John Mitchell: England hope to exploit Scotland’s weaknesses in WC quarter-final

John Mitchell insisted England were ready to exploit Scotland’s weaknesses when the rivals clash in Sunday’s World Cup quarter-final at Ashton Gate.

The Red Roses are overwhelming favourites to set-up a last-four appointment with either France or Ireland, with some bookmakers installing them as 1/1000 certainties to bank a 31st-consecutive victory.

Scotland produced some eye-catching moments in the group stage, emphatically defeating Wales and Fiji before going down fighting against Canada, but Mitchell believed they were there for the taking.

“Everyone has raised their performance,” the head coach said.

“Clearly people will say that Scotland have raised their performance against us, but there’s still vulnerability in the Scottish team.

“There are still opportunities to build pressure, so we’ll be hunting those weaknesses.”

England have not lost to the Scots since 1999 and clinched their most recent meeting in April 59-7, but there is a potential leveller in Sunday afternoon’s weather forecast.

Heavy rain, strong wind and thunderstorms are expected, but Mitchell insisted his team were prepared for all eventualities as they chased progress rather than perfection.

“We believe that we can adapt to all weather conditions,” the former All Blacks boss said.

“We’ve got particular players up our sleeve that allow us to be able to dictate opportunities at the other end of the field through the weather.

“We don’t need to be scoring 10 out of 10.

“In my eyes, we’ve just come from one competition and we’re into a new competition and now we’ve got to earn another week.

“Scoring 10 out of 10 is probably not as relevant as getting the right performance.”

England will be lead out by captain Zoe Aldcroft after she was restored to the back row having recovered from a knee injury, while Holly Aitchison makes her first start of the World Cup at fly-half.