'Absolute joke' to be worried - Mitchell on England's response

Tries: Burton, Campbell, Jones, Field, Venner, Kabeya, L Packer, Moloney-MacDonald Cons: Aitchison, Harrison 3

Tries: Pohiva, Karpani Con: Wood Pen: Wood

England produced a dominant second-half performance to defeat Australia at CorpAcq Stadium in the opening game of the new WXV Global Series.

The world champions, playing their first game since winning a record eighth successive Women’s Six Nations title in May, were made to work for victory in Salford after trailing at half-time for the first time since 2020.

The Wallaroos led 10-5 at the break, with player of the match Abi Burton scoring England’s only try in an error-strewn first half.

John Mitchell’s side responded emphatically after the interval, scoring seven tries to quickly put any prospect of a shock defeat to bed and extend their record winning run to 39 matches in front of a crowd of 9,251.

The England head coach described the fixture as “a good pre-season game” after it kicked off the 2026-27 season for his players.

“It was the first pre-season game of the year where we had the reality of playing rugby and had to solve [problems], which is good for us,” Mitchell told BBC Sport.

“It is an absolute joke if you are worried about being down 10-5. More important is how we worked our way back into it.

“We got 23 players with rugby [into them], and it was a 43-point second half.”

During a dominant 20-minute spell, May Campbell, captain Meg Jones, Bryony Field, Mia Venner and Sadia Kabeya all crossed for tries.

Lucy Packer and Claudia Moloney-MacDonald also then scored, with Australia’s Asoiva Karpani adding to Faliki Pohiva’s first-half try.

The WXV Global Series has replaced the WXV competition, with England having won both editions of the premier section, WXV1, in 2023 and 2024.

Running from 2026 to 2028, the series features the world’s top 12 teams and is designed to provide more competitive matches before the 2029 World Cup in Australia.

The Red Roses face Canada at Exeter’s Sandy Park next weekend, the teams’ first meeting since England won last year’s Rugby World Cup final. They will then complete the home leg of the WXV Global Series against New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on 26 September.

“They’re great rivals [Canada], a fantastic rugby team, well-coached, a different team to Australia,” Mitchell added.

“We only have a very short turnaround. With this being our first pre-season game, lots of players got rugby, so we’ll be in a great place.”

This was the first game with the new women’s size 4.5 ball, which is 3% smaller than the standard size five.

In May, England fly-half Zoe Harrison, arguably the best goal-kicker in the women’s game, said introducing the ball was “the worst decision someone has ever made”.

Scrum-half Samantha Wood confidently drilled over an early penalty as Australia, like they did against England in Brighton in last year’s World Cup, started quicker.

Sloppy handling and inaccuracy in the Wallaroos’ 22 held back Mitchell’s side in the first half.

Burton’s try came from slick handling and interplay, indicating what new attack coach Emily Scarratt is trying to implement, even if England were not at their brightest early on.

“The message at half-time was we know that we weren’t at our best, so we knew we needed to come out and rip back into them and give it to them physically because they came out absolutely gunning,” Burton told BBC Sport.

“At the end that cohesiveness started to kick in.

“There’s so much more to come from this team, just a few teething issues we needed to sort out.”

Both sides had tries disallowed in the first half, but Australia scrambled brilliantly in defence to take a deserved lead into the break.

The Red Roses have often started slowly under Mitchell before clicking into gear, with the power of their bench a level above the rest.

However, England had not trailed at half-time since a match against France in November 2020.

Mitchell said that, without a “tournament to win”, his side have to be “very patient” in how they approach these Test matches.

With a shock defeat potentially looming, his side turned to their destructive maul to power over the line before a scrum penalty gave them valuable field position.

A clever grubber kick from Sale Sharks’ Holly Aitchison, on her 50th cap, then found Jones as the combination of power and backline skill finally came together.

When in need of a try, the Red Roses maul tends to deliver more often than not.

It was England’s pack that dominated Canada to win the World Cup, and it delivered again through Field to give them some breathing room.

England, with the likes of Hannah Botterman and Marlie Packer coming off the bench, continued to grow into the game as their accuracy improved while Australia tired.

Both wingers crossed to underline the balance in play that has made Mitchell’s side so difficult to beat.

Harrison also nailed three conversions, underlining a successful adjustment to the new ball.

Both Canada and New Zealand will pose more of a threat in attack and will take note of how Australia made life difficult for the Red Roses in the first half.

But it is yet another win for a side who, simply put, seem to know little else.

England: Kildunne; Venner, Jones, Heard, Moloney-MacDonald; Aitchison, Hunt; Carson, Campbell, Bern, Burns, Ives Campion, Burton, Kabeya, Feaunati

Replacements: Field, Botterman, Muir, Talling, M Packer, L Packer, Harrison, Rowland

Australia: Halse; Whitaker, Friedrichs, Moleka, Miller; Ellis, Wood; Hoy, Merlo, Pohiva, Leaney, Leonard, Tapsell, Bone, Palu Sekona

Replacements: Naden, Sikimeti, Karpani, Bemrose, Duck, Chancellor, Hinds, Smith

Referee: Aurelie Groizeleau (France)

Assistant referees: Robbie Jenkinson (Ireland) and Alexandra Ferre (France)

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