Six Nations – Italy v England Here is the new coach’s first team selection: 15 Ellie Kildunne 14 Abby Dow 13 Helena Rowland 12 Emily Scarratt 11 Jess Breach 10 Zoe Harrison 9 Lucy Packer 1 Hannah Botterman 2 Lark Atkin-Davies 3 Kelsey Clifford 4 Zoe Aldcroft 5 Abbie Ward 6 Sadia Kabeya 7 Marlie
England Women secured victory in their IT20 opener against New Zealand, winning by 27 runs at University of Otago Oval, Dunedin. Maia Bouchier hit 43, while captain Heather Knight scored 63 as England finished their innings on 160/4. Bowler Lauren Bell took two wickets, her first off just the third ball of the innings while
It will be fascinating to see what changes in game-structure John Mitchell will insist on his first venture into women’s international rugby. We know he wants to speed things up. Since the Red Roses play faster than any other team on earth, we may wonder where the accelerator will be pushed. Death to all Caterpillars?
Kate Cross didn’t have far to look for sporting inspiration – her dad, David, was an FA Cup winner. A revered striker in his heyday, David helped West Ham beat Arsenal in 1980 in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley. That winning mentality clearly rubbed off on his daughter, with Kate having dedicated herself to
John Mitchell has announced his first Red Roses 6 Nations Squad. It is 35 strong: Forwards Zoe Aldcroft (Gloucester-Hartpury, 48 caps), Lark Atkin-Davies (Bristol Bears, 54 caps), Sarah Beckett (Gloucester-Hartpury, 34 caps), Hannah Botterman (Bristol Bears, 42 caps), Mackenzie Carson (Gloucester-Hartpury, 10 caps), Poppy Cleall (Saracens, 65 caps), Kelsey Clifford (Saracens, 3 caps), Amy Cokayne
The England Women U19 squad to tour Sri Lanka to take on the hosts and Australia in a Tri Series has been confirmed. Both T20 and 50-over formats will be played in late March and early April with the dates and venues to be announced in due course. Within the 15-player group are a number
As France are going to be the last to disclose their squad, I’ll leave them to a later posting. Italy Disturbing news has emerged from Italy, as yet unconfirmed, that the contracted Azzurre were not paid in January or February. This comes as a huge shock and setback. We may cautiously hope there is a
This is a quite fascinating preliminary squad that John Mitchell has announced. (You can see the full group at 4theloveofsport.co.uk/2024/03/04/red-roses-squad-for-training-camp-announced/). First the numbers and the balance: 18 forwards against 16 backs out of 34 players is an unusual ratio for England. We might have expected something more like 19/15. The balance of the list of
It was inevitable: no sooner had John Mitchell and his staff picked a large squad to start preparations for the Six Nations in March than three of the elect had to forfeit their place. For one of them, Amber Reid, this was the old old story – yet another injury to interrupt her England career.
John Mitchell has named 38 players to attend initial training sessions for the coming international season. They start next week. The full list comes below. First the numbers: not so long ago Simon Middleton included well over 40 players at this stage. That gave him plenty of options at combined and specialist sessions. But it
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