by With the home World Cup on the horizon, there is little time to waste for John Mitchell, who is expected to name his first England squad for the Women’s Six Nations in late February.
The 59-year-old, who underlined his commitment to the Red Roses last month, is likely to lead a maximum of 17 Tests before the 2025 tournament kicks off in August next year.
England will be hot on the heels of retaining their Six Nations crown for a fifth successive season but France’s 18-17 win over world champions New Zealand in last year’s inaugural WXV competition will be a stark warning to the Red Roses trying to keep the gap intact. the best nations in the world.
Telegraph Sport analyzes four key areas Mitchell will look to make an impact in his first year in charge and what a successful 2024 could look like for the Red Roses.
Walking towards pressure
A true champion side doesn’t run from big moments, they embrace them. Over the past five years, England have gained a reputation for their massive kills in the Six Nations but their aura of invisibility was shattered when they suffered an emphatic World Cup final loss to New Zealand, which ended their streak won by 30 games in November 2022.
One of Mitchell’s priorities will be to expose the players to high-pressure situations in preparation for 2025. England were unable to manage the huge swing after Lydia Thompson was sent off in the final at Eden Park for a high tackle on Portia Woodman and their game plan solved after that, so learning pressure to reframe will be huge.
But how does a coach really expose players to sticky situations if they keep trampling everyone else? How do they learn to dig deep in clutch moments if they are rarely properly tested? Even in Premiership Women’s Rugby (a league originally established to act as a launching pad for Red Roses talent) joyous scorelines are still commonplace.
“We are aware that some of our athletes easily win Premier League weekends and easily win Test matches,” Mitchell said.
“When it comes to the top five, it’s more of a pressure game in how you apply and get pressure, because the game is unfair. The World Cup was unfair. So how we prepare the girls in our preparation is key to developing that.”
That’s why the RFU is planning an independent New Zealand Test at Twickenham this autumn, which could act as a warm-up for the World Cup final.
Keeping it competitive
The competition for places has seen England become an unstoppable force in recent years and there will be some big selection calls to be made by Mitchell, who revealed he wants to add “more pace and style” to the Roses’ game. Red in the following weeks.
Will he choose experience or youth as an idiot in Mo Hunt or Lucy Packer? How will he fit the likes of Poppy Cleall, who has been in mesmeric form for Saracens recently after missing WXV through injury, and Bristol lock Abbie Ward, who is targeting an international return after giving birth, into a stacked pack already with talent? Where is Helena Rowland’s best position, full back or centre?
As the Red Roses look to raise the kicking stakes, there is also the not-so-small task of sharing the semi-final duties between Holly Aitchison and Zoe Harrison, the latter back from a serious knee injury, while keep a goal. keep track of who is doing what in PWR.
“As much as we have a contract process, that’s great, but Porsche cars don’t always make it, from what I’ve experienced and seen in life,” said Mitchell, whose A varied training CV in the men’s game to dominate All. Blacks finished third at the 2003 World Cup. “I’m open to the bolter coming in. We might see a few surprises by the time we get to our home World Cup.”
A good squad is a happy squad
Women’s rugby is hardly full of riches but the fact that Mitchell’s reign has coincided with an increase in commercial opportunities for female players cannot be ignored.
Having seen the transition to professionalism in men’s rugby in the late nineties, Mitchell has already indicated that he will not stop any of his players from taking part in commercial ventures such as appearing on programmes. TV (Exeter Chiefs player Jodie Ounsley is to star in the new show. hit TV series Gladiators) to express their personalities.
The Rugby Union now has 34 players contracted on deals worth up to £45,000 a season excluding bonuses, match fees and sponsorship and some Red Roses are said to be earning more than £8,000 a year for their clubs .
Currently, there is no cap on what a Red Roses player can earn in Women’s Rugby Premiership, with one source close to the PWR club going so far as to say that a “bidding war” has already opened up among some players . With the £190,000 cap expected to be pushed up to £220,000 next season, imposing a limit on what England players can earn through their club is inevitable if the game is to grow sustainably. It remains to be seen whether Mitchell interferes with such discussions.
Stay underground ahead of a big year in 2025
With organizers targeting a sell-out final at Twickenham at the 2025 Women’s World Cup, there has been no shortage of talk about the ‘Lionesses effect’ as England look to replicate the Euro 2022 triumph the nation won two summers ago.
It is a tempting prospect to follow their football counterparts by creating history at one of the country’s national stadiums, but Mitchell insisted that the Red Roses cannot accept that it is their God-given duty to have the World Cup with the a fairy tale they want.
Under his watch, the first tick boxes for England are to retain their Six Nations and WXV titles. “We have to earn the right to compete in that final,” Mitchell added. “Just because we’re at home, it doesn’t mean we have any right to win this World Cup.”
