England will face defending champion New Zealand, which rallied from 17-10 down at halftime to beat France 25-24, also at Auckland’s Eden Park. Caroline Drouin had a chance to send France to its first World Cup final with a penalty in the final minute but hurried the kick and dragged it wide from 30 meters.
Earlier, England faced one of the stiffest challenges to its historic winning streak when it led 18-12 after 50 minutes with Canada battering at its goal line. Several Canada players went close to scoring before England finally forced the turnover that set the try of the tournament in motion.
MacDonald first broke out from behind the England goal line and made lengthy progress downfield. When she met resistance on the left-hand side she swept the ball cross-field to Dow on the right who carried the ball from near halfway to the goal line where, after fending the last defender, she touched down for the match-winning try.
Dow already had scored as England built a 12-0 lead after 15-0 minutes.
Canada came back strongly into the match with tries to backrower Karen Paquin and center Alysha Corrigan which brought the teams level after 35 minutes.
England needed a penalty to Emily Scarratt to earn a 15-12 lead at halftime and led 18-12 soon afterwards with another Scarratt goal.
Then came an England try which may match the fabled “try from the ends of the earth” which France scored against the All Blacks at Eden Park in 1994. An England team famous for the quality of its forward play unleashed its backline in the most unexpected of circumstances and the try that resulted decided the match.
“We’ve come into get into that game next week and Canada really pressed us,” England captain Sarah Hunter said. “For rugby fans out there, hopefully that was a great showcase of what women’s rugby is all about.”
Ref: YahooSport
