Rugby World Cup: Canada 19-26 England

England held off a determined Canada to reach the World Cup final.

The Red Roses were presented with their sternest challenge of the year when Canada scored three tries in a single game.

England stood up to the challenge, with Emily Scarratt kicking three penalties to seal the win.

New Zealand or France will host the final.

The Black Ferns will play France in the second semi-final, which is expected to be a tougher match than Canada.

The Red Roses have a winning record of 30 in a row and will attempt to win their first world title in four years on November 12.

England fans get an unusual taste of nerves

England started the World Cup as firm favorites but as semi-finals weekend approached, the narrative subtly changed with New Zealand's confidence growing as quickly as the questions over England's forwards focused game plan.

There were two injury withdrawals from the England squad before the match.

Canada got off to a good start as the Red Roses looked fragile.

Centre Scarratt looked nervous as she dropped two high balls, but she made up for it with a nice offload to Tatyana Heard that showed England's backs had come to play.

England's opening try came from their usual line-out drive, but instead of taking three points from the tee, Harrison kicked to the corner to open the scoring.

The England side playing with more intensity than they have all tournament was too much for Canada to handle and the semi-final was over after 15 minutes.

England displayed their attacking skills, but they lacked defense. Canada's scrum-half Justine Pelletier found a gap and helped flanker Karen Paquin score.

England kicked to the corner when they could have scored, but they were not rewarded because of the hold up on the tryline.

The pressure on England mounted as they were given a taste of Canada's maul and forced back into their own 22.

The Canadians went wide off the next line-out and centre Alysha Corrigan scored to tie the game at 12-12.

England fans had a feeling they had not experienced in a long time. Scarratt had a chance to take a lead at the half after England won a penalty.

England survive physical encounter

Scarratt nailed another penalty just after the break to give England a 2-0 lead.

After a serious injury to the England full-back, which looked like it would keep her out of the final, she was stretchered from the field and replaced by another full-back, who came on at full-back.

England's character was further tested as they were battered by Canadian forwards less then ametre from their tryline.

The best attempt of the year was produced by the Red Roses.

MacDonald ran the ball out from her tryline and sliced her way through defenders to find the on-runner.

When she was told she wouldn't be able to play in the World Cup because of a broken leg, she looked as powerful as ever and scored a try that will go down in history.

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Canada would not be beaten and England's Vickii Cornborough was sent to the sin-bin as she defended.

After a break from Canada fly-half Alex Tessier, England were forced into more dogged defence on their tryline but this time they could not keep their opponents out.

After De Goede's conversion got Canada to within four points, Scarratt's third penalty gave England a seven point cushion.

The England players ran to hug each other in celebration. It will be interesting to see how the side will bounce back from the loss.

'We're in the final - that's all that matters'

We came here to do that. We have a lot of work to do, we need to recover well, and there is a bit to get through. We showed a lot of character despite not playing well.

Canada did not make a single mistake with the ball. We invited them in because we were soft in defense. They have a lot of personality.

I am very happy. The only thing that matters is that we are in the final. We brought him here because of that. We were always going to give her a chance. There is individual brilliance.

Line-ups

Canada: DeMerchant, Tuttosi, Menin, Holtkamp, Hunt, Forteza, Paquin, De Goede.

Ellis, Fuamba, Senft, and Holly are replacements.

England: Harrison, Infante, Cokayne, Bern, Ward, Matthews and M Packer.

The replacements were Davies, Brown, Galligan, Kabeya, and Aitchison.