The 2024 Women’s Six Nations kicks off this weekend, with England set to commence their mission of winning a sixth consecutive title. The Red Roses have been the competition’s dominant force for the past half a decade, yet have entered a new era for the 2024 Championship.
England head coach John Mitchell has appointed Marlie Packer to continue her run as England captain, after she took full leadership of the side following the retirement of Sarah Hunter. England’s all-time most capped player hung up her boots after the opening round of the 2023 Women’s Six Nations, with Packer taking the lead for the rest of that tournament, and also in the subsequent WXV1 triumph the following Autumn.
The back-row is set to make her 100th cap when she next runs out for England, with the century set to be accomplished in the Red Roses’ trip to Parma. England take on Italy this Sunday to commence their campaign, yet Packer is more excited about getting her side off to a strong start with returning legends, than focussing on the personal accolade of hitting triple figures. Speaking in the 2024 Women’s Six Nations launch event in London, Packer said;
“I’m super excited, but I’m more excited about kicking off the tournament. As you saw with the Red Roses at WXV last year, we’ve changed the way we’re playing. We’re now evolving that. We’ve enjoyed the first half of the PWR season and we can’t wait to kick things off.
“With regards to my 100th cap, I just want to get out there and play. We’ve got the likes of Abbie Ward, Emily Scarratt, Zoe Harrison coming back. We haven’t seen that calibre of players since the World Cup final. I’m more excited to see them come back than to get my 100th cap this coming month.”
England bid farewell to their long-serving head coach Simon Middleton at the end of the 2023 Women’s Six Nations, after clinching the Grand Slam in dramatic fashion against France. The Red Roses and Les Bleus Femmes set a new attendance record for a women’s rugby match back in April, as 58,498 fans packed themselves into Twickenham. England have since appointed John Mitchell as the new head coach, and he is eager to begin his first Six Nations campaign with the Red Roses.
Mitchell had a ‘hands off’ role during England’s inaugural WXV triumph, as Louis Deacon took up the mantle of Interim Head Coach. Mitchell was apart of the Japan men’s coaching staff throughout the 2023 Rugby World Cup, and after departing with the Brave Blossoms, oversaw the Red Roses as they lifted the WXV1 title in New Zealand. Speaking on how it has been to work with the new head coach, Packer said;
“I get on with ‘Mitch’ (John Mitchell) really well. Sometimes I really get him and I feel like we’re on the same wavelength and I’m like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ And then the next day we have a conversation and I’m like, ‘Oh, I need to work on that there.’ He’s great. He poses questions. He makes you see the game differently to what I’ve seen before.
“He asks why we’re doing this and that and what other options we can have. He’s a really nice guy and he’s been really refreshing. Going into WXV, the direction in how we wanted to play was still coming from Mitch, even though Deacs (Louis Deacon) was still in on everything.
“He’s put the full stop at the end of things. Sometimes we’d ask questions to coaches and it would be quite open but he has the last word, like ‘This is how I want things done, guys.'”
As the Red Roses captain, Packer is amongst the leadership group that have since undergone a change. Previously known as the Red Roses’ ‘thorns’, the contingent of experienced players includes the likes of Zoe Aldcroft and Emily Scarratt (upon her return). The thorns now go by the monicker of ‘game drivers’, in what is one of the changes to the culture at Pennyhill Park that has taken place under the Marlie Packer captaincy.
“We no longer have the ‘thorns’. It’s been changed to ‘game drivers’. That’s our new leadership group. The ‘game drivers’ is what drives us about the park. The leadership group now looks into how we can change mindsets and evolve as a group.
“We’ve been working with a company called Leading Edge, headed up by a guy called Patrick. He’s been great for us. He’s definitely helped the leaders overcome different obstacles. Obviously, you’re in a big squad that constantly changes. We’ve talked about our culture, this is a big one that Mitch brought in, and we wanted the cultural bit to be the stronghold of the squad.
“I’ve learned a lot in this last year (as captain) that I’d never thought I’d learn. I take my hat off to Sarah Hunter because I think I’ve had a lot more support than maybe she did. For me, it’s not just about the rugby, it’s about the person and the player. If we get those two things right, we perform on the pitch. I’ve got a good leadership group around me, there’s no hierarchy, I treat us all as equals, including myself.
