Red Roses Autumn Series and WXV1

The Red Roses have a challenging schedule this autumn:

7 Sept	England v France	Kingsholm	3.30pm BST
14 Sept	England v New Zealand	Allianz	2.30pm BST
29 Sept	USA v England	BC Place, Vancouver	8.30pm BST
6 Oct	New Zealand v England	Langley Event Centre, Langley	9.00pm BST
12/13 Oct	Canada v England	BC Place, Vancouver	3.00am BST

Teams are up for England v France. Kabeya and Jones are injured - but look at that bench:

England: Kildunne; Dow, Rowland, Heard, Breach; Aitchison, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Muir, Aldcroft, Talling, Feaunati, M Packer, Matthews.

Replacements: Atkin-Davies, Carson, Bern, Campion, Cleall, L Packer, Harrison, Scarratt.

France: Jacquet; Banet, Konde, M Menager, Boulard; Tuy, Chambon; Brosseau, Sochat, Khalfaoui, M Feleu (capt), Fall, Escudero, Gros, R Menager.

Replacements: Bigot, Mwayembe, Bernadou, Ikahehegi, Okemba, T Feleu, Bourdon Sansus, Vernier.

That back row is frightening. And the bench is ridiculous. Campion deserves her spot. And good to see Poppy again. And when you bear in mind someone like Abbie Ward has not been selected, this is still a statement of intent.

If France struggle early, it could be a long game. Hopefully one without cards...

Great to see Sarah Bern back, always my favourite prop. Reminds me (in the way she plays) of a young Marler when he had the speed to out pace backs

A very strong England line up there. Bern as WPI says an awesome player, her loose play remarkable. Rowland starts with Scarrat bench.
Poppy Cleall was at one time Red Roses best forward but she her form took a big dip plus injury/ban so hopefully back to her best as she is a destructive 8.

WELL-PAST-IT wrote:Great to see Sarah Bern back, always my favourite prop. Reminds me (in the way she plays) of a young Marler when he had the speed to out pace backs

One of Ms Poorfour Maj's favourites as well. We met her after the RWC Final in 2017 and again after the 2021 6N game v Wales. She had lots of time for the fans. It was also noticeable how much her conditioning had changed her body shape - in '17 she was known as the Box on Legs, but by '21 her upper body was a pronounced inverted triangle. At her best, probably the most complete player in the world game, though she's got a fight on her hands to get the shirt back from Muir.

Initial articles saying kick off tomorrow was 1530 BST, now showing as 14:30 BST.
Think 1430 is the correct time.

Decent game, England looked a bit rusty at first understandably but soon got to grips. France looked to attack at every opportunity but errors let them down. Result not in doubt after 20 mins but they kept at it.
Atichson, Heard, Botterman all good games but Feaunati was player of match for me.
Kicking from tee much improved by Atchison which was good.

It was a very rusty England today. A classic example of the forwards doing all the work and the backs effing it up - I lost count of the passes to no-one, and there were at least two interceptions. One beautiful move in the first half with deft handling between about half the pack got passed into touch as soon as a back got involved.

From the stands it looked as if the ref was somewhat generous to France in not requiring them to roll away before the jackal went in, but France’s breakdown work was much better than England’s for most of the game.

Still, that England could make as many mistakes as they did and still come out with a decisive victory speaks volumes about how good they are. They will need a better performance to win agains the Black Ferns next week, though.

One aspect of the game I thought was decisive was the difference in ruck speed once Mo Hunt went off. Lucy Packer took her try well, but she was almost as slow as Ben Youngs getting the ball away. She needs to have much quicker decision making. I would really like Ella Wyrwas to get some game time but I can't see that happening against the Black Ferns due to experience, unless there's an injury.

The front rows played well apart from the France pushover try. I wondered about the legality of that scrum given the lack of previous issues and no further problems either.

As stated above, the backs seemed to be trying too hard, with tip passes to ground or slightly behind, and passes directly to the opposition which allowed the French to counter. I thought Maddie Feaunati played well, although her leg injury looks a possible issue. Hope she's ok for next week. The French DEFINITELY targeted Ellie Kildunne, with some of the challenges marginal, especially the early one where the TMO didn't even look at it. It was clearly "accidental, ref". My 4 players of the match were Maddie, Maud Muir, Hannah Botterman and Jess Breach, who took her tries really well, showing excellent footwork and speed. I reckon the pack and lineout will be significantly bolstered by Abbie Ward and Rosie Galligan at 5 and 19 next week, otherwise I doubt there'll be too many changes.

