England captain Marlie Packer said Tuesday the Red Roses would be “ready” for their showdown with hosts New Zealand in a looming repeat of last year’s nail-biting women’s World Cup final.
Packer scored one of England’s five tries last November in Auckland, but finished on the losing side as New Zealand clinched a 34-31 victory in the dying seconds.
That bitter defeat ended England’s 30-match winning streak dating back to 2019.
“A year on, we’ve got a very different squad, a new coaching staff, so it’s really exciting. We can’t wait to play,” Packer said Tuesday in Wellington.
England, who won a fifth straight Six Nations title last April, are back in New Zealand to take part in a new top-level women’s competition.
They face Australia at Wellington’s Sky Stadium on Friday to kick off “WXV1” — a round-robin tournament played over each of the next three weekends.
Hosts New Zealand, Australia and Canada — the best teams from the Pacific Four competition — will each play the top Six Nations teams England, France and Wales.
The third and final round of matches will be in Auckland, where the Black Ferns play England in a repeat of last year’s World Cup final.
“That was a massive game and there was a lot of disappointment for us,” said Packer, the Six Nations’ top scorer this season with seven tries.
“We can be super proud of the performance we put in,” she added.
“We know the game is in three weeks’ time, we’ll make sure we are ready and prepared, but look, we’re all about Australia this Friday.”
New Zealand, who demolished Australia 43-3 in a warm-up game a fortnight ago, start their campaign against France in Wellington on Saturday.
Black Ferns captain co-captain Kennedy Simon said they had been watching England and France closely.
New Zealand squeezed past the French 25-24 in a hard-fought World Cup semi-final last year.
Simon anticipated more crunch games against the Europeans. “It brings a bit of fire, we don’t get to meet them regularly.”
“Our trainings have been brutal. I know England are big… but we are smart, we’re calculated, and we’re ready to go.”
The New Zealander hoped the new competition for the world’s top teams would encourage girls to take up rugby.
“I think because we’ll have all the best teams in one area playing against each other, it’ll spark girls playing rugby,” she said.
“For the growth of women in rugby, it will be huge.”