Red Roses ‘freshen up’ approach as new era begins

Venue: Sandy Park, Exeter Date: Saturday, 23 September Kick-off: 14:30 BST
Coverage: Live text updates on the BBC Sport website and app

England’s new era under head coach John Mitchell begins on Saturday with the first of two Tests against Canada.

Mitchell is currently employed as Japan men’s assistant coach and will take over the Red Roses once the Rugby World Cup concludes.

“We want to make it feel different and I think we’ve achieved that,” said interim head coach Louis Deacon.

“We have changed a lot of things. There were a lot of good things about the environment before, and it was a successful environment, so wanted to keep a lot of that.

“We just wanted to freshen it up.”

Mitchell, 59, was appointed in May to succeed Middleton, who led England to the final of the women’s World Cup last November.

Stand-in head coach Deacon, who was in charge of coaching the forwards under Middleton, will also take charge of the side for World Rugby’s new global women’s competition WXV, which starts in October.

The two fixtures against Canada offer a chance to prepare for the round-robin competition in New Zealand.

The Red Roses last played Canada in the 2021 World Cup semi-final which they won 26-19.

England have been top of the world rankings since November 2020, but a loss on Saturday would mean world champions New Zealand replacing them as number one.

“Early doors we [Mitchell and I] had some conversations of how we wanted to play the game moving forward. Mitch was quite integral in that giving us the direction,” Deacon added.”But since that it has been the coaching group here that have been taking it forward, and when Mitch comes in he will take control from then on.”

‘Hunter sees it from a player view’

Former England captain Sarah Hunter, who retired in March as the most capped player in women’s rugby, is one of the changes to England’s backroom staff as a defence coach.

Deacon said it has been a “natural” transition for the former number eight because of the respect she has in the playing group.

Flanker Marlie Packer has taken over as captain from Hunter and believes the level of “trust” they had in the back row together has transferred to the training field.

“Before it used to be a of bit ‘staff and players’ at meal times, whereas that does not feel the case any more. That is helped by Sarah Hunter being a former player,” Packer said.

“She sees it from a player view as she has been around the set-up for so long, so she knows what it used to be like as a player.”

Line-ups

England: Kildunne; Breach, Rowland, Heard, Dow; Aitchison, L Packer; Carson, Atkin-Davies, Bern, Galligan, O’Donnell, Talling, M Packer (capt), Aldcroft.

Replacements: Powell, Botterman, Muir, Beckett, Allen, Hunt, Jones, MacDonald.

Canada: Tessier; Farries, Bermudez, Grant, Symonds; Gallagher, Pelletier; Hunt, Tuttosi, Menin, Beukeboom, Holtkamp, Senft, Forteza, De Goede.

Replacements: Boag, DeMerchant, Ellis, Royer, Svoboda, Apps, Perry, Harvey.

Referee: Lauren Jenner (New Zealand)