Simon Middleton insists his resurgent Red Roses will not take their foot off the gas ahead of next weekend’s hotly-anticipated TikTok Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam decider against France at Twickenham.
England thumped Ireland 48-0 in Cork on Saturday as tries from Sarah Beckett, Tatyana Heard, Ellie Kildunne, Marlie Packer and Morwenna Talling teed up a tantalising showdown with the similarly unbeaten Les Bleus in London next weekend.
England have now swatted aside Scotland, Italy, Wales and Ireland and boss Middleton says they will stick to their tried and tested procedures ahead of next weekend’s title-deciding clash.
He said: “We know what we need to be working on before next week – and it won’t be much different from the stuff we’ve been doing for the last six weeks.
“Ireland were tenacious, they got in our faces and tried to break the game up. They marked our edges really well and didn’t give our wingers easy ball to carry or strike. But I was really pleased with how we finished the game. We were thrown off our plan but we got back on track at the end.”
The Red Roses were far from comfortable in the first half but did enough to secure the bonus point after 27 minutes as Beckett, Heard, Kildunne, Packer and Talling all crossed.
Besides their high error count, two negatives for England were Hannah Botterman and Packer both hobbling off the pitch in some distress as the Red Roses’ injury list claimed two more names. Ireland held their own in the second half, keeping England scoreless for 32 minutes, before Amber Reed crashed over to fire Middleton’s side back to Twickenham unbeaten.
France toppled Wales 39-14 in Grenoble on Sunday to book a title-deciding date with the Red Roses on Saturday lunchtime.
The Twickenham showdown is set to be played in front of a record crowd for a women’s rugby match, with ticket sales already surpassing 50,000.
Middleton is fretting on the fitness of both Packer and Botterman but is hopeful they will be available as his players chase yet another Grand Slam title. He added: “Both players picked up injuries quite early in the game, and we got them off, but we were lucky in that we were in a good position at that point.
“The medics made a great decision to get them off the field as soon as possible so they could start looking at them, not taking risks and making it worse. We just have to assess them and see where they are at.”
:: For all the latest TikTok Women’s Six Nations news, information, and details on how to watch the Championship, visit: https://womens.sixnationsrugby.com/
