Meg Jones is confident England will give supporters value for money when she leads the all-conquering world champions for the first time in their Women’s Six Nations opener against Ireland at Twickenham today.
A record attendance for the women’s championship of more than 75,000 is expected at England’s London fortress for their first match since they beat Canada in the Women’s Rugby World Cup final at a sold-out Twickenham in September last year.
England’s starting XV for this weekend’s fixture features seven of the players who helped defeat Canada 33-13, including Jones, who is to captain England for the first time since replacing Zoe Stratford in the role because the former skipper is pregnant with her first child.
Photo: AFP
“Our role is to be the entertainers and make sure that we provide a product that people want to come back and watch,” said outside center Jones after England coach John Mitchell named his side on Thursday. “It’s going to be an amazing experience and I’m very much looking forward to the occasion. With 75,000 tickets sold, how class is that knowing we can keep those numbers going off the back of the World Cup? As a nation, that’s something we’ve led on.”
“I think back to that World Cup final and how amazing the echo of Swing Low [the England rugby union anthem] is going around the stadium and them cheering us on,” she said. “I have full faith in the fact that they’re going to be our 16th player against Ireland.”
If any team has earned the backing of a partisan home crowd, it is England. They are on a record run of 33 consecutive wins since losing the 2022 World Cup final to New Zealand and are bidding for an eighth consecutive Six Nations title.
Ellie Kildunne, the breakout star of England’s World Cup triumph, resumes at fullback behind a halfback partnership of Lucy Packer and Holly Aitchison.
In the pack, England are without several experienced forwards due to pregnancy, with Stratford, Lark Atkin-Davies, Abbie Ward and Rosie Galligan all expecting.
Lilli Ives Campion is given a run in the second row while teenage No. 8 Haineala Lutui is to make her debut off the bench.
Pregnancy is not something Mitchell has had to pay much attention to while considering his selection policies when in charge of his native New Zealand’s men’s All Blacks, but the 62-year-old veteran coach on Thursday said: “Over the next two years there are a lot of girls becoming mums, which is fantastic.”
“Now we’ve got the opportunity to grow some younger players while the other girls are becoming mums and they need to enjoy motherhood rather than putting themselves under pressure on coming back, but in two years’ time, we’ll have great depth, so the Red Roses will blossom if that’s the right word,” he said.
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