Women’s Rugby World Cup: Can England capture elusive crown?
There is a perfect storm brewing around the Red Roses as the Women’s Rugby World Cup approaches.
Three years on from their heartbreaking loss to New Zealand in the 2022 final — the sole defeat in their last 60 matches — England have a tournament on home soil which will see them travel the length and breadth of the country with the chance to showcase women’s rugby and finally clinch the one trophy that has eluded the vast majority of the squad.
Coach John Mitchell, who took charge in 2023, has said the outcome won’t define him or the players. While that may be true, the pressure and expectation on his side is significant — they are by far the most in-form and well-resourced side on the planet.
They may have wilted under the pressure four years ago, but now England have their shot at redemption.
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Home comforts
A home World Cup brings unique challenges. While players will be buoyed and lifted by partisan support, there will be added demands on players from media, fans and families as well as heightened expectations on performance.
The comforts of home will be close but with a hectic travel schedule, hotels and the team bus will still be the norm. The Red Roses kick off the tournament in Sunderland on Aug. 22 against the United States before making their way down to Northampton where they’ll face Samoa and then on to the south coast for their final pool match against Australia in Brighton.
Mitchell, who has sought council from a wide range of trusted advisors in the lead up to the tournament, is welcoming the grand tour.
Ben Youngs, who played under then-England men’s assistant Mitchell at the 2019 World Cup — when they reached the final — said the best tournaments were the ones when they were they weren’t locked in a “high performance jail.”
“The older I’ve got as a coach and being in high performance rugby, you get sick of hotels and stuff like that. We all much prefer our own homes, don’t we?” Mitchell told media before the tournament.
“The way the discussion started was even though World Rugby own the tournament and there’s a lot of constraints from that because that’s how they create the equality, how do we get an advantage in their home World Cup?
“He [Youngs] said that over four World Cups he enjoyed the World Cups where it didn’t feel like a high performance jail and I think that little nugget was probably the key to our designs.”
Mitchell mixed things up for the group with a camp in Italy before warm-up games against Spain and France. During the tournament, players will get a free day each week where they can get away from the rigours of the tournament.
The noise around the team will grow louder as the campaign goes on. Giving the players a chance to escape the bubble could prove crucial to their success.
Climbing Everest
Mountaineer Jo Bradshaw was invited to address the group prior to the tournament in a bid to provide a fresh voice for the players. In March, Bradshaw completed the “Seven Summits”: climbing the highest mountains on every continent, raising money for charity.
Among the various inspirational stories, there was one message that particularly resonated with Mitchell.
“She just talked [how] most people think you can conquer Everest through just climbing it immediately,” Mitchell said.
“The one thing we learnt from Jo Bradshaw is that your timing’s got to be right before you climb. We haven’t even earned that right yet, so we’ve got to earn that right in the pool play.”
There is however no doubting that England’s time has to be now.
They’re already set up at base camp and are ready for the final push to the summit.
For the class of 2025, the climb will be mental as well as physical. The scars of 2022 remain, but the team are embracing the expectation and the opportunity to transform the popularity and perception of women’s rugby across England and finally lift the World Cup.
Emulating the Lionesses
As soon as the tournament came into focus at the start of the year, comparisons were drawn between the Red Roses and the Lionesses, who won the European Championship on home soil in 2022.
They went on to repeat their heroics this year as they defended their Euros crown in Switzerland.
Both victories were followed by an overwhelming lift in support for the national team and women’s football across the country. The success of Serina Wiegman’s side has only added to hope in the rugby community that the sport could have its own Lionesses moment that propels the Red Roses into the mainstream.
Players are embracing the idea, not shying away from it.
“It’s incredible [how] you can see the country getting behind them and that’s something we want to achieve,” captain Zoe Aldcroft said.
“We’re starting in Sunderland and we make our way down the whole country so we give access to the whole of England not just to the south which is something that’s super important.”
Spreading games across all corners of the country is no accident. It was planned by World Rugby with the idea that nobody would be more than a couple of hours from a match.
The games will also be on free-to-air television as organisers look to maximise the reach of what they, and the Red Roses, hope will be a monumental event.