England women's Rugby Union team, including Keswick's Abbie Scott, will get a chance to defend their title in this Saturday's World Cup Final.

The Red Roses beat France 20-3 in their semi-final last night to set-up a meeting with the All Blacks at Kingspan Stadium in Belfast this weekend.

Cumbrian Scott, who attended Keswick School, again started for England.

It was all square at half-time after France's Shannon Izar, actually born in London, cancelled out Emily Scarratt's first penalty, leaving the score at 3-3.

But the Red Roses took control after the restart as converted tries from Sarah Bern and Megan Jones, along with another penalty from Scarratt, steered them to victory.

That means this Saturday (7.45pm kick-off) England will be playing in their seventh final out of eight tournaments and will be looking to defend the title they won in France three years ago.

"It was a game befitting of a World Cup Semi-Final," said head coach Simon Middleton after England's win from their last-four tie.

"France have been incredible in this tournament and we've seen both sides of them with the flair, but they showed their toughness tonight. We had to fight every inch of the way but I'm absolutely thrilled.

"We said at half-time if we were patient and we kept the tempo up, tweaked what we were doing a little bit, and were patient in the 22, we would get on top of them.

"We dominated the second half, or large periods of it, and it was testament to France's defence that they were in the game right until the end."

After an evenly-contested first half, Middleton was pleased by how the team kept to their plan as they took control in the second period.

"They're the last group to panic and they know when to step up," he said to England Rugby.

"We've been in a lot of tough situations this year, a lot of pressurised situations and they have come out of the right side of them all, and we've one more to do.

"They won't need pointing in any direction and they'll know exactly what it will take on Saturday."