England’s women, who had blown the USA away in a gale nine days earlier, were forced to dig deeper in the sunshine in Doncaster on Sunday.
The Red Roses left the white rose county with a second victory of their three-match autumn series but Canada, ranked fourth in the world, threatened an upset on the hour when they drew to within three points of England, who had earlier breezed into a 15-0 lead.
A try in the last move of the match from Canada’s lock Courtney Holtkamp put a bit of a gloss on the scoreline but the Canadians, well marshalled by their hooker Laura Russell and including four of the side beaten by England in the final of the 2014 World Cup, were never going to make it an easy afternoon for Simon Middleton’s side.
The England coach had made 10 changes to the starting side from the win over the USA, including the return to the back row of his captain Sarah Hunter.
Things seemed to be going according to plan when the England pack submerged the visitors with wave after wave of relentless driving mauls in the first 25 minutes, two of them bringing tries for the hooker Lark Davies and another for the Saracens flanker Poppy Cleall.
But with Lucy Attwood missing all three conversions to stretch the lead, Canada bounced back. Their centre Alex Tessier scored a well-taken try just before the break after a clever kick over the English defence from Anais Holly.
After the interval Canada somehow survived some intense pressure from the England pack and scored a spectacular try in front of a disbelieving Castle Park crowd.
Canada’s full-back Elissa Alarie intercepted a pass from Rachael Burford in her own 22 and ran a lung-bursting 90 metres pursued by the England wing Kelly Smith to score in the corner.
Ten minutes later Smith had recovered to score a try that gave England some breathing space, Burford cleverly flicking on a pass from Leanne Riley to dive over in the opposite number.
Katy Daley-Mclean had come on for her 101st cap, the fly-half giving England more direction after Canada’s revival. The Red Roses were home and dry when last week’s captain Abbie Scott, outstanding in the second row, was driven over the line by the replacement second row, the Yorkshire-born Zoe Aldcroft.
Aldcroft was impressive for 15 minutes and will be in contention for a starting place when England face Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday evening.
