Marlie Packer s’attend à « un bras de fer » avec la France
Contre la France à Bordeaux, la capitaine de l’Angleterre Marlie Packer fêtera sa 104 sélection. Avec Emily Scarratt en remplaçante (110 sélections), elle sera de loin la joueuse la plus expérimentée des deux équipes sur le terrain de Chaban-Delmas.
19 fois elle a affronté la France depuis ses débuts en 208 contre la Suède et seulement quatre fois elle a connu la défaite contre les Bleues. Marlie Packer connaît bien cette équipe et sait parfaitement quoi s’attendre pour ce 53e Crunch.
« Si on les prive de ballons… »
« Le score va se dessiner tout seul si on met en place notre jeu, que ce soit en attaque et en défense », explique-t-elle dans le Rugby Paper Podcast. « La France va nous poser beaucoup de questions, elles ont regardé nos matchs, on a regardé leurs matchs. Selon moi, c’est toujours un match très serré contre la France, mais c’est le genre de match qu’on veut jouer. Ça va être un vrai bras de fer et on va vouloir le gagner.
« Leur philosophie est d’oser jouer. On sait qu’elles aiment les relances rapides, les touches rapides. Bourdon particulièrement aime relancer la balle rapidement, elle aime les pick and go, elle aime regarder autour d’elle et distribuer au large. On sait tout ça et on s’attend à tout. Mais si on les prive de ballons, elles ne pourront pas faire tout ça.
« Elles ont un pack très puissant, Ménager a fait un match excellent la semaine dernière. Je pense qu’en ce qui nous concerne, on doit les faire craquer sur les phases de conquête. Leur touche n’était pas très bonne contre le Pays de Galles et on va s’en servir pour ce match. On veut rester à 15 sur le terrain et aller les chercher. »
Pas de réelle opposition
Forte d’une série de 12 victoires depuis leur dernière défaite en 2018, les Anglaises partent favorites pour cette rencontre. Si elles donnent l’impression qu’elles ont survolé le Tournoi depuis le début en enregistrant des scores fleuves (dont le dernier 88-10 contre l’Irlande), d’aucuns prétendent que c’est parce qu’elles n’ont pas non plus rencontré de fortes oppositions.
Cette année, les filles de John Mitchell ont marqué 38 essais au cours de leurs quatre victoires contre l’Italie, le Pays de Galles, l’Écosse et l’Irlande. Elles ont marqué 228 points et n’en ont concédé que 20. Personne n’a réussi à battre les Red Roses.
Un parcours trop facile ? « On a été mises à l’épreuve dans plusieurs domaines et on s’en est sorties », répond Marlie Packer, en désaccord avec ce constat.
La précieuse expérience du Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR)
« On a joué à 14 sur le premier match, on a été en difficulté et en seconde période on a perdu une autre joueuse. Et même avec 13 joueuses cette équipe est restée au top. On peut parler de la discipline, dire que c’est pas juste, changer notre état d’esprit de ‘c’est pas juste’ à ‘faut qu’on fasse avec’. On a beaucoup évolué sur ce point.
« Il faut aussi voir d’où on vient, du PWR, de nos clubs. Certaines équipes sont vraiment dominantes, d’autres équipes le sont moins, mais nous savons comment gagner et nous savons comment perdre aussi. Et ça, c’est une situation où la pression est très forte dans le PWR où on se connait toutes.
« On gagne ou on perd dans le rugby, rarement on fait match nul. On apprend beaucoup du PWR et de ce type de matchs. Et quand on arrive ici, on a toutes le même but. Il n’y a que les meilleures du pays et celles qui sont juste derrière sont aussi les meilleures du pays. On doit donc se servir de toute cette expérience pour le match de samedi.
« Je suis convaincue que quel que soit ce que la France va proposer, on sera prêtes pour ça. »
Comments on RugbyPass
Honestly, I am a bit lost here …. Ireland - RSA was (at least in my opinion) perhaps (from a purely technical / rugby-skills-show point of view) the pinnacle of the RWC2023 - almost flawless playing (putting aside the kicking of RSA which was the difference between the two teams), rugby at it’s very best …. if I were a Bok and after the game some Irish lads came around saying “see you in 5 weeks same place”, I definitely wouldn’t have thought of it as being in any way “arrogant”, rather a sort of jolly “if we both continue to play like this, no one could stop us” - besides, few of us fans would have, at that time, been surprised to see the same teams playing on 23 september and 28 october 2023 ….. well, we all know Ireland chose to hit a slump to keep the QF curse alive …..
