World Cup: England march on...

A throughly professional and effective performance by England saw them run in twelve tries against South Africa and rack up the largest total by any team in the world cup so far... until Canada beat it a couple of hours later!

74-8 was the score at Ellerslie Rugby Park in Edmonton, with the try scoring bonus point wrapped up before half time thanks to a brace of tries from Nicky Crawford, one from captain Sue Day, and another from Shelly Rae - who is now the tournament's highest scorer with 27 points thanks to the eight conversions she also kicked.

Another eight tries followed in the second half, including a three more from left wing Sue Day who was clearly having the sort of day that most people can only dream about. The only blot on the copybook came on 62 minutes when the South African pack managed to drive their flanker over the line for their only try of the game.

Anyway - lots of comment and more detailed reports will appear on the RFUW website and elsewhere (hopefully) - but the questionis... where does this leave things?

Because England were not the only team playing impressively. In the game of the night France - England's next opponents - put in an impressive performance, complete with try bonus, beating Australia 24-10. In fact that scoreline flatters Australia a bit - France were 17-0 up at half time with three tries already on the board, and had their bonus point wrapped up and pocketed before the Aussies had managed to cross their line for the one and only time.

Its not as if Australia are a poor side - though they are not the giants of the women's game as their men are - they racked up 68 points against South Africa last Thursday, only two tries less than England last night. Also if England have the tournaments best scorer then France have the second best - right-wing Catherine Devilliers, who has score five tries so far.

Elsewhere New Zealand ran in 50 unanswered points against Samoa, Canada destroyed a woeful Spain 79-0, the USA came back from their defeat against England to beat Ireland 24-11 and Scotland continued their 100% record with a 32-17 win over Kazakhstan.

Which leaves us with only four unbeaten teams, three (New Zealand, France and Scotland) on maximum 10 points and England one behind on 9. However with New Zealand also playing Scotland on Friday as well as France playing Engalnd only two teams can hope to finish the pool stage unbeaten. So there is hope yet for Samoa (who should destroy Spain), Canada (who will be too much for Kazakhstan) and either the USA or Australia who provide the warm-up act before the France/England battle.

Predictions? England should have enough to get by France - just. Certainly not by 30+ points they managed in Paris! And England know that they HAVE to win - defeat will almost certainly see them out before the semi-final stage. France - onthe other hand - can still qualify even if they lose, and just a single bonus point should be enough to secure a top four place.

My guess (my hope?) is that as Saturday dawns we will see a final pool table looking like this:

1. New Zealand (15); 2. England (13); 3. France (11); 4=. Canada, Scotland (10); 6=. Samoa, USA (9); 8. Australia (6); 9. Ireland (5); 10=. Kazakhstan, South Africa, Spain (0).