Stand-in England captain Marlie Packer says the Red Roses will “keep their feet on the ground” and not let complacency creep in when they face Samoa in the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
England will be expected to dismiss their opponents handsomely at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday (5pm kick-off) despite making 13 changes to the starting XV from the 69-7 win over United States at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland last week.
Samoa, who are fully amateur, were thumped 73-0 by Australia in their tournament opener and if the Red Roses are on their game, they could challenge their biggest winning margin at a World Cup, which is 82-0 over Kazakhstan back in 2010.
However, openside flanker Packer – deputing as skipper for the injured Zoe Aldcroft (knee) – said: “It’s making sure we stick to our processes, keep our feet on the ground.
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Marlie Packer will captain the Red Roses at Franklin’s Gardens in the absence of the injured Zoe Aldcroft
“This group, this combination has been training together for a long time.
“We’ve played a couple of matches together and a few players just want to kick off their tournament this weekend – go out there and express themselves and enjoy it.
“We always have team goals or targets that we want to hit and I know that this 23 want to do that just like last week did.”
‘Samoa will play with heart – and England can’t be loose’
Head coach John Mitchell, whose side are on a 28-match winning streak and have registered 58 victories in their last 59 games, added: “Samoa are going to fight against us… and they held a lot of position against Australia.
“I don’t think the scoreboards are important to those teams. I think their performance comes from the way they play with their heart.
“They’re trying to make their people back at home proud and obviously some of these countries are not all rugby countries, so they must start somewhere.
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England head coach John Mitchell: ‘I have been in this game too long to focus too much on the opposition. You learn very, very quickly you’ve got to get more out of your own group’
“We’re not going to get bored around being consistent and as much as we got the right result last week, we have standards to uphold, so the girls get challenged occasionally on standards because we’ve got to keep growing.
“I think the biggest challenge this weekend will be we’re going to get space, we’re going to find it, we’re going to attack it, but we’re going to have to be patient with our execution because we might get a bit more space than normal.
“Sometimes you can fall into the trap of fool’s gold, and try and get too loose too early.
“We focus on ourselves. All we can control is our ability to execute in those opportunities. Even if the opposition were higher ranked, we would still go through the same process.
“I have been in this game too long to focus too much on the opposition. You learn very, very quickly that you’ve got to get more out of your own group.”
Maybe you guys expect us to win emphatically, I don’t know if we have that same expectation of ourselves. We just want to focus on what we’re capable of doing, want to challenge ourselves to see how good we can be under the pressure that Samoa give us. We expect them to be hugely physical and that presents its own challenge.
England wing Claudia Moloney-MacDonald
Samoa had ‘brutal review’ after thrashing by Australia
Fuimaono Bella Mino, Samoa’s defence coach, said after the team conceded 11 tries against Australia: “We had a pretty brutal review and think the girls really took that in.
“They were upset about the way they performed, so we had a lot of honest conversations about the way we prepared and the way we turned up.
“We thought we had a lot better second half, so we’re trying to take the positives out of that and move it into this week’s game.
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“When you’ve got 32 players that have never played in a World Cup, going out in front of a crowd of 10,000, that’s something we haven’t experienced.
“Playing England at home is going to be huge, and I hear there’s going to be a big crowd. It’s about having those conversations around how we can deal with it better.”
Red Roses squad to face Samoa
Starting XV: 15 Emma Sing; 14 Jess Breach, 13 Megan Jones, 12 Jade Shekells, 11 Claudia Moloney-MacDonald; 10 Helana Rowland, 9 Lucy Packer; 1 Kelsey Clifford, 2 Lark Atkin-Davies, 3 Sarah Bern, 4 Lilli Ives Campion, 5 Rosie Galligan, 6 Abi Burton, 7 Marlie Packer (captain), 8 Maddie Feaunati.
Replacements: 16 May Campbell, 17 Mackenzie Carson, 18 Maud Muir, 19 Morwenna Talling, 20 Sadia Kabeya, 21 Natasha Hunt, 22 Zoe Harrison, 23 Ellie Kildunne.
Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 results and fixturesPool stage
Pool A
Pool B
Pool C
Pool D