England coach Simon Middleton expects the French to be hugely energised and play a high-tempo game against his side. Photo / Evan Treacy
England coach Simon Middleton expects the French to be hugely energised and play a high-tempo game against his side. Photo / Evan Treacy
It's been billed as a clash of the titans and as the best women's rugby one can see in this part of the world.
The world No 1 side, England, take on the unpredictable French at the Northland Events Centre tomorrow evening.
"They'll be hugely energised, it will be a high-tempo game. Generally they'll play a fairly open game, they want a lot of movement of the ball, a lot of running, offloading and a lot of physical game around the contact area," England coach Simon Middleton said.
He first came on board as an assistant coach in 2014 and has since been involved in two previous Women's Rugby World Cup campaigns with the Red Roses, so is acutely aware of what's at stake and what it will take to win in rugby-mad New Zealand.
Being the top-ranked team counts for nought when it comes to the global tournament, Middleton said.
"We always work on the basis that we build our own expectation on how we play so we're our biggest critics, both in terms of how we train and how we play. If you want to be a great side, which we do, you've got to be able to beat the best teams to win the biggest tournaments.
"We'll see how we go but pressure comes from all different sources. We've got it because we're regarded as number one in the world.
"New Zealand, it's their home tournament, they're expected to win it and they are the holders of the tournament so it's theirs to lose. We've come to win it but they've got to try and defend it. So they have a massive amount of expectation on them as well."
French players being put through their paces at training ahead of their match against world No 1 England this weekend. Photo / Imran Ali
"France will definitely be one of those teams that is well capable of winning it. I think if Canada get their best players and their best game, they're also a huge threat. Can anyone else win it? Possibly," Middleton said.
"Can anybody have a say in who wins it? Definitely. You look at Fiji's performance against us at the weekend. They've had a fantastic first half. Australia 17-nil up against the Black Ferns, you saw a really gritty game [in] Scotland against Wales."
Middleton has named a strong side for tonight's feature match.
Sarah Hunter captains the side at No 8 and is set to earn her 137th cap and become the joint most-capped England international, drawing level with Red Roses prop Rocky Clark.
Flanker Marlie Packer returns to the squad at openside flanker in the only change to the matchday 23 that secured an 84-19 victory over Fiji in their tournament opener at Eden Park last weekend.
Gloucester-Hartpury's Alex Matthews is blindside flanker, vice-captain Emily Scarratt is at centre while Leanne Infante will play halfback.
Abbie Ward and Zoe Aldcroft are the locks.
Fresh from her four-try display against Fiji, Claudia MacDonald continues on the left wing, with Lydia Thompson and Ellie Kildunne making up the back three at right wing and fullback respectively.
Vickii Cornborough (loosehead prop), Amy Cokayne (hooker) and Sarah Bern (tighthead prop) form an unchanged front row, while Zoe Harrison and Helena Rowland form the 10-12 axis.
Middleton said the French have a lot of facets to their game, including a solid set piece. On where this game is going to be won, he said: "Set piece is always hugely influential, contact area, go forward. You have to get two of those three right. French are very unpredictable."
"If they can get their best game, they showed what they can do when they played the Black Ferns in the autumn last year and we've had a lot of games against them recently."
One of the advantages England has had over other teams going into the World Cup, he said, was having a professional programme in place longer than other countries.
"We have a really strong domestic competition, that's really accelerating the development of a lot of players - particularly the young players - so the infrastructure back in England is stronger and underpins the squad," Middleton said.
"We've got momentum. We're on a really healthy winning streak and that breeds confidence and we've got some very good players, and staff group."
France were scheduled to name their squad last night. The side will play Fiji in their last pool game in Whangārei next weekend (Saturday October 22) while England will return to Auckland where they face South Africa at Waitakere Stadium on October 23.
