England Women through to European Championship Final

England 22 Ireland 11



England Women booked their place in the final of the European Championships tonight (Tuesday) after a controlled win over Home Nation rivals Ireland in Drachten, Holland.

England touched down four times with Worcester’s Katherine Merchant claiming a brace of tries. Saracens’ Maggie Alphonsi and Richmond’s Fiona Pocock also scored tries while Saracens and England’s vice captain Rachel Burford added one conversion.

England will now play Wales in the final on Saturday in Amsterdam, kick off 3pm BST.

England started the game on the back-foot after Ireland slotted home a penalty when England were penalised for a high tackle, but a try from Merchant on nine minutes put the reigning RBS 6 Nations champions back in charge.

The score came following an excellent and well-worked line-out which saw the ball worked across the field with Merchant coming in from the blindside to score in the left-hand corner. Burford added the conversion to hand England a 7-3 lead.

Both England and Ireland went a player down to the sin-bin after 20 minutes with England losing Sophie Hemming, but that didn’t stop the scoring with Merchant claiming her second touchdown just before half time.

This time some more good work in the line-out saw England steal the ball and after some great continuity the ball was moved back to Merchant for the Worcester winger to score in the right corner. Burford missed the conversion, but England went into the break with a 12-3 lead.

Gary Street’s side came out firing on all cylinders after the restart and Richmond’s Pocock, playing in only her second game for England, made the most of some turn-over ball from the kick-off to score and hand England a 17-3 cushion.

Saracens’ flanker Alphonsi stretch England’s lead further on 61 minutes after a great break from Burford in the midfield, and some good support saw Alphonsi finish off the move.

Ireland however came back at England and stroked over a 64th minute penalty before adding a try in extra time, but their efforts came too late with England securing their second win over their Home Nations rivals in two months.

England Head Coach Street said: “I’m really happy we are through to the final. We have got areas to work on before Saturday’s game, but at the moment we are just happy that we got though to Saturday’s game comfortably.

“Ireland were as committed as ever and they gave us a tough game but we were in control and their last score flattered the final score-line.”

England

1 Sophie Hemming (Clifton), 2 Amy Garnett (Saracens), 3 Rochelle Clark (Henley), 4 Tamara Taylor (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks), 5 Joanna McGilchrist (Wasps), 6 Sarah Hunter (Lichfield), 7 Margaret Alphonsi (Saracens), 8 Catherine Spencer (C) (Worcester), 9 Amy Turner (Richmond), 10 Katy McLean (Darlington Mowden Park Sharks), 11 Fiona Pocock (Richmond), 12 Rachael Burford (VC) (Saracens), 13 Michaela Staniford (Wasps), 14 Katherine Merchant (Worcester), 15 Charlotte Barras (Saracens). Replacements: 16 Samantha Dale (Worcester), 17 Claire Purdy (Wasps), 18 Sarah Beale (Leos), 19 Karen Jones (Richmond), 20 Georgina Rozario (Plymouth Albion), 21 Kimberley Oliver (Clifton), 22 Vicky Massarella (Saracens)

Tries: Merchant (2), Pocock, Alphonsi
Conversions: Burford (2)
Substitutions: Beale for McGilchrist (57), Massarella for Barras (57), Jones for Alphonsi (62), Purdy for Clark (62), Oliver for Burford (65), Dale for Garnett (66), Rozario for Turner (66).

by Julia Hutton
May 20th, 2008