Jo to lead England in final
Shropshire's Jo Yapp will lead England women into the rugby World Cup final this weekend. The scrum-half, born in Clee Hill, skippered her country to a hard-fought 20-14 victory over hosts Canada in the semi-final last night.
And now only New Zealand's women stand between Yapp and the chance to get her hand on the most treasured prize in the game.
Six Nations champions England were made to work hard for their victory, a point recognised by Yapp.
"They gave us a good game for 80 minutes," said the Worcester star. We knew with a home crowd as vociferous as this they would play the match of their lives. At half-time we realised that we needed to control our ball and tighten up our game.
"We were giving them too much turn-over ball and generally making too many mistakes. They deserve a lot of credit for that.
"Technically Canada scrummaged very well against a good England pack and they made it hard work for us - but we came good in the end.
"Canada have certainly improved since we last played them. We are slightly disappointed but we'll learn from this and we'll be ready for the final on Sunday."
Yapp played a part in the build-up for two of the tries with England having to hold on against a Canadian onslaught to book their place in the final.
Sunday's showdown will be a repeat of the 2002 final in Barcelona which New Zealand edged 19-9.
But head coach Geoff Richards said: ""We now have four days to go before the final and we are going to concentrate on rest and recovery.
"We're where we want to be and now it's all about what happens on finals day."
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