\u201cIf you asked me at the start of pre-season: \u2018Am I going to this World Cup?\u2019 No. I\u00a0didn\u2019t think I was going,\u201d says the former England captain Marlie Packer.<\/p>\n
Self-doubt around her selection may surprise a lot of\u00a0people. A World Cup winner in 2014, the 35-year-old will compete in her fourth successive global showpiece for the Red Roses after being duly confirmed in the 32-player squad for the host nation. But Packer has been through a lot in the past 12 months. She was named world player of the year in 2023 and during the two seasons that she led England, the side won all 20 games.<\/p>\n
Then, in January, the openside flanker had the captaincy taken away, with the second-row Zoe Aldcroft given the armband<\/a>. Packer was made a vice-captain for the 2025 Six Nations but was only included in two matchday squads.<\/p>\n Defiance and determination have been hallmarks of her 111-cap international career. She has built a resilience and is keen to push the message that whatever is right for the team to put them in the best position to win the World Cup\u00a0when it gets under way on 22 August is the decision she\u00a0will always agree with. But she also describes decisions out of her control in 2025 as\u00a0\u201ctough\u201d.<\/p>\n Marlie Packer celebrates with the Six Nations trophy in 2022. Photograph: Ryan Byrne\/Inpho\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n When asked which hurt more, having the captaincy taken from her or being left out of matchday squads Packer lets out a little laugh, looks away out of the window\u00a0and is a little emotional before saying: \u201cThat\u2019s a question isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n She adds: \u201cWhen me and Mitch [coach John Mitchell] sat down and talked about the captaincy, I am an openside flanker and what he sees and wants from his flanker is to cover six and eight; I don\u2019t cover six and eight in the role he wants it to be.<\/p>\n \u201cThe game has changed and evolved, that is the way\u00a0he wants to play. I knew if I wasn\u2019t starting that I am\u00a0more likely not to be in that matchday 23. He has told\u00a0me that in black and white. I know where I stand and where I sit.<\/p>\n \u201cAnything can happen, injuries happen so I always have to make sure I am ready. But with that, all I can keep doing is when we do extras at the end of training sessions I am showing I am upskilling myself in those areas so if I ever was called upon I know I can do what is asked of me. That\u2019s all I can do.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to lie to you and sit here and say that being left out of the matchday 23 wasn\u2019t hard but what happened is that even though I wasn\u2019t in the matchday 23, I\u00a0still travelled with the squad, I was still a massive part of it. I\u00a0felt so much value in that.\u201d<\/p>\n Nonetheless, being left out for the France game at\u00a0Twickenham \u2013 when England squeaked to a 43-42 victory<\/a> to\u00a0seal their grand slam in April \u2013 stung.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always tough not to be selected for the France game,\u201d Packer says. \u201cPlaying at Allianz Stadium is everything. Two years ago when I captained my country to a world-record crowd and my son was mascot, that is one moment I bottle up and it means everything.<\/p>\n Zoe Aldcroft (right) has replaced Marlie Packer (left) as England captain. Photograph: Andrew Matthews\/PA<\/p>\n \u201cBut at the start of the game week [in 2025] Mitch says: \u2018I want you in the coaching box with us.\u2019 The value of learning what it\u2019s like to be up there, what he is thinking, what he is seeing, the plans. You\u2019re in the know, you\u2019re trusted. That\u00a0does mean a lot.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019ll say it; it\u2019s one man\u2019s decision and it\u2019s tough. But he genuinely cares and I know he does and I genuinely care about him and this squad as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Mitchell was full of praise for Packer at the World Cup squad announcement and it is clear she remains a key aspect of the Red Roses machine. She is also one of the most experienced in the squad with only Emily Scarratt \u2013 who is poised to feature in her fifth tournament \u2013 having played in more. But still doubt remained in her mind over her own selection.<\/p>\n \u201cOh yeah,\u201d Packer responds when asked if there were any worries around her selection. \u201c100%, of course. Any athlete would tell you that in any sport. If you get comfortable being where you are then it\u2019s going to get taken from underneath you.<\/p>\n \u201cYou get swamped down with things but you have to keep pushing yourself to be the best of the best. We ain\u2019t got time for people to be complacent in their role and\u00a0in\u00a0their job. We need to keep elevating each other and being the best of the best\u00a0because that is the difference between winning and losing a World Cup.<\/p>\n \u201cI put myself in the best\u00a0possible step to go to\u00a0this\u00a0World Cup. I came into\u00a0pre-season, I felt fit, strong, and good.<\/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 info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information 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 \u201cI am actually really happy \u2026 with\u00a0Mitch\u2019s communication with me about where I am going, what\u00a0his thinking was and what his decisions were looking like over the warm-up games and pool games. For me I know where I\u2019m at, head down, keep going, keep working hard and keep elevating everyone around\u00a0me.\u201d<\/p>\n The warm-ups have not gone completely to plan, though, with Packer being sent off against Spain on 2\u00a0August, risking a suspension that would see her ruled out of the tournament. A disciplinary panel, however, handed her only a one-game ban, putting her out of the warm-up against France, but\u00a0leaving her free to play at the World Cup.<\/p>\n This may be Packer\u2019s fourth World Cup but\u00a0it is her first at home, something she describes as the \u201cicing on the cake\u201d with the cherry\u00a0coming if the team wins the trophy. The tournament has already broken records, selling the most tickets of any Women\u2019s Rugby World Cup with 350,000 sold so far. The final at Twickenham is expected to be sold out which would set a new milestone for the highest-attended women\u2019s rugby game.<\/p>\n England\u2019s Marlie Packer was sent off against Spain in August but avoided a ban that would threaten her World Cup. Photograph: Craig Brough\/Action Images\/Reuters<\/p>\n The Red Roses have the opportunity to do something special by winning the trophy\u00a0at home but they have\u00a0fallen at the last hurdle in the previous two tournaments, losing both finals to New Zealand.<\/p>\n The talk around that will\u00a0inevitably grow the further England go in the competition but it is apparently not a focus in the Red Roses camp.<\/p>\n Packer says: \u201cThat was three years ago and the one\u00a0before that was eight years ago, there is no point living in the past. This is a whole new group of players. This is a whole new coaching staff apart from Deacs [forwards coach Louis Deacon]. You have to be in the here and now.<\/p>\n \u201cThe media can say and do\u00a0whatever they want. Some\u00a0players are going to read into it, some won\u2019t but it\u2019s what we know within. That\u2019s all that matters.<\/p>\n \u201cWe know we are going to be under scrutiny, we are the Red Roses. We have been a professional team for a lot\u00a0longer than a lot of these other nations.<\/p>\n We are the team that is\u00a0ranked No 1 in the world with the highest-ever ranking\u00a0that has ever been in rugby \u2013 not just women\u2019s rugby. We are an outfit that can be scrutinised but what we know is we have got to keep living in the moment and\u00a0enjoying it.\u201d<\/p>\n For Packer, past World Cups\u00a0are chapters already written. Now, with doubts behind her and selection secured, her eyes are on the story England aim to write in\u00a0this one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIf you asked me at the start of pre-season: \u2018Am I going to this World Cup?\u2019 No. I\u00a0didn\u2019t…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-72933","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\/72933","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=72933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}