sadia Kabeya doesn't even hesitate 👊#RWC2025 pic.twitter.com/YUyzQJuetb

— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) September 6, 2025

Adiana Talakai crashed over as Australia laid down a marker with a converted try, only for England and Saracens flier Jess Breach to chalk off some of that lead in her 50th match.

But expectations this could be one-way traffic soon evaporated as England repeatedly chased down cul-de-sacs.

England’s back three – who so often provide the scoreline gloss – were struggling to impose themselves, and it was left to the bulldozing forwards to get it done, banking six of the seven tries.

They made 109 tackles to Australia’s 40 in the first half, and it was Bristol's Abbie Ward and Loughborough Lightning's Sadia Kabeya who gave them a 12-point half-time lead after converting persistent pressure from close range.

Kabeya added another after the restart as England started to click and Australia, whose mission was to avoid a humbling to advance from the pool ahead of Iloha Maher’s USA, tired.

World player of the year Ellie Kildunne, who lit up the opening match, walked dazed from the pitch after a collision before replacement prop Kelsey Clifford dived over twice in quick succession after Australia were reduced to 14. Mitchell confirmed Harlequins star Kildunne would now miss next week.

Sarah Bern’s close-range try, before she also saw yellow, completed the second-half scoring, while Zoe Harrison added 12 points with the boot.

“We didn’t have the momentum but we stuck to our game plan and we deserved to come out on top,” said stand-in captain Gloucester Hartbury's Alex Matthews, who picked up the player of the match prize in an afternoon in which England's strength got the better of their swagger.

Expect the unexpected from Kelsey Clifford 👏#RWC2025 pic.twitter.com/c3WM9sj2iz

— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) September 6, 2025

“That match was the challenge that everyone wanted us to have and we showed we can do it, perhaps we needed that. Things were not functioning how they normally do but that was a real squad effort to get it done.

"Our soft error count was too high and we needed to be more patient. We hardly had any of the ball in that first half but we were still leading at half time and we were really calm and composed and confident in each other."

Former England captain and Australia coach Jo Yapp will reset her side for the challenge of Canada at Ashton Gate next weekend in what could be her final assignment, the rising star coach swapping Sydney for her native Shropshire at the conclusion of the World Cup.

Her team may have come up short against England but Yapp's tactical nous was clear to see in the early exchanges, underling why her future coaching role will be much discussed.

"The first half we were very competitive and executed what we wanted to do but we let the scoreline get away from us in the second half, which was disappointing," said Yapp.

"Everybody is looking to beat England, they are number one team in the world for a reason. Our game management in that first 30 minutes was really good but we need to be able to do that for longer against Canada.

"There were areas of the game that were really positives but we've definitely got a lot we can also focus on."

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