England defence coach Sarah Hunter admitted the Red Roses have “areas to work on” as they prepare to take on the world champion Black Ferns at Twickenham on Saturday.
The Red Roses ran in six tries at Kingsholm last weekend to secure a 38-19 victory against France, captain Marlie Packer and winger Jess Breach each crossing the whitewash twice.
It was a 14th successive win in the fixture but while the result extended England’s unbeaten run to 16 matches – the Red Roses’ last defeat being the Women’s Rugby World Cup 2021 final in November 2022 – Hunter conceded they made it hard for themselves at times.
Hunter, England’s most-capped player of all time, was happy the team was able to problem solve scrum and maul issues in the second half in Gloucester, but suggested they were still trying to find the perfect balance between expansive attack and watertight defence.
“I think every game you do want to see an improvement and we’ve got things to tidy up,” Hunter said on Monday when asked what success would look like at Allianz Stadium.
“Yes, we had ambition to play and that’s what we want to be. We want to attack teams and we want to go for it. But [we need to work out] how we maybe be a bit more controlled in that, make less errors, how we can ramp pressure up on the opposition defensively as well.
“So, I think that would be success. How we actually keep building our performances and keep taking things that we’ve been working on in training and pre-season into each game.
“Yes, we won against France, but it certainly wasn’t a polished performance and we’ve got areas to work on. So, from that sense of things like yes, you always want to win, but we also want to see the performance in the key areas that we’ve identified that could do with a bit more finesse.”
Defeat to the Black Ferns in the World Cup final two years ago is the only loss the Red Roses have suffered in their last 57 matches, dating back to a 28-13 reverse against the same opposition in July 2019.
Hunter is confident the players do not need the jolt of a rare defeat to aid their education on the road to what they hope will be a successful home tournament next year.
“I think when you’ve got a winning mentality and you’ve got a training environment that we now have, actually we create different situations, different scenarios,” Hunter explained.
“We plan the training intensity that they train at to allow people to learn in those moments that we might not necessarily get from games. But there are moments in games where we can really spotlight and shine a light on them to say, well, how do we improve on this?
“Yes, we’ve won a game, but actually, is this going to be enough to win a World Cup?”
There were of course plenty of reasons for the England coaching staff to be cheerful on the bus trip back to London from Gloucester.
And Hunter, who revealed Abbie Ward is fit and in contention to feature against the Black Ferns this weekend, praised Morwenna Talling, the 22-year-old second row who started her third successive test in the England engine room against France.
“She had a few rough years with injury and I think, for me, the sign of a true competitor and I guess a true international player, is how hard they work through that time to come back and come back in probably a better place,” she said about her former England and Loughborough team-mate.
“Morwenna Talling’s certainly done that. She works incredibly hard on all facets of her game, in the gym. Obviously, she had a bit of a setback again before the Six Nations and to work and come back and how she finished that and the off-season she’s had has been pretty impressive.
“And I think she’s still, what, 22 years old, which again, the ability of where she’s at and the potential of where she can go; we saw how well she played against France, and you just think in years [to come] how much more has she got to get better?
“So, a pretty scary and exciting prospect at the same time.”
Saturday’s match against the six-time world champions will be England’s last before they jet off to Canada to defend the WXV 1 title they won in New Zealand last November.
Hunter will not be on the plane to Vancouver as she prepares for the 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 of her first 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 at the end of October, however, she will remain in contact with the squad and work remotely for the duration of the tournament.
The former England captain admitted she initially treated the prospect of her maternity leave like “being injured” but is confident she will be back on John Mitchell’s coaching staff ahead of next year’s World Cup.
“Mitch and Charlie [Hayter, RFU head of Women’s Performance] and the whole of the RFU have been so supportive of what [her maternity leave] looks like and they’re probably the ones going, ‘Just take your time’,” Hunter said.
“Mitch was like, ‘Just make sure you settle into being a mum and that life, and then we’ll have you back when you’re ready. And that’s good, we would rather have you back fully focused’.
“But yeah, the full intention is to be back ready to prep the girls for World Cup. You don’t want to be missing a home World Cup, that’s for sure.”
