| Jo Yapp | The 2006 Six Nations Grand Slam winners, who are ranked second for the tournament behind the reigning World champions the Black Ferns, will be led by Worcester scrum-half Jo Yapp. Jo, whose family farm in Clee Hill, is a P.E. teacher at Bewdley High School. This is her 3rd World Cup after representing England in Holland in 1998 and Spain in 2002. England prepared for the tournament with a three week programme in England and five days training in Calgary. Throughout the tournament BBC Hereford and Worcester will be running an exclusive diary from Jo in Canada. |
Tuesday 12 September It was semi-final match day today, and I am very glad and relieved to be reporting that we beat Canada 20-14. They gave us a good game for 80 minutes. 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. ENGLAND'S WORLD CUP SCHEDULE: September 12 - Semi-finals: 1st v 4th (M19), St. Albert. KO 5pm local time. 2nd v 3rd (M20), Ellerslie Rugby Park. KO 5pm local time. 5th v 8th (M21), St. Albert. KO 2.30pm local time. 6th v 7th (M22), Ellerslie Rugby Park. KO 2.30pm local time. 9th v 12th (M23), St. Albert. KO 12pm local time. 10th v 11th (M24), Ellerslie Rugby Park. KO 12pm. September 16 - Consolation Finals (All Ellerslie Rugby Park):
 | | Kim Shaylor runs. Photo by Paul Seiser. |
Loser M21 v Loser M22. KO 5pm. Winner M23 v Winner M24. KO 2.30pm. Loser M23 v Loser M24. KO 12pm. September 17 - Finals (All at the Commonwealth Stadium) Winner M21 v Winner M 22. KO 12pm. Loser M19 v Loser M20. KO 2.30pm. Winner M19 v Winner M20. KO 5pm. | 
