England still favourites to lift Rugby World Cup, but betting on them is another matter | Robert Kitson
Roses are red, Scotland in blue, the stakes are rising, how will they do? The scoreboard answer from a soaking wet Bristol was predictable enough.When bookmakers start quoting prices of 1000-1 on for a team to win a two‑horse race, the chances of England failing to reach the semi‑finals were roughly on a par with anyone in the stands getting sunstroke.With it came yet another record statistic for John Mitchell’s bunch of serial winners.No leading international rugby side in history has previously won 31 Tests in a row as England’s women have now done: 61 victories in their past 62 Tests leaves precious little room for people to question their pedigree or killer instinct.Yet would you absolutely put your mortgage on England hoisting the World Cup in just under a fortnight? This may, of course, depend on the precise sum of money involved and the potential availability of other emergency income streams.
But would you? Without hesitation? Based on the evidence of this particular game, despite the comfortable victory margin and difficult conditions, you may just be inclined to hold fire.Sure, the return of Zoe Aldcroft makes a big difference.What a totemic figure the England captain has become.And, as ever, when England get within five metres of the opposition line with ball in hand, their supporters lick their lips.Scotland were wonderfully spirited and endlessly committed but the laws of physics are not easily defied when big forwards with subterranean centres of gravity are queueing up to score.
The occasionally underrated Morwenna Talling deserved her award for player of the match while Kelsey Clifford, in for the injured Hannah Botterman, also took her starting chance with both hands.Her two no-nonsense first-half tries will have particularly delighted everyone at her first club, Finchley RFC, where her father introduced her to rugby at the age of six.Then there is that fleet-footed marvel Abby Dow, who scored her 50th Test try and played with her usual dash and energy.A single-figure penalty count on a filthy afternoon was another relative plus.But into the final equation must also be factored the handful of tries they didn’t nail through nagging little misjudgments, one or two curious tactical options and occasionally staccato rhythm.
On other days, against opponents with a sturdier set piece, the contest could have been appreciably tighter.Mitchell felt his side had been unfairly handicapped by Scottish cynicism up front but the danger of complacency lurks around every corner.Is it really a great innovation, for example, for non-playing England players to be bashing away at drums in the stands during a game? Shouldn’t they be concentrating more intently on the action and saving all that for afterwards? Or, better still, quietly take a few more lessons before “entertaining” the public further?Of more immediate urgency, perhaps, is whether England are hitting all the right on-field notes.This, for example, was Holly Aitchison’s big chance, after a lengthy wait, to start at No 10 and show her suitability to retain the jersey for the biggest games.She is a lovely footballer and slotted the vast majority of her goals, but England’s backline seldom clicked as the management might have hoped.
One of those moments, ironically, came after Aitchison had been shifted slightly wider out and came gliding down the 12 channel to score a smooth second-half try.But England, for entirely logical reasons, prefer to start the more direct Tatyana Heard at inside-centre alongside the ever-impressive Meg Jones.Even after all the endless winning it sometimes feels as if England are still not totally sure of their optimal starting XV.Sign up to The BreakdownThe latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week's action reviewedafter newsletter promotionMaybe it won’t matter when Ellie Kildunne is back.Maybe their mighty pack and extraordinary strength in depth will wear down all-comers and the holy grail will be secured for the first time since 2014.
Maybe the winners of the other semi-final between Canada and New Zealand on Friday night will be crushed beneath the host nation’s caterpillar tracks like so many before them,As Scotland’s impressive captain, Rachel Malcolm, rightly said afterwards: “England are the No 1 team in the world for a reason,”But just maybe England’s future opponents still have a tiny sniff,As the lively Francesca McGhie carved through England’s defence late on to help set up the position from which Rhona Lloyd scored Scotland’s consolation try, the eyes of one or two Black Ferns would certainly have lit up,The Scots also had some joy chipping over the top into space and forcing England’s midfield to turn.
We shall find out soon enough.What is not in any doubt is the Red Rose love in the stands.Ashton Gate was sold out for this contest and will be again for the semi-final next Saturday.The final will be a monumental occasion, rain or shine.And the bookies will not be deserting England just yet.
