Lucy Packer: 'I’d tend to avoid people. Now I’m more in the middle.'

Over the past three years England and Harlequins scrum-half Lucy Packer has seen plenty of change in herself.

By the 25-year-old’s own admission the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup winner has a shy and reserved personality.

She even had a running joke with the Red Roses’ coach driver about always being the last to depart as she squeezed an extra few moments to calm her nerves.

Compared to her first World Cup campaign, though, she is more self-assured on and off the field.

That is also a testament to character. At the end of the delayed 2021 Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, Packer was one of several players criticised by supporters after their runners-up finish to the Black Ferns in Auckland.

Put into the starting XV on the morning of the final after injury forced Leanne Infante out of the contest and was on the field for five of New Zealand’s five tries.

Then she was just one year into her Test rugby career, but in the years since has became a constant for England.

Now with 39 England caps banked and a World Cup winners’ medal at home, Packer credits a greater sense of comfort within the England camp as a major factor in her personal development and increased confidence.

“I feel like I’ve had massive growth in those few years,” Packer told RugbyPass.

“I’m still quite shy and quiet, but I’ve definitely had so much exposure to rugby and people that I’ve grown a lot.

“I think my confidence from that tournament (2021 Rugby World Cup) to this one is massively separate. I just learned so much in both cycles.

“The other big thing is the difference in my – I wouldn’t say personality; I have stayed who I am – but I’ve just made so many friends I’m so close to.

“I’m completely myself, whereas before I was probably quite shy and I’d tend to try and avoid people. Now I’m more in the middle of it.”

Packer even has a moment to laugh at the irony of who some of her closest friends and confidants are in the England set-up.

Seven years into her senior rugby career the half-back counts Ellie Kildunne, Maud Muir and Sadia Kabeya among her closest friends. Three of the more extroverted members of John Mitchell’s squad.

 

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Those friendships have been influential in Packer’s confidence which, in turn, allowed her to unlock some of the best rugby in her career to date.

“That helped me bring out my character,” Packer said. “I’m completely myself around them and they’re so loud that it helps me out a bit,

“My first season at Harlequins, I don’t think I spoke to a single person. I lived in a house with the girls and they used to call me the ‘mouse in the house’. I just wouldn’t speak.

“I had a great influence in Gary Street (ex-Harlequins head coach), who is a really extroverted, loud, funny character who helped bring me out of my shell.

“I think it is a bit of Quins and England. It’s just experience. Exposed to a bigger group of people. Living with 50 people in camp, you can’t really be too shy.”

Packer is honest that she is still processing some aspects of the World Cup win.

For a tournament that waged on for six weeks and had a several month long aperitif in camp with her international teammates, by the time England lifted a newly forged World Cup trophy into the air at Allianz Stadium it felt like all that time had passed in the blinking of an eye.

Afforded the time and space by her club side to process her successes in her own way the 25-year-old has quickly made a return in a Harlequins jersey.

A starter in her team’s opening two games of the season, Packer has been able to experience firsthand the bump that World Cup success has given to Premiership Women’s Rugby.

In the season opener Harlequins saw just less than 3,300 supporters in the stands for their 52-42 win against Loughborough Lightning and then a record crowd of 3,733 at StoneX Stadium as Saracens notched a first victory of their campaign in the London derby.

“That’s what we are all hoping for,” Packer said. “I do think that the Rugby World Cup will have a massive impact. It will be amazing to see more fans in the stadium. Some more engagement from the fans that followed us as the Red Roses.

“It’s crazy to think of us as role models. We didn’t have role models growing up and then when you turn up to rugby clubs and you’ve got hundreds of girls that are playing.

 

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“There was not many girls playing when I played and now they have role models to look up to, which I really like seeing.”

That weight of responsibility is not lost on Packer either. Growing up she idolised Wales wing Shane Williams, who like her, was a product of Amman United RFC in Camarthenshire.

It is another one of the responsibilities that the scrum-half is navigating as her return to domestic action continues.

So far as Harlequins are concerned, this is one of their biggest PWR seasons in recent memory and the London club have a real desire for success.

It has already been four years since the side last called themselves champions of England. And last season was the first time they had played knockout rugby in three.

Ross Chisholm’s task is a big one. He has added a star name to his squad in the form of Aoife Wafer and retained a key few but has already seen two entirely different sides to his squads across their first 160 minutes of rugby.

“We want to go one step further,” Packer said. “Last year was a big step from the season before.

“We want to carry on with that momentum. We want to go and win it ultimately. The start of the season is going to be massive. We want to have a big impact and carry that forward.”