Sarah Hunter confident of leading England to third Women's World Cup title

England captain Sarah Hunter insisted that her team is having the belief to defeat New Zealand in the final of the Women's World Cup 2017 to be played in Belfast on Saturday.

After successful wins over Spain, Italy and USA in the group stage, England faced France in the semi-final on Tuesday and managed to overcome the challenge with a 20-3 win to keep their hopes of defending the title that they won in 2013 alive.

"I am ecstatic to get to another World Cup final," she said.

"There is a bit of relief and I am a little bit tired - it was certainly a hard fought battle to get the result we wanted."

The first-half of the semi-final encounter saw both England and France compete hard as the scores were levelled 3-3. However, Sarah Bern and replacement Megan Jones crossed over in the final 40 minutes to complete a 17 point victory for Simon Middleton's side.

"Right from the beginning, right from the start when this group came together, that was our ultimate goal - to go and win another trophy and we have put ourselves in the best position to go and do that," added Hunter.

"We knew coming to the World Cup that we had to take each game at a time and get there and build through the tournament and I would like to think that's what we have done.

"Each time we have needed to put in performance the players and the girls have stepped up to the mark and it's going to take another step up on Saturday, but we have the belief and we have the strength within the squad to go out and do that.

"We have still got something in the tank to come and that's what you need in a World Cup final and I think how the management have utilised the squad. There is 100 per cent belief that, whichever 15 take to the starting pitch, whichever players come up and finish the job, that anyone will do it.

"So there's certainly energy left in the tank to go one last push to hopefully win that trophy on Saturday."

Meanwhile, Middleton lavished praise on England for showing a lot of resilience during the game against France and is hopeful of a strong performance on Saturday against Black Ferns.

"They know when to step up and they have been in a lot of tough situations this year, a lot of pressurised situations and they have come out the right side of them all," he said.

"We have one more to do and they won't need pointing in any directions, they know exactly what it is going to take on Saturday."