Amy Cokayne: We had a bee in our bonnet - We wanted to lay a marker down at scrum time
Even against a physical USA, England's scrum was a serious weapon in Sunderland
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England may have opened their Women's World Cup campaign with a thumping 69-7 win over the USA, but there was no sense of complacency in the aftermath.
If anything, the dominant performance left players with a mix of satisfaction and frustration, pleased with the result, but clear-eyed about areas for improvement.
Red Roses boss John Mitchell said as much in his post-match press conference: "We’re hunted and we love being hunted. Every team is going to rise physically and mentally 10 or 15 per cent. We expect that, but we're also going to grow as well. We've only just got started and there's a lot of great depth in us."
And while fireworks lit up the Sunderland night sky following full-time, the real explosive power was in the pack.
England’s scrum, long touted as a key strength, roared into action on Wearside, dominating the contest and proving a solid foundation from which to attack from. It was a performance delivered with bite.
“I think in the press conference after the captain's run, someone asked me whether that was going to be a tough day at the office for us,” starting hooker Amy Cokayne told TRU. “So I think we had a bee in our bonnet to put a marker down!
"Our scrum has kind of been a weapon for us. It is something we have worked really hard on. We work on it every day in training and it is not just three of us [the starting front-row]. There are like eight of us or however many there are in camp so everyone is doing their job there."
That physical dominance up front gave England a strong platform, but there was a sense post-match that even after scoring 11 tries and putting nearly 70 points on the USA, there is still more to come from the number one ranked side in the world.
“Obviously good to play opening game, take the win but I think we are quite frustrated,” Cokayne added. “There are a few things that didn't quite go too right so lots for us to work on. We'll look at it, but it is competition rugby. You have got to get a win haven't you, so we will take the win and move on.
“I think we set ourselves certain standards for each week. We want to be more clinical and more ruthless. A few times tonight, we didn't manage to execute that very well. We are always striving to be better, and we move on to Samoa next week."
Despite the heavy scoreline come full-time, it wasn't a fully polished performance from England. The first half looked a little disjointed - which is understandable given the huge build-up to the opening game of a home World Cup - but when asked if handling errors and a few misjudgements from restarts were down to night one nerves, Cokayne flipped the question on its head.
"I don't really believe in nerves," she said. "I think nervousness and excitement are just the same thing. It's just how you look at it.
"That is how you look at it. I think a lot of the girls were excited. It has been an amazing spectacle to come to the Stadium of Light, a massive crowd against a good opposition.
"The crowd were amazing. I love playing in front of a big crowd. It really brings energy to the game. Definitely like that 16th player. As players, we want to be entertainers as well so to be able to do that in front of a big crowd, is always good to do."
With their scrum humming and an evident appetite to be more clinical, England will now turn their attention to Samoa next Saturday. If their reaction to a 62-point win is anything to go by, the Red Roses could be even better in Northampton.
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