England Women’s head coach John Mitchell has insisted the expectations surrounding his squad are as nothing compared to the “internal pressure” driving the team ahead of next year’s Rugby World Cup.
The Red Roses have been standard setters in preparation, payment and squad development as the women’s game has become increasingly professional, with England winning a record 30 consecutive Tests from 2019-2022.
But that remarkable run ended with the bitter disappointment of an agonising 34-31 loss in Auckland to arch-rivals New Zealand in the Covid-delayed World Cup final of two years ago.
Next year’s World Cup, however, takes place in England, with officials at the Rugby Football Union, the national governing body, determined to break new ground by having their 82,000 capacity Twickenham headquarters in southwest London sell-out for the final.
But just reaching the showpiece match is unlikely to be enough to satisfy England or their supporters given the Red Roses have lost the last two World Cup finals to New Zealand’s Black Ferns.
England begin their 2024/25 season with Tests at home to France and New Zealand next month before travelling to Canada for the top tier of the WXV women’s tournament, where they take on the hosts and the United States before facing the Black Ferns again.
Their upcoming schedule means that four of England’s next five matches will see them playing three of their major World Cup rivals, with France first up in Gloucester on September 7.
Then, before the World Cup, there is the Six Nations, with England — the dominant force in European women’s rugby union — bidding for a seventh straight title after Mitchell’s first campaign in charge earlier this year yielded a third consecutive Grand Slam.
The 60-year-old New Zealander is now confronting a problem similar to the one he faced when in charge of his native men’s All Blacks some two decades ago, namely of how best to stress-test a team that rarely gets put under pressure between World Cups.
‘Unfairness’
The Red Roses’ bid for World Cup glory fell at the final hurdle three years ago when, at 14-0 up in the showpiece match and seemingly in complete command, wing Lydia Thompson was sent off for a high tackle on Black Ferns star Portia Woodman.
Mitchell said England were trying to create as much “unfairness” in training as possible to leave them better prepared should they find themselves in a similar situation next year.
“You look at the last World Cup where there was a red card, and you saw red cards in our last (Six Nations) competition,” Mitchell told reporters at Twickenham on Wednesday.
“So there’s all those things that you’ve got to factor in and you’ve got to rehearse for, and between players and staff we co-create a lot of these situations so that when it comes to, I guess, it happening, we’ve probably got a better chance of dealing with it.”
Mitchell, also a former defence coach with the England and Japan men’s teams, added: “We don’t really need to worry about the pressure on the outside because we’ve got enough on the inside to be able to keep us motivated and continue to challenge ourselves.”
England have won just two Women’s Rugby World Cup titles, the last in 2014, with Mitchell saying of the challenge ahead: “How do we get done what we haven’t got done for 11 years? How can we just squeeze a little bit more out of each other?”
But he was also keen to stress the Red Roses were also embracing a “higher purpose” than results alone.
“If you get just hung up on winning, that doesn’t always go for you, so what’s our greater responsibility?,” said Mitchell.
“You often hear about us wanting to consistently play at Twickenham and we’ve got communities to connect to over the next year.
“We’re models for all the younger girls out there and the younger men. We’re offering a new generation of people an opportunity to come and watch a really exciting team.”
