Life grows more complicated
Just as we get used to the pace of the Olympics and find the sport we want to follow, the latest Red Roses training squad has dropped on our front-door mat.
It has a new title: “Red Roses Pre-Season Camp 1 Squad”, and consists of 40 players (see full list). The surprises it contains are explained by the very pace and extent of women’s sport, so the two Olympians, Meg Jones and Ellie Kildunne, will join later, and the many injuries allow some new and returning names to be added.
The injured parties are: Claudia MacDonald, Connie Powell, Grace Clifford, Lizzie Hanlon. Mia Venner, Sadia Kabeya and Sarah Beckett.
Since they will attend the first two days only, we can safely assume that time will be devoted to generalities, explaining the complicated schedule that all of us will have to get used to. A test on the Laws of the Game would be fun. Who’d win that?
Young and Old
It’s good to see that Mitchell has retained all the younger generation who had to wait patiently through the 2024 Six Nations, some unfortunates in vain.
To them he has added no fewer than seven uncapped players. Five of them are recognised as the high-flyers of the new age, but two, Phoebe Murray and Simi Pam (both Bristol Bears) are certainly not.
Murray captained the Under 20s six years ago on an unbeaten tour of North America. One explanation for her absence from England colours must be the quality available to the management. The squad she led included seven currently contracted Red Roses.
Simi Pam is many people’s favourite player and, like Dr Murray, doubles as an NHS practitioner. I hope they will not suffer the fate of others, and remain overlooked.
I’m delighted to see Poppy Cleall and Sarah McKenna’s names return to the list. The various staffs in charge since their last appearances will know why they disappeared from view; the wider public doesn’t. Laura Keates’ return is equally merited, but more easily explained: she has suffered a string of injuries, stretching back at least to the 2017 RWC which she had to sit out.
Experience
Despite the large number of new and newish faces there are eleven players on board with over 50 caps, including a couple of centurions. Zoe Harrison sits on 49, Hannah Botterman on 47. If Sarah McKenna and Abby Dow (45 each) can run fast enough, they might catch them up.
Presentation
Unusually the squad is listed according to position, not just forwards and backs. This allows us to see the management’s thinking on some versatile players. Morwenna Talling, for example, is placed firmly in the back-row, not as a possible lock.
Equally intriguing is the addition of two players under the heading ‘Utility Back’, McKenna and Helena Rowland. This new category may well have been introduced to cater for Rowland; she is so multi-talented that she might go into action with any number on her back from 9 to 15.
How to select?
Much depends on Mitchell’s selection policy. For example, will he pick his strongest 23 for the two momentous ‘friendlies’ against France and New Zealand? Will he take a broader brush to his second Six Nations’ selections than this year?
In addition, the squad will face a second version of WXV1 in Canada, then the climax of a first home World Cup for fifteen years.
That is quite a timetable. We could imagine plenty of scope for less obvious choices, but thus far Mitchell has kept a tight rein.
Afterthoughts
It will be interesting to see where some members of the GB 7s squad choose to go post- Olympics.
Some have already been claimed by PWR clubs, others not.
There are only nine clubs in the league, yet Leicester Tigers and Sale Sharks offer only one contracted player each, Amy Cokayne and Morwenna Talling (until Jones returns). Is the company in charge prepared to see them finish eighth and ninth again?
This is our latest chance to write down our own version of a best XV. The task remains as impossible as ever, but no less intriguing. How close to the starting side for the last RWC will the next one look?
