Earning the right to win each game may be the Red Roses\u2019 mantra at this Rugby World Cup but making history on home soil is the goal Sarah Hunter and Lou Meadows are working to orchestrate. England\u2019s assistant coaches describe themselves as complementary, bringing diverse experience that creates a \u201cgood blend\u201d alongside the forwards coach, Louis Deacon, and the head coach, John Mitchell, with the Red Roses unbeaten under the New Zealander\u2019s tenure.<\/p>\n
In a hotel meeting room on the outskirts of Bristol as England enter the business end of the tournament, Hunter and Meadows explain how the coaching setup offers \u201cdifferent lenses\u201d for tactics and planning. The duo have brought a sharp, strategic edge to the hosts\u2019 defence and attack and for 40 minutes they range over a series of topics, including picking in which game this England side have come closest to perfection.<\/p>\n
They think for a moment and then choose the same one \u2013 the away win against New Zealand at WXV 1<\/a> in 2023. It was the first time England had played the Black Ferns since they lost the World Cup final<\/a> the previous year \u2013 which remains the last time the Red Roses were defeated. Meadows and Hunter say that 2023 rematch was the one when \u201ceverything clicked\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThe players parked all of the emotion and really focused in on the rugby,\u201d Hunter says. \u201cThat was the third game we had played together as a squad and the whole tournament was a marker of where we wanted to go.<\/p>\n \u201cThat performance put a stamp for us as a group of what we could do with this team and what we could be capable of,\u201d Meadows says. \u201cI think that was the really exciting bit for all of us as well as the team.\u201d<\/p>\n That game was one staging post of a three-year journey to avenge the 2022 loss in Auckland which they hope will culminate at a sold-out Twickenham if England claim the trophy. They have three games to win to make that happen, first against Scotland on Sunday. England are approaching that game with respect<\/a> and are not taking anything for granted but when asked what it would mean to win the World Cup<\/a>, it is clear it would be everything.<\/p>\n \u201cI would just be immensely proud to have been a really small part in this incredible group of players,\u201d Hunter, the England captain in 2022, says. \u201cLooking at how they have grown as players, how they have grown as a group: their togetherness is unbelievably strong; how they have formed connections, bonds, moments, memories; regardless of what will happen in the next few weeks they will look back on and hopefully can be proud of what they have done. Not just for this group and how they have created memories but how they have changed the game.\u201d<\/p>\n England will face Scotland in the quarter-final after winning all three of their pool stage matches. Photograph: Ben Whitley\/PA<\/p>\n Meadows adds: \u201cThey always say success naturally will create a bigger bang than not [having] success. I want to see that bang in full swing. I want to see it explode, I want to see the ripple and the continuous effect it has. I want it for the girls, I want it for us but I really want it for the sport in England.\u201d<\/p>\n Part of that ripple may see an increase in the amount of female coaches in the sport. At the World Cup, only 32% are female. Hunter hopes this tournament can inspire more girls and women to take up different opportunities. \u201cOver seven million watched the pool stages and if they are turning on and young girls see females in the coaching box that is a really positive thing.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The latest rugby union news and analysis, plus all the week’s action reviewed<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com<\/a> to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n \u201cWe all know that in sport there are so many different roles for people to be involved in, it doesn\u2019t have to be on the pitch. Coaches, medics, team managers, that is the really good thing about visibility. You can see all the different options that young girls can look up to and go: \u2018That\u2019s what I want to do\u2019. We have got to keep sending that message of we are here, present and we want to inspire people into these roles as well as playing.\u201d<\/p>\n Not only are Meadows and Hunter inspiring the next generation of coaches but they are also paving the way in the sport as working mothers. Meadows has two children, while Hunter gave birth to her daughter last October. The pair are constantly asked about motherhood in relation to their jobs and an interesting answer is raised when asked if that ever becomes frustrating as their male counterparts are not asked about fatherhood.<\/p>\n Meadows says: \u201cIt would be interesting if they find it annoying that they are not asked. I think it\u2019s easier being the mum to get asked as part of that about your role, having to do both. But equally Deacs has had to juggle being a parent and a coach and he has three daughters so it\u2019s not easy. Nathan Catt [scrum coach] has just had a third child so he is juggling that balance as well, so it\u2019d be really interesting if they find it frustrating that they don\u2019t get asked as it is equally part of their job as well as it is ours. That is what Sarah and I are trying to do with the fact we are mums in the group \u2026 trying to normalise parents within the camp, in the environment, in professional sport in the top end.\u201d<\/p>\n For now, the focus is not on finals, trophies or what might come next. Just the next game, the next detail, the next opportunity to earn the right again. That\u2019s the rhythm Hunter and Meadows have helped set, not just in how England play, but in how they think. Quietly, deliberately and with clarity, they are building something. If it ends in history, it will not be by accident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earning the right to win each game may be the Red Roses\u2019 mantra at this Rugby World Cup…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134204,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-134203","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-rugby","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134203","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134203"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134203\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134204"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134203"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134203"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134203"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}