SUNDERLAND – England beat USA 60-7 in the opening game of Rugby World Cup 2025 at the Stadium of Light in front of a tournament-record crowd of 42,723.

The hosts scored 11 tries altogether, including seven in the second half as the USA – who were competitive in the first half – tired.

Story of the match

England started the Pool A game by dropping the kick-off and fumbling a pass, but Sadia Kabeya calmed the nerves with the opening try in the ninth minute.

England scored three more tries in the first half, including a length-of-the field team effort finished by World Rugby Women's 15s Player of the Year Ellie Kildunne.

The pick of the match’s tries arguably came from USA, though. In the 25^th minute, second row Erica Jarrell-Searcy showed an impressive turn of speed, bursting through tackles down the middle of the pitch to give her team a deserved score.

Mastercard Player of the Match

England full-back Ellie Kildunne. Sky-high workrate and two tries. She twice turned down a hat-trick to allow team-mates to score.

 “The fans definitely made a statement, you made that one really special,” Kildunne said.

“Thank you to everybody that came, having rugby in the north is pretty special as well.

“I passed Jess [Breach] a few [passes to score], she’ll thank me later.

“We found our way into the game as it went on.

“It’s a full squad effort. Incredible from the forwards. I wouldn’t be able to find the space without them bashing it up the middle. They do a smashing job and they do it week in, week out.”

Coach insight

“It’s been a long week so it’s just really good to get the tournament started,” England head coach John Mitchell said.

“I think we built into it slowly, then we lifted our intensity in the second half.

“There’s a lot we need to do, we’ve only just got started. We’ll mark ourselves hard, grow our standards and find something to get better at.”

USA head coach Sione Fukofuka said there were “lots of positives in intent and effort but you have to execute, have to be accurate against the world number one team”.

He added: “When we held the ball past three or four phases we started to create opportunities. I was really proud of the girls – 81 minutes and we kept playing and we still found spaces.”

Stat of the Day

It has to be the attendance - 42,723 is a record for a Women's Rugby World Cup match, surpassing 42,579 at Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 (played in 2022).

Next steps

England play Samoa in Northampton on Saturday, 30 August, while USA’s game against Australia in York on the same day is already a must-win if they want to qualify for the quarterfinals.