San Francisco Frontiers - Mitchell hails 'phenomenal' Kildunne as England reach World Cup final

Full-back Dunne, who missed the tournament favourites' quarter-final rout of Scotland with concussion, scored England's lone try of a first half that ended with her side just 7-5 ahead.

But England ran in four tries after the break, including a superb solo score from Kildunne, the reigning World Player of the Year, whose brilliant cross-field sprint from just inside the French half saw her evade several defenders.

"She was pretty special today wasn't she?" said Mitchell of Kildunne after England reached their seventh successive World Cup final. "If she gets a bit of space, she is phenomenal, isn't she?"

England had swept all before them on their way to the last four, with this latest success extending their world record of consecutive wins to 32.

But England, unbeaten since losing the 2022 World Cup final to New Zealand, were pushed hard in the opening 40 minutes before recording their 17th successive victory over France.

It was arguably just what Mitchell's world number-one ranked team needed ahead of a final against second-plced Canada, who ended double-defending champions New Zealand's 11-year unbeaten run at the World Cup with an emphatic 34-19 win in Friday's first semi-final in Bristol, southwest England.

"I knew they (France) were going to come at us," said Mitchell. "We just had to win, fight our way out of it. We were nice and calm at half-time."

England have not won the World Cup since 2014, when beat Canada in a Paris final.

- 'Courage and heart -

Asked if he was glad England had been given a stern test ahead of a final in front of an already sold-out crowd of over 82,000 at Twickenham, Mitchell replied: "It will do us a lot of good, that, without a doubt.

"Our girls are so driven to be better," added Mitchell, a former coach of his native New Zealand's men's All Blacks.

"To get yourself out of a difficult performance like tonight is a credit to them... There was some courage and a lot of heart shown there."

Looking ahead to the Canada match, he said: "Two really good sides in the final, number one in the world and number two and they both deserve to be there. It's awesome for the game."

France have now lost all nine of their Women's World Cup semi-finals, with co-head coach David Ortiz saying: "We knew we could have a big fight against England, we knew we could have a big arm-wrestle against them. In the end they were very strong."

Les Bleues captain Marine Menager added: "Every opportunity they had, they scored tries, so it's very hard to play against them. Congratulations to them."

France will now face New Zealand at Twickenham in a third-place play-off at Twickenham a week on Saturday that takes place just hours before the final itself

Despite the disappointment of yet another last-four exit, Ortiz said: "Yes, it is true, we lost again but, again, I think we did really well today.

"We want to bounce back. There is still a bronze medal to go and get and we are going to focus on that next weekend."

I.Sanders--SFF