Saracens Bryony Cleall 'satisfied' to play a part in England's win over France
Ziad Chaudry
England's Bryony Cleall is tackled by Scotland's Louise McMillan (left) during the Women's Guinness Six Nations match at Castle Park, Doncaster. Picture date: Saturday April 3, 2021. - Credit: PA
Saracens Bryony Cleall helped England secure victory over France and retain their Women's Six Nations title on Saturday at Harlequins' home ground of Twickenham Stoop.
After witnessing twin sister Poppy Cleall score the game's only try just before the interval and leave the field later in the second half with a left arm injury, the 28-year-old prop came on for Shaunagh Brown for the last 22 minutes and made a massive impact.
A brace of penalties from Caroline Drouin kept France in the title decider at 7-6 behind. However Emily Scarlett's kick through the posts in the last minute secured The Red Roses a well deserved but hard fought 10-7 success.
"It's the final," said Cleall, who also played alongside fellow Saracens club-mates Marlie Packer, Sarah McKenna and Zoe Harrison.
"You just come on and just focusing on doing your job and not letting the girls down. People have just played 60 minutes and put their hearts and bodies on the line for you and it's about continuing that on.
"When we all came on we've gave it our all and fortunately the girls saw out that final twenty minutes."
The two teams renew their rivalry in an one-off international this Friday (April 30) at Stade Metropole, Lille and Cleall firmly believes her England colleagues are more than capable of producing better performances than the one achieved last Saturday.
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"I think it's just like building on today and we've dug in there and saw it out but we weren't anywhere near our best," she said.
"There's definitely areas we're not happy with and I think yes we've got the job done, but actually we're so much better than this.
"I think going into next week hopefully we can just fix up the mistakes and go to another level. That's the great thing about us, we've got another level."
