Wallaroos coach Jo Yapp is confident a complete performance can push Canada all the way in next week's quarter-final in Bristol on Sunday (AEST).
The Australians went down 47-7 to the Red Roses overnight, but it was a strong 30 minutes that had Yapp hopeful and left the sell-out 30,443 crowd in Brighton on edge.
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Adiana Talakai’s opening try of the game gave them a lead they would control for the majority of the first half as their defensive pressure frustrated the English.
Ultimately, their lack of control before and after the break opened the floodgates as England ran in tries in bunches to blow the scoreline out beyond a fair reflection of the contest.
"The positive thing is we created opportunities, we got field position and then we couldn't execute,” Yapp told the media post-match.
“Credit to England, they were coming up the line hard at us. But I'm proud of the first half, the way we took it to them.
“…I don't know if it was but in the second half we lost momentum, we lost a couple of key set-pieces and then we were on the back foot. Credit to England, they capitalised on that.”
The Wallaroos did enough to secure their place in the quarter-finals against Canada despite the USA’s 60-0 win over Samoa, with the Australians enjoying a sizeable points difference buffer to the Americans.
It sets up a contest with another Pacific Four rival in Canada, who blew the Wallaroos off the park in Brisbane 45-7.
Captain Siokapesi Palu was confident the team had made great enough strides to take the challenge to the world number two team, who polished off Scotland to claim top of Pool B.
"We came here with a goal to reach the quarter-finals,” Palu explained. “We went into the game knowing Samoa did a great job to hold out against USA. We are really happy with the performance - especially in that first half, we really gave it to them - and we're just going to stick with those positives.
“We know [Canada] are a physical side but at the end of the day it's always us versus us.
“We've played them a couple of times in Pac Four so we know what to expect. We'll preview them this week and we'll focus on ourselves,” Yapp added.
