England are preparing for their toughest challenge of the year, as they get set to take on the formidable Black Ferns of New Zealand this Saturday in Twickenham. The Allianz Stadium is set to enclose a seismic encounter, when the reigning Women’s Rugby World Cup holders New Zealand, battle it out with the number one ranked women’s side in the world, the Red Roses.
This hotly anticipated clash of the titans doubles up as the second and final warm-up Test match for England, before John Mitchell’s squad make the trip over the Atlantic for WXV1. The preparations have been impressive so far ahead of England’s trip across the pond, as the Red Roses recorded a 38-19 win over France, in front of a packed house of avid supporters in Gloucester’s Kingsholm Stadium.
This win extended England’s dominance over ‘Les Bleus’ to 14 consecutive Test match wins, yet England defence coach Sarah Hunter believes that France are certainly up and amongst the conversation regarding the Red Roses’ biggest rivals. The newly expectant Hunter is pregnant with her first child, and expressed how choosing between France and the Black Ferns as England’s top rivals, would be like picking between a favourite son or daughter.
“I mean, they’re pretty much on par with each other, aren’t they? It’s like probably asking to choose between your favourite child, I’d imagine if there were two children to choose between. But they are different for different reasons, aren’t they? With a different history that comes comes with it and the different opposition that they play.
“We’re excited for the opportunities, we want to test ourselves against the best teams in the world, France and New Zealand are certainly two of those teams.”
Hunter identified how the initial battle with France was the perfect way to prepare England’s defence for the flying Black Ferns, given the similarities in the way the two sides attack. Both France and New Zealand relish the fast flowing attack, but Hunter did recognise that the all-action approach is integrated into the Kiwis from an early age.
“I think you look at the way France want to play, and how they played in the Six Nations against us, they ran the ball a lot. They’ve got some really exciting and challenging and backs, just like New Zealand will have. We know New Zealand will want to play, so I feel like, from a defensive point of view, we made a good start in terms of the pressure we’ve put France under.
“But as with any game, we’ll look at ‘how do you want to play’, and how they will want to try and move the ball, and how we need to take our defence to that next level again. That’s always what you want, you want a little bit more each time you go out and play.
“So, they’ll (New Zealand) prove similar in some respects (to France) for the backs they have, but we do know that New Zealand like to get it wide, and like to play a lot of rugby. It’s what they’re brought upon, it’s their instinctive way. We’ll have to find a way to try and stop that.”
Saturday’s fixture against the Black Ferns will be Hunter’s last physical match day involvements with the Red Roses for a few weeks, as the defence coach won’t be travelling out to Canada for WXV. Hunter is too far along her pregnancy to make the near 4,000 mile flight, but has been readying her body clock to be on the same time zone as her England squad. Hunter expressed how this will take some getting used to, but saw the upside in how the early mornings will prepare the England legend for motherhood.
“The fact that I don’t think you’re allowed to fly after a certain amount of time (during pregnancy), it was taken out of my hands. I might have got out there by a week, but I wouldn’t have been able to get back from Canada. As much of a great country Canada is, I didn’t fancy having a baby out out there!
“There wasn’t a decision either way. Obviously, I’d love to be out there and coaching and supporting the girls on the ground. However, that isn’t possible. But obviously the baby isn’t due until end of October, so hopefully they don’t come until then. So I’ll be literally working from back in England, it’ll give me something to do.
“I’ll still be doing all our analysis, review and preview, watching the sessions back, planning the sessions for the coaches out there. Working remotely to give them all the information, so they can just focus on what they need to out there.
“So I’ll be putting my body clock on to this (Pacific Standard) time, which probably come in handy, in practice for being awake at maybe three or four o’clock in the morning with what’s to come! It’s one of those things that we found a solution around in how I can still be involved, whilst not being directly on the grass with a whistle.”
The Red Roses squad have banded together in support for England’s most capped player, with the likes of new mother Abbie Ward being a “God send” in Hunter’s eyes. The Bristol Bears lock welcomed her new child to the world earlier this year, and was back playing professional rugby just 17 weeks later. Also, England head coach John Mitchell has altered Hunter’s training schedule, to give the former lock plenty of time to rest, with the excited England players more than happy to come to her for chats.
“Mitch (John Mitchell) has been brilliant ever since I told him I was expecting. It’s been like, ‘well, how can we make a plan work, that still keeps you in position’, because, yes, I am pregnant, but my brain is still working. As the times gone on, practically how and where I’m placed on the rugby pitch is being modified, but I’m still being able to lead the defence and from a safe space, with some of our players who like running towards people rather than than space!
“I’ll take a bit of a more overview, like a helicopter approach about how the training is going, and picking up little conversations with players in the session, or when we’ve got moments to still deliver the key messages that need to be delivered. So, it’s taken a little bit of getting use to because, as a forward, you’re always in the thick of it, and in defence, you want to be there. The girls have been brilliant as well. They’re probably more conscious about me than I am about myself and my own welfare! So, we’re hopefully managing it pretty well.”
“We have this thing about ‘turning up for your mate’, and everyone’s turning up for me on a daily basis. Whether that’s people picking up the kit and carrying it in, or making sure I’ve got water. The (England team) doctor, when it was a bit hotter, we have the cooler sprays and he’d come in and cool me off. Nutritionists are making sure I’ve got snacks too.
“Our players, the girls, are brilliant. They’re really interested, they keep asking me questions, some of them I don’t know the answers to! Abbie Ward has been a God send as well. Everyone’s been brilliant off the pitch, and just making sure I’m well looked after.”
As Hunter goes through such an incredible time in her life, the attention was understandably taken away from the upcoming task of the Black Ferns for a short while. However, ever the professional, the former England captain re-focussed her scope upon the incoming challenge of New Zealand, and explained what in her eyes a successful outcome would be against the back-to-back Women’s Rugby World Cup winners.
With just WXV 2024, and the 2025 Women’s Six Nations separating England between their home-hosted World Cup, this Test will be pivotal in showing England where they are at against the six-time world champion Black Ferns.
“An improved performance (is success against the Black Ferns). Our first two games of the series pre-season are France and New Zealand. In every game, you do want to see an improvement and we’ve got things to tidy up. Yes, we have ambition to play, and you know what, that’s what we want to be.
“We want to attack teams, and we want to go for it, but we maybe (need to) be a bit more controlled in making less errors, and how we can round pressure up on on the opposition, defensively as well. I think that would be success.
“So yes, we won against France, but it certainly wasn’t a polished performance, and we’ve got areas to work on. So from that sense of things like, yes, you always want to win, but we also want to see the performance in the key areas, that we’ve identified could do with a bit more finesse too.”