Even though we were pleased with the 69-7 win, there are still things that we want to work on.
The restarts, for example, didn’t go to plan but we will look at it and we will come up with solutions.
It’s a key part of our game and something that we need to get better at, so we’ll be doing plenty of practice on it within our training week.
Red Roses down-time is crucial
During a Rugby World Cup campaign, it’s important to keep things balanced with some down-time.
Sarah Bern’s sister has a pub in Durham so a few of us went there on Saturday and watched the Scotland v Wales game there.
My uncle is from Newcastle and there was a big group of my relatives supporting us in Sunderland, so I also visited some of my family.
As a team, wherever we are, one of the universal things in camp is coffee.
Pretty much everyone appreciates good coffee and good food, so one of the places we visited most while we were in Durham was ‘Flat White’, which is a nice little cafe.
I am pretty into my coffee art and I’m kind of the go-to for anything coffee-related.
If anything goes wrong with the coffee machine in camp or anyone wants nice coffee, I quite often hear ‘Laaark’ and then I’ll be called into action.
Clothes hauls have also been a big thing recently. People have been ordering clothes and we’ve had a few try-ons, which certainly provided some entertainment.
Obviously whoever ordered it tries it on, but then we try to persuade other people to give it a go.
Everyone’s fashion sense is slightly different; my fashion sense to compared to someone like Meg Jones is quite different, which makes it quite fun.
We also did a beach day in Tynemouth, which was really wholesome. There’s a nice fish bar there and it was a bit cold, so we got them to light a fire for us and we all sat around with blankets.
A few of us were brave enough to go in the sea (including myself) and have a dip. Maud (Muir) being Maud fell over on the way out and literally got fully taken by one of the waves, which was hilarious.
Red Roses vs Samoa in Northampton
Going into the game against Samoa this Saturday, there is going to be a lot of focus on ourselves and the processes we have in place.
The last time we played them was 2014 when the team went on to win the tournament, so only a few of us played that game meaning it’s a bit of unknown because we haven’t played them for so long.
We have seen clips of Samoa and what they’ve done in the last few games that they’ve played, but I think that it’s just making sure that we are getting what we do right.
We’re aware of the flair that they have in terms of offloading and their physicality, so we need to be conscious of that, but we also want to keep progressing our game.