World leaders England and world No. 3 Canada will meet in the semi-finals of the Women’s Rugby World Cup, following their respective victories over Australia and the United States on Sunday at the Auckland’s Waitakere Stadium.
They join New Zealand, host country, and France, qualified on Saturday: as expected, the four best teams in the ranking established by World Rugby therefore find themselves in the last four.
England easily won over Australia 41-5 while the Canadians had a little more trouble getting rid of their American neighbors, finally beaten 32-11.
For the “Red Roses”, big favorites of the competition, this is their 29th consecutive victory: they have not lost a match since July 2019, a record.
Sarah Hunter’s teammates, for whom it was the 138th selection, a record there too, scored seven tries, including a hat-trick from third row Marlie Packer, voted player of the match, against a single try for the “Wallaroos”, signed from third row Emily Chancellor just before halftime.
In the other quarter, the Canadians went down four times behind the in-goal, while the Americans scored just one try.
England and Canada will meet at Eden Park in Auckland on Saturday (4:30 p.m. local, 4:30 a.m. French) for the first semi-final. The second will see the New Zealanders, reigning world champions, face France, the fourth nation in the world, at 7:30 p.m. local time (7:30 a.m. French).