SAD SHOW TO CUE UP SCOTS

England 47 Australia 7 Women's World Cup Pool A BY JAMES TONEY

- BY JAMES TONEY

STAND-IN skipper Alex Matthews admitted room for improvement as England's Rugby World Cup campaign survived a slight scare at the seaside.

The 40-point winning margin over Australia looks a solid return from this day trip to Brighton, but you don't need to dig too hard into the stats to realise it was far from flawless.

The win sets up a quarterfinal with Scotland in Bristol next week and means John Mitchell's side will avoid either defending champions New Zealand or world No.2 Canada until the Twickenham final if they get there.

But perhaps this was the feisty arm-wrestle required after blowout wins over the USA and Samoa.

“We didn’t have the momentum but we stuck to our game plan and we deserved to come out on top,” said player of the match Matthews.