Gulf in standards seriously exposed at Women’s Rugby World Cup

There was less than a minute gone at the UCD Bowl when England centre Megan Jones shrugged off a poor excuse of a tackle and crossed the Spanish line for the first score of the 2017 Women’s Rugby World Cup.

Within three minutes, the world champions had engineered a hat-trick of clean line breaks and just five minutes had elapsed by the time Kay Wilson touched down for the second five-pointer. Not the start the tournament wanted.

You get exposed to all sorts of PR spin before these events. Each gig is hailed as bigger and better. The standards, we were assured in the run-up to this, would be higher than at any stage in the tournament’s 26-year history.