133 Go to commentsThere’s value gleaned from having an All Black star running and training with your team. How many games he starts (or even where he plays in the backline) will be decided on a week by week basis based on the needs for that week. But the overall learning and growth for all concerned, I’d think, is massively beneficial. Especially for Irish players.
7 Go to commentsSon, whith just " raw athlete “ , you are able to beat “ better rugby players “ by 74 points…. May be England should recruit in athletics….
1 Go to commentsPffft. It’s not a one-way street bud and Irish teams don’t seem to have had an issue taking kiwi players previously.
7 Go to commentsParticularly great to have captain Scott Barrett back after going off last week for the Crusaders. Codie Taylor a real leader and mighty Tamaiti Williams join Fletcher Newell in the front row. Those 2 will make a big difference. Great bench with the likes of Tom Christie, Jamie Hannah etc who are playing well. Should be a great derby.
1 Go to commentsDoes a blitz defence not have a weekness against a well-placed grubber kick, perhaps angled cleverly. All the defence is up and the full-back can only cover so much ground. Thoughts?
28 Go to commentsWhile Iose is destructive in the Canes set-up, he is not big for an international 8 and could struggle against the top teams. With his speed, he could be developed into a seven but, as Ben points out, he doesn’t show a scavenging game with the Canes or make dominating tackles. Sotutu has shown a step up this year and attitude plus motivation seems to be the big areas of growth. Deserves another AB shot imo.
3 Go to commentsNaholo is my only question mark for this side. He wasn’t the only one who had a forgettable game against the Brumbies but he was passive, defensively poor and generally lacked energy. Needs to get a whole lot busier for me. I would have liked to see Sullivan on that wing with Higgins on the bench (if staying with a 6-2 as BeegMike points out on here!)
3 Go to commentsWell, I am sure that Eben said exactly what he meant to say, exactly how he meant to say it. Does he strike you as a man that doesn't know arrogance when he sees it. He should know it because he has shaken the arrogance out of many foes before.
133 Go to commentsPls get it into your thick arrogant heads that the final was played by two Southern Hemisphere teams. The best against the best and that Argentina was just unlucky otherwise non of the Northetn Hemisphere teams would have seen the light of day.
133 Go to commentsAs long as New Zealand youth are involved in sport they are passionate for, and are well supported, it’s all good. I love league as well as rugby. NRL clubs have long since scouted the First 15 competitions, the NH and Japan scout super rugby and NPC. It’s a miracle there’s any players left for the all blacks to pick from.
4 Go to commentsI'm a Bok fan, so I don't say this lightly, but he is one of my all time favourite players. I am really going to miss watching him play. Thanks for many great memories. You are a true legend of the game.
3 Go to commentsBest way to deal with all of this is to play another game.
133 Go to commentsIt’s 12-15 games Luke. Ringrose has barely played in 2024 and Henshaw and Keenan have also been out for spells in the same time period. There are always injuries and for younger players to play with the likes of Barrett will be great for them. It’s just looking for negatives where there are none.
7 Go to commentsAndy Goode pushing his own agenda with very dubious considerations on refereeing performances. Luke Pearce speaking a bit of French doesn’t make him a good and adequate referee for the Champions Cup final; his latest refereeing performance in particular was not so great.
4 Go to commentsJordie knows that he has to earn the right to put on the jersey, whatever that jersey might be.
7 Go to commentsThe best outside centre in the world at one point. He will be greatly missed.
3 Go to commentsYip his great for the big moments when needed as a safa really enjoy watching him
4 Go to commentsOne that will start to come up from now on is penalties for back pushes during kick chase scrambles. Very difficult to detect. In Croke Park if you replay the Hendy NH try, you will see Furbank push Porter in the back, who collides with Larmour knocking the ball across into Hendy’s path to dot down. A more significant example was in the RWC QTR final where Arendse pushes Fickou into two other French players for the ball to spill into Arendse’s path for him to gather and run in to score SAs first try. Not cheating if you are not caught and very difficult to spot but with kicking becoming so critical I feel its an area that will referreeed/TMO-ed more.
4 Go to commentsWhat a pathetic little twit Andy Goode is, as if we care what he thinks…..😂
133 Go to comments