A perfect storm is brewing for the Red Roses as the Women’s Rugby World Cup approaches.
Three years after their painful defeat to New Zealand in the 2022 final, the only loss in their last 60 matches, England has a home tournament that will allow them to tour the country, showcasing women’s rugby and finally getting the only trophy that has eluded the vast majority of the team.
Coach John Mitchell, who took over in 2023, has said the result won’t define him or the players. While that may be true, the pressure and expectations on his team are significant: they are, by far, the best-performing and best-resourced team on the planet.
They may have crumbled under the pressure four years ago, but now England has the chance to redeem themselves.
Inglaterra espera tomar el país por asalto durante la copa del mundo.Home Comforts
A home World Cup brings unique challenges. While the players will be boosted by the support of the fans, there will be greater demands from the media, fans, and families, as well as higher expectations for performance.
The comforts of home will be close, but with a packed travel schedule, hotels and the team bus will remain the norm. The Red Roses will begin the tournament in Sunderland on August 22 against the United States, before heading to Northampton, where they will face Samoa, and then to the south coast for their final group match against Australia in Brighton.
Mitchell, who has sought advice from a wide range of trusted advisors in the period prior to the tournament, welcomes the grand tour.
Ben Youngs, who played under the then-England men’s assistant Mitchell at the 2019 World Cup, when they reached the final, said that the best tournaments were those in which they were not locked in a “high-performance prison”.
“The more I become a coach and being in high-performance rugby, I get tired of hotels and things like that. We all prefer our own homes, don’t we?”, Mitchell told the media before the tournament.
John Mitchell
El entrenador en jefe John Mitchell ha estado preparando a su equipo para el torneo desde que asumió el cargo en 2023.“The way the discussion started was that, although World Rugby owns the tournament and there are many limitations because of that, because that’s how they create equality, how do we get an advantage in their home World Cup?”
“He [Youngs] said that in four World Cups he enjoyed the World Cups in which he didn’t feel like a high-performance prison 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 the preparation matches against Spain and France. During the tournament, the players will have a day off each week in which they can get away from the rigors of the tournament.
The noise around the team will get louder as the campaign progresses. Giving the players the opportunity to escape the bubble could be crucial to their success.
Climbing Everest
Mountaineer Jo Bradshaw was invited to address the group before the tournament in an attempt to provide a fresh voice for the players. In March, Bradshaw completed the “Seven Summits”: climbing the highest mountains on each continent, raising money for charity.
Among the various inspiring stories, there was a message that particularly resonated with Mitchell.
“She just talked [about how] most people think you can conquer Everest just by climbing it immediately,” Mitchell said.
“The only thing we learned from Jo Bradshaw is that your timing has to be right before you climb. We haven’t even earned that right yet, so we have to earn it in the group stage.”Las Red Roses han ganado las últimas siete Seis Naciones.However, there is no doubt that England’s time has to be now.
They are already installed at base camp and are ready for the final push to the summit.
For the class of 2025, the climb will be mental and physical. The scars of 2022 remain, but the team is embracing the expectation and the opportunity to transform the popularity and perception of women’s rugby in England and finally lift the World Cup.
Emulating the LionessesLas Red Roses son las favoritas para ganar la Copa del Mundo en casa.As soon as the tournament focused at the beginning of the year, comparisons were drawn between the Red Roses and the Lionesses, who won the European Championship at home in 2022.
They continued to repeat their feats this year by defending their Eurocup crown in Switzerland.
Both victories were followed by an overwhelming increase in support for the national team and women’s football across the country. The success of Serina Wiegman’s team has only increased hope in the rugby community that the sport could have its own Lionesses moment that propels the Red Roses into the mainstream.
The players are accepting the idea, not shying away from it.
“It’s incredible [how] you can see the country supporting them and that’s something we want to achieve,” said captain Zoe Aldcroft.
“We started in Sunderland and made our way across the country to provide access to all of England, not just the south, which is something super important.”
The distribution of the matches throughout the country is no coincidence. It was planned by World Rugby with the idea that no one would be more than a couple of hours away from a match.
The matches will also be broadcast on free-to-air television, as the organizers seek to maximize the reach of what they, and the Red Roses, hope will be a monumental event.
