England women's rugby head coach Simon Middleton warns his team they must improve defensively ahead of World Cup semi-final against France

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England head into Tuesday night's Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final against France knowing that improvements are needed to keep alive their dream of winning back-to-back titles.

The defending champions beat the United States 47-26 in their final pool game to go through to the last four as second seeds behind New Zealand. However, they allowed the Americans to recover from being 47-7 down and score three tries in the last half-hour.

'We've got to make sure we play an 80-minute game,' said centre Emily Scarratt. 'In the latter part of that USA game maybe mentally we took our foot off the pedal.

England head coach Simon Middleton admits defensive frailtys in his women's world cup team

'So we've got to make sure we're on it for the whole game [against France] because the chances are it's going to be a really tough and tight game.

'There are always things to work on. This next game is about pulling all of those things together and making sure everything fires.'

Head coach Simon Middleton concurs, saying: 'For 60 minutes we were absolutely outstanding. Our intensity and focus, technically and tactically, was spot on. Then we came off mentally a bit. We're not where we need to be with our defence. It's a work in progress and always will be.'

England conceded seven tries in their three pool games, whereas the miserly defences of France and New Zealand have been breached only three times each. Indeed, the French were superb in their last outing against Ireland. The hosts, trailing 21-0 at half-time, dominated possession and territory in the second period but were only able to cross the whitewash in the final minute.

His England team beat the USA in their final pool game to reach the semi-final against France

But his side conceded three tries in the last 30 minutes against the USA to win 46-27

Despite winning the game, Middleton admits England have to improve in the last four

In the Six Nations, England beat France 26-13, having trailed 13-0 at half-time, but they are expecting to meet a different French side on Tuesday night in Belfast.

'France have looked very sharp,' said Middleton. 'They're very well organised and have a lot of energy. They have variation in their game too — a lot of flair as well as being forward-orientated at times. It's brought balance to the side, and they're very tenacious in defence.'

England, too, have shown they can play in different ways, using their wide running game to score 10 tries in each of the matches against Spain and Italy before turning to their forward power to subdue the USA. Against France, England will need Plan A, Plan B and maybe even a Plan C.

'France are really pulling it together in this tournament,' said Scarratt. 'They are going to pose some very different and very challenging questions, but we've got to stick to what we want to do and how we want to impose ourselves on the game.'

One area where England showed a marked improvement against the USA was their goalkicking. They converted only six of their 20 tries in the first two games but missed only one conversion in the America match. Scarratt knows just how vital finding the target will be in the knockout stages.

England triumphed in France three years ago and are hoping to defend their crown in Dublin

'It's something I'm still working on, making sure I'm keeping my head down and they go through the posts,' she said.

'It's one of the things that will keep developing hopefully as the tournament goes on and I'm very aware that it will become more important in this next game.'

That is why England are not looking beyond France to Saturday's final. 'We've gone through this whole competition game by game and when you get to a semi-final you have to focus on that,' said Scarratt.

'If you start looking at finals, all of a sudden you don't find yourself in them. We're very much focused on France at the moment.'