England seek end to Women's Rugby World Cup pain as Canada try to 'burst their aura'

LONDON:

England, the team that have everything except the thing they most want, face Canada in Saturday's Women's Rugby World Cup final, with coach John Mitchell hoping lessons he learned in the men's game can end their long wait for global glory.

England are the best-backed team in women's rugby, their governing Rugby Football Union reporting annual revenues for the financial year of 2023/24 of £175.2 million ($233.6 million).

Canada, meanwhile, launched a crowd-funding campaign to bolster their bid for an inaugural world title, with £1.4 million of backing from their national union boosted by nearly £540,000 of external investment.

But coach Kevin Rouet insisted Rugby Canada "did their best", with the additional finance needed "to win the World Cup, not just to go to the World Cup".

The Red Roses, on a record 32-game winning streak, also compete in England's unrivalled Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR).

They now go into Saturday's finale at Twickenham, the headquarters of English rugby union, set to be roared on by an expected capacity crowd of over 82,000 -- which will smash the record for a women's 15-a-side match.

And yet for all their advantages, including a large playing base, England have won the Women's Rugby World Cup just twice, the last time in 2014 when they beat Canada 21-9 in a Paris final -- the Maple Leafs' only previous appearance in the showpiece game.

Defeats in five of the past six finals by Mitchell's native New Zealand have led to questions about England's ability to cope under pressure when it really matters.

Those doubts resurfaced during a semi-final where England only led France 7-5 at half-time before winning 35-17.

Indeed Mitchell, a former coach of New Zealand men's All Blacks, was drafted into the England women's set-up following their agonising 34-31 loss to the Black Ferns in the Covid-delayed 2022 final in Auckland.

'Emotional tank' 

But it his time as an assistant coach with the England team beaten by South Africa in the 2022 men's Rugby World Cup final in Japan, after defeating the All Blacks in the semi-final, that Mitchell is relying on now.

"I still look back on 2019 and the semi-final was a huge performance and I think we sometimes as coaches don't recognise the emotional tank plus the physical tank that is emptied in such occasions," said Mitchell after naming an unchanged team on Thursday.

"We possibly in 2019 didn't deal with the emotional tank, refill it well enough.

"The way we have prepared this week is we have made sure we (were off for) a couple of days after the semi-final performance to be able to come in and get focused on the plan we need to execute on the weekend."

England captain Zoe Aldcroft, involved in the last World Cup final, said it was important not to make Saturday's match "bigger than it already is".

"We have been working on this now for three years and it is our time now, we really feel like that," the flanker added.

'England easy to play, hard to beat' 

But if England, for all their forward strength, the attacking skills of full-back Ellie Kildunne, the world player of the year and a two-try heroine against France, make the same handling errors against Canada as they did in the semi-final, the Maple Leafs could yet spoil the party.

Canada, who have several players at PWR clubs, including skipper Alex Tessier, are also unchanged following a superb 34-19 semi-final win over New Zealand that showcased their fast-paced handling game and fierce defence.

But they know England represent a different challenge.

"The Roses, because they are a highly structured team, it's easy to play against them, hard to beat them," said Canada's most-capped player, Tyson Beukeboom.

"We know how to play against them, we just have to do it...They are an incredibly difficult team to play against, they have an aura about them that has been almost untouched in the last 10 years.

"Our goal is to burst it."