A week after thrashing Fiji 84-19 in their opening Pool C match England returned to Eden Park, Auckland to face a far more stringent test.

All their points came from Emily Scarratt, who put them in the lead with a 25^th minute try and duly converted it, and added penalties in the 40^th and 62^nd minutes before the French pulled seven points back with a converted 64^th minute try by Gaelle Hermet.

That established England with a three-point lead in their pool with only South Africa to play.

But the tightest match of the day was Australia’s 14-12 win over Scotland at Northland Events Centre in Whangarei.

Having shocked the hosts and defending champions by taking a 17-0 lead in their first Pool A match before eventually succumbing 17-41, Australia needed to get some points on the board.

But it was the Scots who did unto them what they had done unto New Zealand as Lana Skelton touched down for a ninth-minute try, and when Scotland added a 27^th minute penalty try that was converted by Helen Nelson to go 12-0 up, the southern hemisphere side were staring at a shock defeat.

Bienne Terita, who had scored two of Australia’s early tries against the hosts, turned the tide of the game as she went over the line for a try in the 59^th minute, before Ashley Marsters contributed another five points 14 minutes later.

Critically both tries were converted via the boot of Lori Kramer to establish Australia, for the moment, as one of the two third-placed teams filling the last two qualification spots for the knockout stages, which are due to start on October 29.

The third match of the day saw the United States, seeded sixth, defeat Japan 30-17 at Northland Events Centre to fill the second of the third-place qualifying berths.