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international women
Red Roses captain Meg Jones insisted the world champions are not “broken” after their second consecutive loss to Canada.
England’s 31-22 defeat by Canada at Ottawa’s TD Place Stadium marked the first time since 2016 that the Red Roses had lost back-to-back Tests.
Jones played the full 80 minutes in the Canadian capital as Sophie de Goede, Julia Omokhuale, DaLeaka Menin and Savannah Bauder hit the whitewash.
In its three meetings this year in the WXV Global Series, Canada is undefeated. In September, the Red Roses played out a 26-man draw at Exeter before last week’s 24-21 defeat in Toronto.
“We just needed to respond a little bit better,” Jones said at full-time. “Credit to Canada – what a great, great team they are. They stick to their process and it held up today.”
“We just have to grow. We’re not broken. We just have to grow from it. I think that’s our mindset about performance. We have to stick with it.”
England have one last chance to get back to winning ways in New Jersey vs USA Women’s Eagles.
The USA, coached by Jack Hanratty, are unbeaten in their last four Tests and face Italy on Saturday in Nashville. England will need significant improvement to overcome an Eagles side who arrive in strong form.
The Red Roses have consistently claimed that they don’t want to win games by a large margin. Now, suddenly, they are forced to answer questions on the fly, as the rest of the world has seemingly sided with the world’s top-ranked sides.
“What an amazing crowd today,” Jones said. “Last week was exactly the same. I think our biggest thing is to play the best teams, and we’re going to do that.
“We have to play our best to know where we are, to test ourselves as much as we can, and then, in three years, when we have the World Cup again, we can go for it.”