“Someone messaging into the squad might land better than if I do it. It’s nice that it’s not always me doing the talking before a training session others are. We’ve got a lot of players from the PWR who are captains and natural leaders, so why take that away? Why not empower them to lead within the Red Roses? There’s a time and a place for it. We can’t have 15 leaders all talking at half time on a match day and that’s where the ‘game drivers’ comes in.”
Packer reiterated as to how the contention for places is intense in the England camp, as the Red Roses have previously unseen depths of talent within their ranks. John Mitchell has previously compared the quantity of quality to that of the All Blacks, when he was apart of the coaching staff in the early 2000s. Packer explained how ‘nobody is safe’ for a guaranteed spot in the team, in what has established a competitive culture to breed success.
“Definitely. There’s a sense that nobody is safe. If you’re not hitting your markers that have been set for you from your individual player plan, they’re going to look at someone else to fulfil that role. We need to make sure we’re performing.
“Performing in the PWR gets you looked at, but when you’re in camp, that’s when you really have to show up and make sure the kind of culture we have is great. You could be the best player in the world but if you’re falling out with everyone in camp and making it a bad culture then you’re no use to us.”
Packer has solid competitors in the back-row, as the likes of Alex Matthews, Sadia Kabeya and uncapped call-up Maddie Feaunati populate the ranks. Zoe Aldcroft is predominantly a lock, yet can also run out a solid effort in the back of the scrum, which only motivates Packer to stay at the top of her game. The 2023 World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year believes that she does not to play like anyone else to lead her country forward.
“I just need to keep doing me. I don’t need to be anyone else. I’ve never been anyone else in my career. I just need to keep driving myself and pushing myself. They’re all incredible players who bring different attributes to the game. But I know I bring something different and I can call on those players, or myself, to put in a performance.
“I say this now, not one player will play probably every 80 minutes of this Six Nations, because of the physicality in the women’s game there now is and the tempo we want to play at. We’re building to something bigger, it is about the Six Nations and winning it, but we’re also building to the 2025 World Cup. We have new names in this squad that are really exciting – they’re going to get their opportunity, while others won’t.”
“Different coaches set different challenges in what they want from you. I might not be the quickest in the bunch but put me in a 50-50 situation and I’m going to win the ball. That’s my mindset, it’s nobody else’s mindset. You have to have the mindset that you always want to win or do better. I recently got asked what failure means to me. I don’t think failure is a thing. I think you learn from failure. You don’t win a World Cup, it isn’t a failure, it’s about learning from it.”
Despite not putting too much onus upon her 100th test cap, Packer was presented with the option of making her century upon home soil, rather than in Italy. The Saracen expressed how despite the added value of a sea of home supporters, she is not concerned about marking triple digits away to Italy, and views the opportunity as a privilege rather than a guarantee.
“The conversation did happen with ‘Mitch’, which was quite nice. I didn’t think there’d be an open conversation about it. For me it’s about the rose, the shirt and leaving it in a better place because it might be the last time you wear it. It’s a privilege to be selected for a Test. So for him to ask me, ‘What are you thinking? How are you feeling?’ I said, ‘No, I want to start the Six Nations as Red Roses captain and get my 100th cap then and I want to finish the Six Nations as Red Roses captain. I won’t let up my shirt for anyone else.”
Turning her attention to the two home matches that the Red Roses will play in the coming months, and Packer expressed her excitement to return to Twickenham, as well as a run out in her home region of the West Country. The Yeovil native will lead out England at Bristol’s Ashton Gate, as England take on Wales on Saturday 30th of March. Following this, England Women return to Twickenham to host Ireland, and Packer is excited to see a capacity crowd return to watch the Red Roses once again.
“I do love playing Wales. It’ll be a gritty game. There’ll be a few afters on the floor and there’ll be a big Welsh crowd there being just over the bridge in Bristol, and hopefully it will be my 101st cap. But there’s nothing better than playing at Twickenham.
“The pitch is like carpet there and there’ll be an incredible atmosphere. Hopefully we hit the numbers like we did last year there in the Six Nations but even if we don’t, that won’t take away from what a special occasion it will be.
“It’s about the squad understanding that these stadiums are what we will be playing in right up until the World Cup. Before, it might have been a little club stadium, but now we’re playing in big ones and pulling really big crowds in.”