top try scorer in Marlie Packer<\/a>, who will start on the bench with Sadia Kabeya back from injury. The fly-half Zoe Harrison\u2019s supreme kicking has also been a huge asset to the team, with 23 of 24 kicks successful. They know their attack is the highlight of their game at the moment and, when asked if working on defence will be critical against France, the England head coach, John Mitchell, said: \u201cIt will be, but we\u2019ll just score more.\u201d<\/p>\nAgainst Italy, England conceded the most points they ever have in the Six Nations against a team that was not France. The former England captain Packer believes the side need to be more reactionary: \u201cI think we need to be a bit better at see, do. We are thinking. As soon as you think, the other team has a foot on top of you.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are a Red Roses team that has a lot of moving parts at the moment, we have a lot of stuff in the forwards. Successful as we are, we have a few things we have to work on. The defensive maul was an issue in the Wales game and for it to happen again against Italy is not something we pride ourselves on at all. It will be something we massively talk about this week. You have also got to think some of the players on pitch it is their first cap so it is a learning for them. We can\u2019t let that happen against France and we will make sure we put the work in so it doesn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marlie Packer is the leading try scorer in this year\u2019s Six Nations. Photograph: Tim Rogers\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
England will need to plug their defensive holes because France have stars who will snipe at any opportunity given to them. Ana\u00efs Grando has scored four tries in four games and has proved to be a great resource in defence too, a particular highlight coming against Ireland where her covering tackle held up Fiona Tuite over the line. The scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus has also been an integral cog in the French setup for years and her form has not let up this year either.<\/p>\n
Ruby Tui, the New Zealand great, said France\u2019s performances are a \u201croll of the dice\u201d and the team can be unpredictable. Their second-half performances this tournament have been better than those in the first but they will need to be consistent across the entire match to ensure they come away with the trophy. The France head coach, Ratier, said his team need a good start and that England are not infallible.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey conceded four tries against Italy and Wales,\u201d he said. \u201cThere are weaknesses in their approach to breaking up rugby. Often, in the first 20 minutes, they score enough points to then control the game. They\u2019re a team you can\u2019t let get going. We [have] decided to attack them precisely on that strength, to try and make them doubt themselves from the start to disrupt their rhythm. Once they\u2019ve broken down, hit them where it hurts. That\u2019s the plan. They have one too, and we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n
Scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus remains an integral cog for France. Photograph: Ben Brain\/Huw Evans\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n
France have been chasing England\u2019s tails since they last beat them in 2018 and the Red Roses know they have a target on their backs. While their captain, Meg Jones, said the dominant winning run isn\u2019t something that is discussed between the squad, Mitchell has urged teams to \u201ccome and get us\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe love being the standard bearers of consistency,\u201d he said. \u201cSomebody is going to get us, we understand that reality and we shouldn\u2019t be disgraced if somebody does get us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to give that up easily, anyone can pick on our weaknesses but we will look to fix them. That doesn\u2019t mean we are in decline, we are actually developing and evolving. Maybe we are evolving a lot quicker than a lot of people realise. We get another chance to test that on the weekend, that is what we embrace and thrive in.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It all comes down to this, again. France have been runners-up to England in the Women\u2019s Six Nations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":587622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-587621","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\/587621","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=587621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/587621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/587622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=587621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=587621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=587621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}