Women"s Rugby World Cup 2014: England favourites to lift trophy as teams play ...

England’s draw with Canada on Saturday ensured that the Black Ferns, who have

won the last four tournaments, could not qualify.

England flanker Maggie Alphonsi, however, insisted that the favourite tag

would have no bearing on tomorrow’s contest, with Gary Street’s side only

interested in improving their game from the draw with Canada.

“We’re pleased that we got a draw and went through, but we’re also

disappointed that we didn’t win,” said Alphonsi, who made a remarkable 29

tackles against the Canadians.

“There were a lot of errors. They are things that we can definitely fix

though, and going into the next game we’re confident that we’ll be able to

put in a better performance.

“It was a game we needed really and it’s probably put us in a good place.

“We’ve identified things we need to improve on in the semi-final. We knew

Canada would provide a big challenge and so it proved. It’ll be more of the

same against Ireland.

“People will always have their ideas on who are underdogs and who are

favourites. As an England team, we don’t care about that.

“Our focus is always on the game itself. The priority for us is a

performance.”

England

beat Ireland 17-10 in last season’s Six

Nations but the Irish are buoyant after their stunning display

against New Zealand and are arguably the form side of the tournament after

comfortably topping their pool.

Alphonsi said: “The key thing is getting our core skills right. If anything,

we forced things a bit in the Canada game. Now, we’ll probably want to

tighten it up and cut out the errors.

“Ireland’s set piece is very strong. Their line-out is excellent and they have

a good maul off the back of that.

“As well as the break-down, that will be a key area we need to

counteract. We know them really well, so as much as we have our areas to

work on, we know where to stop them as well.”

Article source: http://www.clubcall.com/rugby-union/cipriani-backed-for-england-recall-1684472.html

Women"s Rugby World Cup 2014: England favourites to lift trophy as teams play ...