The second round of the 2024 Women’s Six Nations is in the books, and England are now two wins from two in the competition. Building on their opening round triumph away to Italy in round one, the Red Roses handed Wales a strong 46-10 defeat to retain their spot at the top of the table.
The Red Roses found their way to the try-line in a variety of forms, with head coach John Mitchell delighted to see so many attacking options within his side. Seven separate scorers crossed over for England, as Maud Muir, Zoe Aldcroft, Hannah Botterman, Lark Atkin-Davies, Rosie Galligan and Abby Dow built an unobtainable lead, alongside a brace for flying fullback Ellie Kildunne.
Mitchell was joined by his Red Roses captain Marlie Packer after the match, as the two hosted a press conference for the reporting journalists at Ashton Gate. Here are the five biggest talking points from the conference, as England marched on victorious into the first fallow week of the 2024 Women’s Six Nations.
1. “ONE SHOT, ONE KILL” – HOW ENGLAND UTILISE THEIR FORMIDABLE ROLLING MAUL
It is well known on the test match circuit, that the Red Roses have a formidable rolling maul that more often than not brings in tries. However, instead of kicking to the corner and trundling over the try-line, England opted to send the ball through the backs more often than not, with only one score coming from their tried and tested set-piece. Marlie Packer spoke about this change of tactics, as Lark Atkin-Davies was the sole scorer from the maul drive:
MARLIE PACKER: “I think for us, it’s about letting the handbrake off. Whether that’s set piece like one shot, one kill, we talked about that in training. And just before that, that break in halftime, that’s what we talked about our set piece and we got that try.
“But also then the way our backs want to play, we want to let the handbrake off and play and, you know, balls will go down at some point in the game because of how we’re trying to play. But hopefully it’s, you know, exciting rugby and we had 19,000 fans here today, probably many more (watching) on TV, we want them to keep coming back and you know, we want them to see some real good rugby.”
JOHN MITCHELL: “Yeah, that, it has been a focal point, without taking away our strengths as well. So I think we’re very fortunate that we can probably three different types of games. So based on the context of the game, as you saw today, we went to the edge and won the edge early which got us into the game there. It’s what we’re after.
“And there were times where we went to our power game. And there were times where we also went to an extra kick chase game, which gives us energy. So yeah, I think to be a good team, a really, really good team and for this team to grow, we have to find ways to score in different ways. And we also need to make sure that we can play the game in different ways and be adaptable to that.”
2. THE NEW CENTRE PARTNERSHIP OF TATYANA HEARD & MEG JONES
Mitchell rolled the dice with his selection for the Wales test week, and named a first time ever midfield partnership of Tatyana Heard and Megan Jones. There was a prominent focus on Cardiff born and raised Jones in the 13 jersey, as she ran out a solid performance in her first fixture against the country of her birth. Mitchell discussed the centre pairing after the match, and discussed how the Gloucester-Hartpury and Leicester Tigers stars ‘complement each other well’.
JOHN MITCHELL: “Yeah, I mean, I think they complement each other really well don’t they? One’s very direct, and the other’s very good also front-line, mine, but can also (they) are clever with there speed and I guess in the second layer of attack. So yeah, we’re pretty fortunate that they do complement each other, as you say.”
“Always, you know, the game doesn’t always go for you in attack. So you got to be good on the other side of the ball. And especially when you defend your own goal it’s a critical, I guess it’s an emotional thing that you can gain energy from as well. Which I think we were able to break out a few times from that last five meters. It’s a system, in that area that the starting point starts with the maul ‘D’ (defence) that’s a critical system and then it’s how hard you work out of it. So yeah, I think we’re making good strides in that area.”