England coach unhappy with cynical Scotland after reaching World Cup semis

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Rugby - Womens World Cup 2025 - Quarter-Finals - England v Scotland - Ashton Gate, Bristol, Britain - September 14, 2025 England head coach John Mitchell arrives before the match Action Images via Reuters/Peter Cziborra

REUTERS

BRISTOL, England - England romped into the Womens World Cup semi-finals, but coach John Mitchell felt their 40-8 victory over Scotland should have been more emphatic, accusing Sundays opponents of cynically disrupting the game.

England ran in four tries in the first half and two more after the break to set up a semi-final with old rivals France, but the second half at a rainy Bristol was far more fragmented with the scrum being frequently reset.

Mitchell felt penalty tries should have been awarded for what he called Scotlands repeated infringements and he would be taking it up with governing body World Rugby.

I think we dominated territory. And we built pressure on them. We found weakness in cynical actions at their set piece, and we went for the jugular there, he told reporters.

Probably sort of need to talk to World Rugby about understanding when teams are so cynical and why we dont get awarded penalty tries sometimes... But I thought it was a terrific performance in the conditions.

England were certainly dominant at the set piece, losing only one of their 13 own lineouts while Scotland lost eight and it was a similar story in the scrum, with England winning five of 10 Scottish scrums.