John Mitchell: Why England’s autumn is ‘harder than a World Cup’

England coach John Mitchell believes his side will face a tougher run of fixtures over the next two months than at next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.

The Red Roses are scheduled to play France and New Zealand at Kingsholm and Allianz Stadium on consecutive weekends in September before travelling to Canada to defend their WXV 1 crown.

In Vancouver, Mitchell’s side will face Canada, USA and the Black Ferns again as they bid to retain the trophy they won in New Zealand last November.

Ellie Kildunne | Stronger Than You Think

Ellie Kildunne | Stronger Than You Think

That means the Red Roses – number one in the World Rugby Women’s Rankings – will play four matches against their three main rivals in the space of just five weeks.

“This is probably the most important pre-season leading into the long-term goal [of winning Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025],” Mitchell said.

“Obviously dealing with the short-term being probably harder than a World Cup with the warm-up tests before we go to WXV.”

He added: “It’s a great challenge. Logistically and rugby-wise it will be just as challenging, if not more challenging, than winning a World Cup.

“To win a World Cup you’ve got to win the last three games but we’ve got New Zealand twice, France once and Canada once. They’re the top three teams in the world.”

Although Mitchell’s current focus is on those matches against France and New Zealand and the Red Roses’ WXV 1 campaign, winning a third World Cup is the ultimate aim for the Kiwi coach and his players.

In order to achieve that goal he is aware his side needs to continue to evolve on the back of a near-perfect first season in the job.

“Our game’s definitely working but we want to get faster at it so we’re looking to add to our attack and our defence,” he said.

“We’ve got what we call DNA strengths that we could always go to, but I see a happier playing group when they’re all involved in the process of attack and in the process of defence, not just relying on units.

“The capacity of the girls is definitely growing and we’re building resilience, which is going to be needed over the course of the next 400 days with the home World Cup coming up.”

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Despite not planning to rotate too much during the remaining matches of 2024, Mitchell has purposefully been working with a large pool of players as he attempts to build depth ahead of the World Cup.

With the 2024-25 Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR) final scheduled to be played on March 16th, on the eve of the start of the Women’s Six Nations, the England coach knows his resources will be tested come spring.

“We’ll probably have to prepare two teams for the early start of the Six Nations because the [PWR] finalists will be sort of playing just before we kick off Six Nations,” he added.

“[Playing France and New Zealand] probably doesn’t allow us to ultimately use a lot of depth within the squad because the cycle of the World Cup is getting closer, so development of players is probably really more so for the next cycle.

“It’s now sort of really starting to hone in on what teams are set for purpose against what opposition, and making sure that we’re creating the necessary cohesion.”