{"id":419977,"date":"2026-05-09T21:02:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:02:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419977\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T21:02:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T21:02:08","slug":"womens-six-nations-2026-four-try-marlie-packer-doesnt-go-away-john-mitchell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/419977\/","title":{"rendered":"Women’s Six Nations 2026: Four-try Marlie Packer ‘doesn’t go away’ – John Mitchell"},"content":{"rendered":"

Having missed out on selection for last year’s Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam decider against France, Marlie Packer’s remarkable international career may have seemed to some to be winding down.<\/p>\n

The 36-year-old, who lost the England captaincy to Zoe Stratford at the start of last year, had slipped down the pecking order and was fighting to make a home World Cup squad.<\/p>\n

Packer went on to play at the tournament but remained on the fringes and did not feature in any of the knockout games as England claimed glory.<\/p>\n

Less than a week on from becoming a two-time World Cup winner, she announced she was “not hanging up her boots any time soon”.<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite being leapfrogged by Sadia Kabeya, player of the match in the World Cup final, the Saracens forward said she was contracted until June 2026 and felt fitter than ever.<\/p>\n

It was a good decision to continue. The Red Roses have lined up another Grand Slam decider against France next week thanks to Saturday’s 61-33 victory over Italy<\/a>, a win spearheaded by Packer’s four tries.<\/p>\n

The performance earned her the player-of-the-match award, as did her two-try display against Wales, with the veteran forward taking advantage of injuries and pregnancies disrupting John Mitchell’s starting pack.<\/p>\n

“My secret weapon is that I am enjoying it and I have a smile back on my face,” Packer told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“I am getting the minutes. For the last couple of years, Sadia Kabeya has had the nod over me but fair play, I have my opportunity at the moment and I am enjoying it. I have a smile and there is no pressure.”<\/p>\n

In Parma, Packer showed impressive acceleration to latch on to a kick through for her opening try, before bulldozing her way to the tryline three more times – smashing through a number of Italy defenders for her fourth score.<\/p>\n

Despite being the oldest player in the squad, Packer is now firmly in line to feature in the decider against France next Sunday at the 42,115-capacity Stade Atlantique in Bordeaux.<\/p>\n

“Marlie doesn’t go away, does she?” Mitchell said to BBC Sport when asked about the 115-cap flanker, who led her country to back-to-back Grand Slams in 2024.<\/p>\n

“After the World Cup she was like, ‘Where do I sit?’ and I said, ‘Marlie, you are one of the best sevens in the country and if you are happy with that, I am happy with that’.<\/p>\n

“She is so determined and she has achieved so much. All the standards that we have now have very much been shaped by the way she leads.”<\/p>\n

England captain Megan Jones was also full of praise for her former skipper, who registered 12 tackles against Italy and made 92 metres from 14 carries.<\/p>\n

“She has a never-say-die attitude and is next level. She goes 100% even when we are walking,” Jones added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Having missed out on selection for last year’s Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam decider against France, Marlie Packer’s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-419977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}