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Six Nations column: 'Everyone's starting to buy into the Red Roses'
I’m really excited for the game at the weekend. France is always an amazing occasion. And for me personally, hopefully, it’ll be my first time playing in the Six Nations at Allianz Stadium.
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I’ve missed out on the game twice now due to a hamstring injury and then a thumb injury in the warm-up last time round. So, for me personally, I’m really excited.
Something that I’ll always remember when playing France was when we went to play them away a few years ago. We were walking in from the warm-up, and both the captains clocked eyes, and it sort of ended up as a race of who could get into the changing rooms first, as it went into quite a narrow walkway.
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Sarah Hunter started power walking, then the France captain did the same, and by the time we met at the tunnel, they were both sprinting to be the first person in. It was my birthday as well, so at the end of the game, when we’d just won the Grand Slam, all of the parents in the England corner of the stands were singing to me on the pitch, which I’ll never forget.
The crowd in Twickenham should be amazing. Everyone’s starting to really buy into the Red Roses and women’s rugby. And we’re definitely starting to get our own fan base and entice new audiences.
We’re into our last week now, and it has been a long tournament. And I think, what we’ve touched on this week is making sure that we stay on it for these final few days. It’s really easy to slip off, because there are a few tired bodies and a few tired minds. But, actually, something that’s really important to us is making sure we stick to our processes until the end.
I’m hoping we get to celebrate, but regardless of the result on Saturday, we will make sure that we take stock of all the hard work that we’ve put in over the last six/seven weeks, then we will have a few weeks off before going into World Cup prep.
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Come Monday, I’m going to be on my annual leave, so I’m going to a cabin in Somerset for the first five days, and then I’m heading off to Egypt for 10 days after that. I can’t wait to hopefully have good sunshine in England, and then get to Egypt and fully switch off for another few days before heading into pre-season again.
Competition in the squad is massively important for us. You have to have strength and depth in every position, in order to cover it if there’s an injury, but nowadays with the demands of rugby, you can’t be playing 80 minutes week in, week out and feel fresh every time.
So it just means that we have got enough people to vie for that starting shirt and put out a Red Roses performance.
Mitch speaks openly about having two squads that he can rely on. He does his selection in weeks of two, so we knew whether we were going to be involved in the first two games and then after fallow week, we were told how we were going to be involved in the next two.
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It just means that if you’re not involved in one game, or you’re starting on the bench for another, you can get your head around quite quickly what your role is going to be. He’s really transparent and gives people the time to process what their role is going to be, which means we’re better prepared. It’s been massively helpful in this tournament, allowing people to know their stuff for when they’re called on.
One thing we really want to hone in on this week is our driving maul, where there are a few areas we can continue to get better and keep building after the game against Scotland.
We had our big final training session on Wednesday, and then it’s our final bond night. Mitch drives this massively as he believes that bond off the pitch is the thing that will help us on the pitch.
Bond night is like the NFL draft. We had a draft this morning of who’s in what group, Amy Cokayne pulled names out of a hat- there are seven groups with seven or eight people in.
The first name drawn has to come up with a team name, and then the last person’s name drawn in that group has the responsibility to either choose the dinner or choose the activity, of what you do that evening.
I know a few people are going to the cinema, and some people are going to the spa. I think Zoe [Aldcroft] is in charge of my group. I don’t know what Zoe will choose, but she does love this little pub called ‘The Golden Retriever’. So if I end up there, then you know why!
Because of the way the tournament happened straight off the back of the PWR final, which a lot of us were involved in, it meant that we haven’t had as much time to build the foundations in a pre-season, so to speak. We’ve had to evolve throughout the tournament. It’s been a challenge, but something that we’ve taken in our stride.
We’re not afraid to not be the end product that we want to be from the off. It’s something that we have worked on, and we keep picking up little bits to make sure we get better. From round one against Italy to now, we’ve become more connected as a team. Through the forwards and the backs, we’re really wanting to play this front-foot rugby, and that involves one to 15 being on the same page.
The way we’ve evolved over the tournament has been great, and I think it’s put us in a really good stead going into the World Cup.
