England 43-12 New Zealand: ‘Mature’ Zoe Harrison ‘sensational’ in victory

Another fly-half option for England is 22-year-old Helena Rowland, who was a replacement at Sandy Park.

“These are young kids,” Middleton said. “There’s a lot of responsibility being put on them.

“For our half-backs coming out of the shadow of Katy who has run the show for the last 10 years, it takes time to embed themselves into the team.”

Harrison showed composure as England saw off a renewed New Zealand attack with the hosts up 17-0 at the start of the second half.

The Saracens back then rounded off her performance with a try, cutting through defenders to score with the final play of the game.

“She’s has been really influential in terms of our leadership group,” Middleton continued.

“She’s still very young and she’s leading a really experienced group of forwards. It takes some guile to do that.

“She’s starting to own it and today she was sensational. Hopefully it is one of those performances that she can really springboard from to keep her development going.”