The full-back’s try separated the sides but England, ranked No 2 in the world, were far from happy with their performance.

They meet the United States at Thunderbird Stadium on Wednesday and Diver warned: “I think the USA will get some backlash because we want to go out and perform much better. We need to pick ourselves up and I think we will be really pleased to be playing again so soon.”

Canada led 5-3 at half-time thanks to a try from No 8 Maureen McMahon with a Shelley Rae penalty the only points for an England side hampered by the sin-binning of Helen Durman.

“We got a good talking to at half-time. Geoff basically said we were a disgrace and to go out in the second half and put it right.”

They did that within four minutes of the re-start when Susie Appleby spread the ball wide, Rae linked with Assunta De Biase and Diver touched down.

England were without captain Maxine Edwards, who injured her ankle in training and is likely to miss Wednesday’s game but could be fit for a potential final on June 28. Claire Frost captained the side in her absence, while Rochelle Clark came off the bench to win her first cap.

Coach Geoff Richards said: “We didn’t really turn up in the first half – we were very poor. We were basically out-enthused by the opposition team. We had three or four opportunities to score but in a hard game we got away with a win and we will improve for the next game.”

England Women: C Diver (Richmond); N Crawford (Worcester), L Knowles (Richmond), A De Biase (Saracens), E Cooke (Richmond), S Rae (Wasps); S Appleby (Clifton), S Whitehead (Richmond), A Garnett (Saracens), V Huxford (Wasps, R Clark Henley 77), J Sutton (Richmond), H Durman (Saracens), A Pilkington (Clifton, G Stevens Clifton 52-56), H Flippance (Richmond), C Frost (capt, Saracens Stevens 77).

Sin-binned: Durman (19-26).

Scorers: Try – Diver; Con – Rae; Pen – Rae.