After the match it was good to see the players doing their usual rounds with the fans wanting selfies, and my friend and I got to meet Zoe Harrison (again), Abby Dow (who is just as wonderful as she appears in interviews), Simi Pam (non-playing squad Loosehead and Bristol Bear - who's SO friendly!), Amy Cokayne who signed my mate's cap, Coach Sarah Hunter, and Helena Rowland (who was also happy to have a selfie with us). We weren't so lucky with Mo Hunt who was desperate for a shower and Emily Scarratt, who was doing family stuff. Still, a really good day out!

Be interesting to see where England stand by playing NZ who will definitely be looking for revenge from WXV. Biggest stat though is RWC, NZ have beaten Red Roses in 5 finals. That has to change next year and everything is geared towards that.

Mitchell has them playing way more adventerously, offloads etc which showed in some of intercepts(!). One or two were really poor though, I can't understand how Aitchison I think it was couldn't see the French player just standing there. Anyway, now is time to try things and work on moves and plays.

Red card aside, I did think last final that NZ were the more attacking team in backline and Mitchell is addressing that and making England play more and not purely rely on forward power. England has the backline to trouble any team and if they can link everything up they can win RWC.

mountain man wrote:Be interesting to see where England stand by playing NZ who will definitely be looking for revenge from WXV. Biggest stat though is RWC, NZ have beaten Red Roses in 5 finals. That has to change next year and everything is geared towards that.

Having watched the last three England v NZ finals (and attended two), there's been a definite progression.

In 2010, it always felt like the Ferns had enough to overwhelm the Roses - it was just a question of when they'd overpower them.

In 2017, England built up a decent first half lead and at half time it felt like a question of whether they'd done enough with the chances they had (and a feeling that they needed to have converted at least one more to have a defensible lead).

In 2021, England were clearly the better side until the RC (which was the correct decision), but went into their shells and reverted to relying on forward dominance, even though their best passages of play post RC were when they tried the expansive style again. They might still have won had some of the other refereeing decisions gone their way (the NZ YC met the criteria for a red as far as I could see, and there were some offences missed in the final lineout), and they still had a chance to win at the end (though I wasn't hpeful - Abby Ward was clearly out on her feet in the last couple of minutes).

As you say, everything from here on in is geared towards winning, and I wonder if Mitchell is deliberately trying to create adverse conditions so that the team are more used to playing under them. In the last 6N they had an unusual number of YCs - but were still dominant - and on Saturday it looked a bit as if they might have been overtraining in the run up to the game.

As an aside, an unexpected bonus for being in the stadium was seeing Dave and Abby Ward and their daughter in the stands.

Training squad for this weekend:

Zoe Aldcroft, Lark Atkin-Davies, Sarah Bern, Hannah Botterman, Georgia Brock, Delaney Burns, Mackenzie Carson, Poppy Cleall, Kelsey Clifford, Amy Cokayne, Maddie Feaunati, Rosie Galligan, Lilli Ives Campion, Alex Matthews, Maud Muir, Marlie Packer, Connie Powell, Morwenna Talling, Abbie Ward

Holly Aitchison, Jess Breach, Katie Buchanan, Abby Dow, Zoe Harrison, Tatyana Heard, Mo Hunt, Ellie Kildunne, Sarah McKenna, Phoebe Murray, Lucy Packer, Helena Rowland, Emily Scarratt, Emma Sing, Bo Westcombe-Evans, Ella Wyrwas

Good to see Feaunati included - she played well on Saturday but there were concerns that she was injured when she came off.

To the extent that John Mitchell will rejig the matchday squad, where there are changes I would expect it to be a case of bringing in more experience rather than trying new players against the Black Ferns. I thought vs Les Bleues the communication between the backline was very rusty, and the most obvious change to improve that would be to bring Scarratt back in at 13. However, he seems to see her future primarily as a 12, and it would be harsh to replace Heard, who played well.

The forwards were much better form on Saturday, and there are at least two complete international class packs in the 19 players selected. There's speculation that Abbie Ward will come back into the squad this week, but there are so many top class options that it's hard to worry about it.

Aitchison was at fault for at least one intercept, Heard played well so should keep place as should Rowland. Aitchison had a good overall game though but be good if Harrison got some time in 2nd half.

mountain man wrote:Aitchison was at fault for at least one intercept, Heard played well so should keep place as should Rowland. Aitchison had a good overall game though but be good if Harrison got some time in 2nd half.

