Jess Breach said England want to be “the predator” not other teams’ prey at the Rugby World Cup after she was named to win her 50th cap against Australia in the Red Roses’ final pool game.
Australia need to beat the World Cup hosts on Saturday or pick up bonus point to secure a quarter-final spot; beyond that it will come down to points difference and on how the earlier USA v Samoa game pans out. Messaging in the England camp this week has been about flipping the script to being viewed as the hunters.
“We want to reverse it,” Breach said. “We know we get hunted by every team. Every team wants to beat us. We want to turn it around and say we are hunting them. We don’t want to be people’s prey, we want to be the predator and go at them and show what we can really do.”
The head coach John Mitchell added: “I noticed they [Australia] are talking it up and trying to create the ‘pressure’ … but we will be hunting them as well.”
Breach has never lost when playing for England on the previous 49 occasions, something she hails as an “incredible achievement”.
“Every time you put on an England shirt you want to win the game,” she said. “I have been fortunate enough to have potentially 50 caps that are winning. Obviously I was involved when we lost the [2022] final but not in the team. You still have that heartbreak and know what that feels like. It is an incredible achievement to go hopefully 50 caps, no loss.”
Alex Matthews is one of 12 changes made to England’s starting XV from last Saturday’s 92-3 win over Samoa and will captain her country for only the second time in her career – the previous occasion was against the USA at the 2024 WXV tournament – despite vice-captain Meg Jones starting at outside centre. Regular captain Zoe Aldcroft is still injured, but is expected to return for the quarter-final, while the lock’s predecessor Marlie Packer is not in the matchday squad.
England Kildunne; Dow, Jones, Heard, Breach; Harrison, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Muir, Galligan, Ward, Talling, Kabeya, Matthews (capt)
Replacements Atkin-Davies, Clifford, Bern, Campion, Feaunati, L Packer, Aitchison, Rowland
Mitchell said of his decision: “Meg is a brilliant vice-captain. There are no rights to captaincy because you are vice-captain, simple as that. You have got one of the best No 8s in the world arguably and she has demonstrated excellence for a long period of time. I love leaders that the players can follow through their actions.”
Holly Aitchison will potentially make her first appearance of the tournament as she starts among the replacements after missing the opening two games with an ankle injury. If the Sale Sharks player comes off the bench every single player in the Red Roses 32-strong squad would have had tournament minutes before the knockout stage begins.
Abby Dow comes back in on the other wing to Breach and is one try away from hitting 50 for England, while Ellie Kildunne rounds off the back three.
Morwenna Talling moves to blindside flanker with Sadia Kabeya back at openside and Maddie Feaunati on the bench. In the second row the lock pairing is Rosie Galligan and Abbie Ward.
In total, the starting XV has only one different to England’s opener, the enforced absence of Aldcroft. When asked if the first-choice team was nailed on, Mitchell said: “I think we will still be tactically thinking where we can get advantages but, yeah, everything is basically an end point from this point onwards. It’s not about making wholesale changes, it’s about cohesion, it’s about belief that has been built. There is two-and-a-half, three years experience in this group so you have at some point got to put your stamp on it.”
