{"id":485923,"date":"2026-03-20T14:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485923\/"},"modified":"2026-03-20T14:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T14:00:08","slug":"red-roses-seven-uncapped-players-in-englands-womens-six-nations-squad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/485923\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Roses: Seven uncapped players in England’s Women’s Six Nations squad"},"content":{"rendered":"

With hooker Lark Atkin-Davies being the third member of the Rugby World Cup squad expecting a child, Mitchell said he had been getting used to happier reasons for long-term player absence than he is used to from men’s rugby set-ups.<\/p>\n

“It’s a real fulfilling conversation,” Mitchell told BBC Sport. “It’s a beautiful, beautiful situation and all of those girls will make great mums.”<\/p>\n

Mitchell said he had no pre-conceived ideas about when Stratford, Ward and Atkin-Davies might return to action.<\/p>\n

“They are driven to return, but motherhood has its ways as well. They must enjoy that, not put themselves under pressure to return.<\/p>\n

“For us, it presents an opportunity for somebody else. Should all factors work, then we all come back together at some point in two years’ time and we will be better for motherhood and players getting Test minutes that they wouldn’t possibly normally get.”<\/p>\n

Mitchell signed a contract extension with the Red Roses in January,<\/a> committing him to the team through to the end of their Rugby World Cup title defence in Australia in 2029.<\/p>\n

Presuming he sees out the terms of his deal, it will take his time in charge of the team to six years.<\/p>\n

“It was an easy decision,” said Mitchell.<\/p>\n

“I really enjoy the responsibility and the movement that these girls are the flagship for women’s rugby, and potentially women’s sports.<\/p>\n

“All those factors to me align nicely and why give up the three years of knowledge that I started?<\/p>\n

“The Six Nations is hugely important to us, and we know success in this competition has to be earned every time.<\/p>\n

“We’re excited by the energy the younger players will bring into the squad, and alongside our experienced players.<\/p>\n

“It’s just down to who is going to take the handbrake off, attack it, and expresses themselves in our game.”<\/p>\n

While centre Jade Shekells and scrum-half Ella Wyrwas are left out of Mitchell’s initial selection with hamstring and knee injuries respectively, both might yet make a return before the end of the tournament.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With hooker Lark Atkin-Davies being the third member of the Rugby World Cup squad expecting a child, Mitchell…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485924,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-485923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485923","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=485923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485923\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}