England recovered from a poor first-half to storm to a 48-15 victory over Australia with Abi Burton emerging as the star at CorpAcq Stadium.
Trailing 10-5 at the interval, the Red Roses burst into life with their set-piece initially turning the tables before they cut loose to finish the WXV Global Series opener with eight tries and a 39th consecutive Test win.
In their first outing since being crowned grand slam champions by beating France in May and first with the new smaller 4.5 ball being trialled in the women’s game, they took time to blow away the cobwebs with their high error count before the break leading to frustration.
Australia deserved to be ahead after controlling the breakdown and showing resilience in defence and they even played 10 minutes of the first-half with 14 players after Samantha Wood was sent to the sin bin for a deliberate knock-on.
But in the 47th minute England’s pack took charge with May Campbell finishing a line-out drive before they made an ominous statement with a dominant scrum.
It ignited their attacking game with captain Meg Jones then dotting down a low kick through by Holly Aitchison, who was winning her 50th cap, to begin the stampede of tries.
Wings Mia Venner and Claudia Moloney-MacDonald were among those to breach the Australian whitewash but the world champions’ standout figure was Burton, the blindside flanker who bagged their first try as part of an impressive all-round display.
Scotland, meanwhile, were swept aside 64-26 at Hive Stadium as Canada warmed up in style for their 2025 World Cup final rematch against England.
Evie Gallagher, Shona Campbell, Lana Skeldon and Rhona Lloyd ran in tries but Scotland never led at any stage of their WXV Global Series opener in Edinburgh.
From the moment Lizzie Gibson crossed in the 6th minute Canada were in control, even though Brittany Kassil’s yellow card for a high tackle on Meryl Smith was upgraded to a 20-minute red.
Scotland host New Zealand next Saturday while Canada take on England at Sandy Park that same afternoon.
PA
