US captain Zackary wants Eagles to soar against England in Women's Rugby World Cup opener

SUNDERLAND - United States captain Kate Zackary has told her side to "shoot for the stars" when they begin their Women's Rugby World Cup campaign in the most daunting way possible against host nation England.

Since the start of 2017, England have won 87 matches, lost just four, and are unbeaten since a narrow defeat by New Zealand in the last World Cup final three years ago.

The Red Roses will also be backed by the bulk of the 40,000 fans at Sunderland's Stadium of Light in northeast England in Friday's tournament opener.

However, Eagles skipper Zackary and coach Sione Fukofuka believe the semi-finals are a realistic target for a team ranked 10th in the world, even though Australia, sixth in the global standings, are also in Pool A.

"England has all the pressure on them. We just have to show up and play," said back-row forward Zackary, who plays her club rugby in England with top-tier London side Ealing Trailfinders, having previously spent three seasons with Exeter.

"No-one expects us to win this game, we want to create a few surprises, a few momentum shifts, and then capitalise on them in the moment."

The 36-year-old added: "You can look at this pool and easily say, 'let’s scrap the England game, put a team out there, win a few small battles, accept we're going to lose, and put all our tokens on the games against Australia and Samoa'. We could have easily done that.

"This is a World Cup, anything can happen. How many times have we seen that in the men's World Cup or a football World Cup, especially in the opening match?

"One moment can change the entire outcome of a result and we have to capitalise on that and also create that."

Since a narrow defeat by Japan in Los Angeles in April, the Eagles have lost four of their last five games. Fukofuka deliberately plotted a demanding run-in, with all those defeats coming against higher-ranked opponents.

'ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE'

Zackary, however, takes heart from watching in Paris as a fan last year when a dramatic late try and conversion by Alex 'Spiff' Sedrick secured the Eagles' first rugby sevens medal at an Olympics.

"What happened in Paris showed that anything is possible — all you need is one bounce of a ball,"she said.

"The past is the past. We believe we can put England on the ropes. We know their players, we've played with them and against them, we know what makes them tick and how to get under their skin. We know what they will bring too.

"We're coming off seven weeks straight together, our consistency is improved and we're building momentum. Why not shoot for the stars? Why not aim for the top four?

"We've talked about it a lot. We know perhaps recent performances haven't shown that.

"But I truly believe we've unlocked the last little bit we need going into this tournament. Why not full send it?"

Fukofuka underlined Zackary's determination to reach the knockout stages by saying: "We are here to get through our pool, we're here to compete in the finals, and that means winning two of our (group) games.

"From a team perspective, we respect England immensely, but we know how much pressure there is on them to perform. We know our strengths and the weapons we can unleash on them."