Packer’s proud to join the 100 club
CAPTAIN Marlie Packer earns her 100th cap as England begin their quest for a sixth successive title against an improving Italy in Parma.
The Saracens back row, who made her debut in 2008, becomes the seventh woman to achieve the centurion milestone for England, following Red Roses legends Sarah Hunter, Rocky Clark, Katy Daley-McLean, Tamara Taylor, Amy Garnett and Emily Scarratt, who makes her return to the side after 18 months sidelined after neck surgery.
“Reaching 100 caps for your country is an awesome achievement,” said England head coach John Mitchell, ahead of his first Six Nations game in charge.
“Talking to Marlie about her journey, she has had to overcome adversity since her Test debut in 2008. What has been evident since I first met her is her determination to succeed has been ingrained in her over the past 16 years, helping her achieve she has in the game.
“She epitomises what it is to be a Red Rose.”
Scarratt, Zoe Harrison and Abbie Ward return to a Red Roses starting XV for the first time since the Rugby World Cup final in November 2022, while Kelsey Clifford is in for her maiden Test start.
Back row Sadia Kabeya and scrum-half Lucy Packer appear in the squad after missing England’s WXV1 triumph due to injury. Among the
replacements, Maddie Feaunati could make her England debut.
“We are excited to get going in what is an awesome tournament,” Mitchell added. “We are focused on improving our performance. We want to get quicker at our game, we want to create more pressure on the opposition, and we want to present attacking opportunities. Italy is our first opportunity to put into
practice what we are aiming to achieve.”
Last year’s match against Italy saw Abby Dow score four tries in a 68-5 victory at Franklin’s Gardens. Dow’s four came in addition to a Jess Breach hat-trick, two from Claudia MacDonald and Marlie Packer and one for Tatyana Heard, that saw off a persistent Italy side, whose only points came via Sara Tounesi.
Italy won all three of their games in WXV2 against USA, South Africa and Japan and assistant Louis Deacon said:
“Italy had a good WXV so they’re going to be confident. The last time I went there, it was off the back of Covid so there wasn’t as much support there. I imagine this time there will be a lot bigger support so the environment we’re going to play in is going to be very different. You’ve got a big crowd, a confident Italy team that is going to want to have a crack so we’ve
just got to be really prepared and make sure we know what’s coming and be ready for that.”
Lark Atkin-Davies has enjoyed the build-up to today’s match under Mitchell. Mitchell was appointed head coach last year, having previously served as defence coach for the men’s team under Eddie Jones, and this will be the first tournament he has personally overseen with Deacon in charge of the WXV1 series.
She said: “Camp has been going really well so far, he’s certainly chalbit lenging us, giving us lots of detail and I think we’re excited to show what we can really do this weekend in terms of what we’ve learnt over the last few weeks and go and action it on the pitch.
“The big thing for us will be showing a more variety. We’ve shown how much of a weapon our maul is but also showing some more variety in terms of what we can do with the forwards and backs.
“We’re expecting Italy to bring some flair, they run the ball a lot so we’re expecting to have a game where they can bring loads of different challenges. They’re coming off the back of three wins in WXV so they will be coming into this game with confidence.”
England have won all 17 of their Six Nations matches against Italy. Italy have won five of their last 11 home games in the Six Nations, beating France once and Scotland and Ireland twice, while England are on a 24-match winning streak in the championship.
The Rugby Paper would like to apologise for misquoting Six Nations Rugby CEO, Tom Harrison, and Director of Rugby Julie Paterson, in the previous edition of the paper and following the recent Women’s Six Nations launch event.
The error in misquoting Harrison and Paterson, created misleading talking points and coverage for a Championship, its teams and players that deserve better promotion, and The Rugby Paper would like to apologise.