Shaunagh Brown: 'It can get boring to win by so much so often'

Former England prop Shaunagh Brown is certain that the Red Roses are looking forward to a “proper challenge” in the WXV Global Series.

In September and October, England will play three Test matches against Women’s Rugby World Cup 2025 runners-up Canada, as well as playing the Wallaroos, Black Ferns and USA Women’s Eagles once each.

In August, Red Roses head coach John Mitchell described the three fixtures against Canada as a “Test series” and that playing the same opposition three times “requires a little bit more unpredictability”.

The reigning World Rugby Coach of the Year clearly does not underestimate the task at hand. He also believes that the fixtures could prove to be an early audition for Women’s Rugby World Cup 2029 due to the nature of travel his team will experience over the next eight weeks.

Match-ups with a Black Ferns team on the rise under the tutelage of Whitney Hansen, and against the Wallaroos and Eagles will also ask stern questions of England. An England team which has forgotten how to lose over the past four years.

Already in 2026 the world champions have seen themselves tested. Injuries and pregnancies meant that England were without some 14 players from their Women’s Rugby World Cup-winning squad from last September. Even so, they claimed an eighth Guinness Women’s Six Nations title in a row at a canter.

Whether or not the Red Roses’ run of 38 matches in a row will be challenged is yet to be seen. Brown, the team’s 30-cap former tighthead, is of the belief that England players will have ample motivation for the most challenging run of fixtures they have faced outside of a Women’s Rugby World Cup.

“It’s going to be a real challenge,” Brown told RugbyPass. “I can imagine a lot of girls, including the coaching team, will just be rubbing their hands with glee. Like, ‘right girls, now we have got a proper challenge’.

“Not that the World Cup wasn’t a proper challenge, but it is just that constant of being able to prove ‘we’ve got this’. People will say; you’re a bunch of full-time athletes, the most funding, you should be winning. But what do you want them to do? They’re not going to lower the bar. They’re not going to try and be worse.

“It is that constant desire to prove that England are number one – that England Rugby are doing the right thing by investing more every year into their women’s programme.

“I’m not sure some of them would admit it, but it can get boring to win by so much so often. They 100 per cent would not say that out loud. I’m not in the programme anymore, so I can. They are some of the best rugby players in the world, there is no one on this earth who is a better player than them. But you still need to feed that ambition.

“You need that adrenaline. That buzz. A reason to be better. To be able to play Canada, New Zealand, etcetera – you want to play challenging games. How often do England get to play two challenging games in a row? You could say the World Cup quarters, semis and final – but I imagine they are looking forward to that more than anything.”

The start of the WXV Global Series will also see the countdown to the first-ever British & Irish Lions Women tour in 2027 begin.

The Howden British & Irish Lions Women’s Series, which will see the Lions play the Black Ferns three times, has the first Test scheduled for Saturday 11 September 2027, with Mount Smart Stadium in Auckland the venue for a historic first Test.

For just over a year the narrative of international women’s rugby will be transformed for the first time. The performance of players will be analysed by supporters and the media with more scrutiny than ever before. The attendance of head coach Jo Yapp at fixtures will naturally be followed by one simple question: I wonder who she is here to watch?

This is all something that Brown is hotly anticipating too. Even if the answer is a firm “no” when asked whether she misses being out on the pitch.

Lions tours are iconic events just by the very nature of their existence. The ‘Red Wave’ is the term coined to describe the deluge of away supporters that descend upon host cities for fixtures. There is an added intensity to team selection and the build-up to the game’s first whistle. It will all be uncharted territory in the world of women’s rugby.

With the start of the WXV Global Series just over a week away, Brown is ready for women’s rugby to be put under the microscope in a way that it never has before.

“That’s going to be the thread that runs through all of WXV, all of the Six Nations and even in PWR to some extent,” Brown said. “The questions: is she playing well enough to get picked for the tour? Maybe someone we thought was going to be a dead cert has had an awful couple of games in a row.

“Players themselves will be thinking; I hope this doesn’t take me out of contention for the tour. It’ll be on the comms on the TV and in the media. We had it for the World Cup last year. Any niggle a player gets, any dropped ball, missed tackle, all of that. I do think it will be the thread that runs through the season.”

‘They told us exactly what they were going to spend the money on’

Brown spoke to RugbyPass shortly after Keswick RFC was announced as the recipient of the Royal London’s Championing Women and Girls’ Grassroots Rugby Award. The former England prop was a member of the judging panel that awarded Keswick.

Winning the award means that the Cumbria club will receive £10,000 to invest in their women’s and girls’ programmes. A club with strong links to its community, Keswick offer a strong pathway from Under-6s all the way to first team rugby.

As part of their application, Keswick will convert squash courts into an indoor training facility to be used for performance, and strength and conditioning training for women and girls.

“Keswick told us directly what they were going to spend the money on,” Brown said. “Their plan is to refurbish some unused squash courts, so they’ll have an indoor space for training and development.

“It’s that direct, tangible thing, that you can go and visit Keswick and say, this is what Royal London helped build. This is what they did with the money, rather than it being swallowed up in a club’s funds.

“This is a true legacy. It’s an incredible privilege to read all the applications and see what other clubs are up to. It is not just a ratio game, it is about their ambition. Incredibly, incredibly honoured to be part of that judging panel and they [Keswick] truly deserve it.”

Fethard & District RFC [Ireland], Caithness RFC [Scotland] and Clwb Rygbi Y Bala [Wales] were the other recipients of the award.

Brown, Rugby Ambassador for Royal London and award judge, was speaking after Keswick Rugby Football Club (RFC) was named the English winner of the 2026 Championing Women & Girls’ Rugby Award, presented by Royal London and The British & Irish Lions