Why Portuguese red blends fly off the shelves | Hannah Crosbie on drinks
It has come to my attention that I haven’t written a column dedicated to red wine in almost two months. So sue me – it’s been hot. Mercifully, though, temperatures look to be dropping soon, so we can once again cup the bowl of a wine glass without worrying about it getting a little warmer as its aromas unfasten.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link
Rachel Roddy’s recipe for fish baked with tomatoes, olives and capers | A kitchen in Rome
Al cartoccio is the Italian form of en papillote, meaning “contained” or “in paper”, which is an effective cooking method that traps the moisture (and flavour) released from the ingredients and creates a steamy poaching chamber – it’s a bit like a Turkish bath for food! Once out of the oven, but still sealed, the scented steam trapped in the paper returns to liquid and creates a brothy sauce. Fish with firm white or pink flesh that breaks into fat flakes is particularly well suited to cooking al cartoccio, both whole fish (cleaned and on the bone) and individual filets (estimate 110g-140g per person).When choosing fish, keep in mind our collective default to cod and haddock, both members of the so-called “big five” that make up a staggering 80% of UK consumption. Instead, look out for other species, such as hake, huss or North Sea plaice, ASC-certified Scottish salmon, sea trout or farmed rainbow trout. For more detailed and updated advice, the Marine Conservation Society produces an invaluable, area-by-area good fish guide that uses a five-tiered system to rank both “best choice” and “fish to avoid” based on the species, location and fishing method
How to turn a single egg and rescued berries into a classic British dessert
Just a single egg white can be transformed into enough elegant meringue shards to crown more than four servings of pudding, as I discovered when, earlier this year, I was invited by Cole & Mason to come up with a recipe to mark London History Day and decided to do so by celebrating the opening of the Shard in 2012. Meringue shards make a lovely finishing touch to all kinds of desserts, from a rich trifle to an avant-garde pavlova or that timeless classic, the Eton mess. As for the leftover yolk, I have several recipes, including spaghetti carbonara (also featuring salt-cured egg yolks that make a wonderful alternative to parmesan) and brown banana curd.Architect Renzo Piano is said to have sketched his original idea for the Shard on the back of a restaurant napkin. Similarly, whenever I design a more conceptual dish such as this one, I love to start by drawing it in my sketchbook, to develop an idea of what the dish will look like, and while I was drawing the angular lines of the Shard, it reminded me of a minimalist dessert I’d eaten at the seminal AT restaurant in Paris that featured grey meringue shards that seemed to me to perfectly emulate the dramatic geometry of that iconic London building
Cracker Barrel suspends remodeling plans after backlash over logo change
Cracker Barrel announced on Tuesday that it’s suspending plans to remodel its restaurants just weeks after reversing a logo change that ignited a political firestorm.The 56-year-old restaurant chain, known for southern-style cooking and country-store aesthetic, faced intense backlash last month after unveiling a rebranding effort aimed at modernizing its image. The company rolled out a new minimalist logo and plans for more contemporary interiors, and it updated menu items.The new logo replaced the brand’s image of an old man in overalls leaning against a wooden barrel with a simplified gold background and the words “Cracker Barrel” in minimalist lettering.The change was immediately met with intense outrage online from conservatives and far-right influencers who accused the company of going “woke”
Australian supermarket sausage rolls taste test: from ‘perfect, flaky casing’ to ‘bland’ and ‘mushy’
With six friends and multiple kids in tow, Sarah Ayoub tests 10 brands of frozen sausage rolls to find the ones with crisp exteriors and convincingly meaty flavoursIf you value our independent journalism, we hope you’ll consider supporting us todayWith spring picnics and footy finals on the horizon, sausage rolls – one of the pinnacles of frozen celebration foods – are in order. But with up to a dozen varieties in your local supermarket freezer, it’s hard to make an informed choice.I rounded up six friends (plus a couple of kids) with discerning frozen-food palates: people who love a sausage roll and see it as a culinary staple, whether it comes from the servo or a bakery, and parents used to baking them in a pinch for dinner or for a crowd at birthday parties.We agreed that a good sausage roll is all about a flaky and crispy exterior; a soft, meaty interior; and a decent meat-to-pastry ratio. With those qualities in mind, we then set about taste-testing 10 varieties from Coles, Woolworths, Aldi and independent grocers
Beyond the bacon sandwich: the many uses of brown sauce
I like my bacon sandwich with brown sauce, but that means keeping a bottle for a long time. What else can I do with it? Will, via emailIn the early 1980s, Tom Harris, co-owner and chef at the Marksman in east London, made a beer mat from penny coins for his dad (and in the quest to secure a Blue Peter badge): “The instructions said to put the dirty coins in brown sauce overnight,” he recalls. “The next morning, they were all shiny and looked brand new, so there’s another use for it right there!”Brown sauce is “an absolute marvel”, agrees Sabrina Ghayour, author of the recently published Persiana Easy, and not just for its cleaning prowess: “If you break it down, the sauce is packed with some pretty interesting ingredients, including my beloved tamarind.” It’s worth exploring your bottle options beyond HP, too, not least because there was much controversy back in 2011 when the brand gave its recipe, which had remained unchanged for more than a century, a tweak. “They reduced the salt [from 2
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