London (AFP) - Tournament hosts England head into the Women’s Rugby World Cup as strong favourites, but are under huge pressure to end more than a decade of disappointment in the sport’s showpiece event.

The Red Roses have lost only once in their past 58 matches – a defeat by New Zealand in the Covid-delayed 2022 World Cup final.

England, however, have finished runners-up in five of the last six World Cup finals to New Zealand, with the 2014 edition providing their most recent global 15-a-side title.

In a bid to help them take the final step to global glory, they appointed New Zealand’s John Mitchell as their coach in 2023.

The problems facing the England team are similar to the ones Mitchell encountered as coach of the men’s All Blacks when he was unable to steer them to World Cup triumph at the 2003 edition.

That England’s women nearly blew a 31-7 lead against France in the final match of their seventh successive Six Nations title-winning campaign in April before edging home 43-42 may have been a blessing in disguise.

Mitchell named an unchanged team for England’s final warm-up game for their World Cup opener against the United States in Sunderland on Friday.

The starting 15, captained by back-row forward Zoe Aldcroft, overwhelmed France 40-6 in the second of England’s two warm-up fixtures earlier this month.

“We have been building nicely into the tournament and now we’re excited to get our campaign under way,” said Mitchell.

New Zealand’s Black Ferns will look to dash English hopes once again, with two-time World Cup-winner Portia Woodman-Wickliffe looking to go out on a high in what promises to be the 34-year-old wing’s last major tournament.

“This World Cup was never on my agenda, I never really planned to go to it,” Woodman-Wickliffe told AFP in an interview. “But I thought I’m still enjoying XVs, why not give this a crack. If I don’t make it fine, it’s cool. But if I do make it, then it will be one last ride.”

Canada, who recently held New Zealand, remain the biggest threat to the Black Ferns and the Red Roses, in a tournament featuring an expanded 16 teams, with the top two in each of the four pools qualifying for the quarter-finals.

Ireland, who failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup, have been drawn in the same pool as New Zealand – a team they beat in last year’s WXV tournament, introduced to raise the overall standard of the women’s game, in a shock upset.

But for officials this World Cup is also about growing the game in all aspects, on and off the field.

- ‘Global celebration’ -

The United States’ Ilona Maher has attracted more than eight million social media followers alone, not only through her sporting exploits but also for her promotion of body positivity.

Even before the first whistle has been blown, this Women’s World Cup has set records, with Brazil the first South American side to feature in the tournament’s 34-year history.

Meanwhile, organisers said Tuesday they expected the September 27 final at Twickenham to feature a sell-out crowd of over 80,000 – a record for any women’s rugby match.

Officials also announced that more than 375,000 tickets have been sold across all 32 matches at this World Cup.

“We’re ready to break records in attendances, viewership and engagement,” tournament director Sarah Massey said during Tuesday’s launch event at Twickenham.

“This is going to be the biggest global celebration of women’s rugby that we have ever seen.”

And for the first time there will be three women head coaches in Gaelle Mignot (France), Jo Yapp (Australia) and Lesley McKenzie (Japan) at a Women’s Rugby World Cup.

But while England are fully professional, many of their rivals are still only semi-professional or even amateur, with the BBC reporting more than half of Scotland’s squad fear being left without a professional deal after the World Cup.

“There is no doubt that we will have teams at a different stage of their professional development and that will reflect in some of the scorelines,” said World Rugby Chief of Women’s Rugby, Sally Horrox, at Tuesday’s launch.

But she added the launch of the WXV tournament in 2023 had led to “a raising of standards and a narrowing in terms of competitive margins”.