In a thrilling contest England beat Russia by 21 – 19 to reach the Plate Final. Earlier Russia had pushed World Champions New Zealand and proved tough opposition for a slightly downcast England.
Marina Petrova put Russia ahead but Natasha Hunt and Alice Richardson hit back to put the half time score at 14 – 7. In the second half Richardson started brightly and scored her second try. Petrova wasn’t done though and scored her second and then her third try on stroke of full time to bring the score to 21 – 19 unfortunately for Russia the conversion went wide and game was England’s.
England now face Fiji in the Plate Final.
In the Cup semi finals Australia beat Canada 29 – 7 and in the second semi final New Zealand came back from 10 – 7 down at half time to storm to a 10 – 31 win, giving us the Cup final most people predicted: Australia v New Zealand.