Kildunne threw an intercept too, and I lost count of the number of passes that went to no-one. Ms Poorfour Maj (a forward to her core) was fuming at the lovely move around half time where the forwards managed a flowing series of passes that had France on the ropes only for Rowland (IIRC) to step in and throw the ball behind Dow and into touch.

I know the backs are trying to be more expansive in their play, but it was a bit worrying how poor the handling was, even for a first game back. Fingers crossed that they have improved with practice.

Team's up...

15. Kildunne
14. Dow
13. Scarratt
12. Heard
11. Breach
10. Aitchison
9. Hunt
1. Carson
2. Atkin-Davies
3. Bern
4. Aldcroft
5. Ward
6. Feaunati
7. Packer
8. Matthews

16. Cokayne; 17. Botterman; 18. Muir; 19. Talling; 20. Brock; 21. Packer; 22. Harrison; 23. Rowland

As predicted, Scaz returns to the backline, which should help with distribution. A surprising amount of change in the pack given how well they went last time out, with half of the starting 8 rotating to the bench, all from the front five. Again, it speaks to the strength in depth that a change on that scale won't raise too many eyebrows - though I think this is the first time in a long while that Botterman hasn't started a major test.

Far too many missed tackles already by England, NZ really up for this.

And yet ultimately a comfortable win for the Red Roses. New Zealand had the edge in quite a few aspects of the game, especially the breakdown and scrum, but England still had enough to dominate until they started to tire.

This is a team that can win against the best available opposition while still playing some way below their best, which is pretty scary

Scoreline flattered England, deserved winners but too many errors. Aitchison pretty woeful at tackling, and kicking penalty out was criminal. OK only a warm up but NZ will improve significantly for RWC, Eng need to as well.

Dow superb, couple of brilliant breaks and a try. She tackles like a back row and jackels. Replacement front row made a difference as did Rowland for Scarratt who was pretty average.

Leti-I'iga was sensational on wing for NZ, a threat every time had ball and broke a lot of tackles. See my point above!

A decent win but plenty to work on.

I thought Aitchison was a liability yesterday. Pass to touch, kicks straight out, messing up the conversion by not paying attention to the shot clock and letting dangerous balls bounce before collecting them. I know every player has an off day, but she's been poor for two straight games now. Zoe Harrison deserves another shot at 10 in my opinion.

Abbie Ward, Zoe Aldcroft (yellow aside) and Alex Matthews were immense yesterday, as was Abby Dow. The 2 NZ wingers and their 13 (Brunt?) were fantastic.

And the atmosphere at Twickenham (I refuse to call it the Allianz even though I understand the reasoning) was really good.

mountain man wrote:Scoreline flattered England, deserved winners but too many errors. Aitchison pretty woeful at tackling, and kicking penalty out was criminal. OK only a warm up but NZ will improve significantly for RWC, Eng need to as well.

Dow superb, couple of brilliant breaks and a try. She tackles like a back row and jackels. Replacement front row made a difference as did Rowland for Scarratt who was pretty average.

Leti-I'iga was sensational on wing for NZ, a threat every time had ball and broke a lot of tackles. See my point above!

A decent win but plenty to work on.

It seems you and I interpreted the game very differently. I thought the score line flattered the Ferns; one of their scores was well-worked (albeit they needed a couple of penalties to get started) but the second one came from a lucky bounce. The Roses could and should have scored more.

New Zealand made mistakes and will improve significantly for RWC25, but I thought they were a lot closer to their peak than England in terms of basic proficiency and error count.

England also made a lot of poor passes (and poor choices about when to pass), their scrum looked vulnerable on occasion and they were too slow at the breakdown on several occasions. All of those are things you’d expect to improve dramatically over the season. In particular, they were missing Kabeya at the breakdown - though Feaunati has been playing well enough that when they are all fit Mitchell may have a tough decision about whether Marlie Packer’s captaincy is enough to keep her in the squad.

And I don’t know what you were expecting from Scarratt, but I thought she had a very good game. She was one of the better distributors in the backline and made several incisive runs. Aside from the last blocked kick that led to their second try, I thought she contributed to a much improved performance compared to last week.

The point remains, though, that England are a team who have played well below their best for two weeks against two of the three teams immediately below them in the rankings, and won by two or more scores on each occasions. That’s a big gap for everyone else to bridge.