John Mitchell says his side “put themselves through the washing machine” in a difficult first half against Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations on Saturday. England were held scoreless until the 34th minute and only held a slender 7-5 lead at half-time. In 2024 the Red Roses led Ireland 38-3 at the break.
In the second half in Cork England shifted through the gears and they blew their opposition away to extend their winning run in the Six Nations to 32 games.
The head coach thought the second-half performance was outstanding, saying: “The girls are really good at resolving issues. They remained really calm and as much as Ireland tackled really well in the first half, we probably put ourselves into the washing machine hence the reason it required a little bit of adjustment at half-time.
“In the second half we got more momentum. When we get momentum you see our intuitive skills come out. We are ruthless when we get momentum. We crushed their lineout, their lineout went nowhere. Their attack went nowhere in the second half. I think they only got out of their half through kick-off [in the second 40] so we were pretty ruthless, There were a couple of team tries – [Meg] Jones’ and one of [Sarah] Bern’s – they were beautiful tries.”
The Red Roses have outlined clear plans in team selection in their opening three Six Nations games and Mitchell says their next one is no different. They will play Scotland in Leicester next Saturday and he confirmed the team has already been named for that encounter.
He said: “We want to keep getting better so we have to keep asking questions of ourselves, where can we get better? The girls are good at that, we have a very good leadership group. We have a squad that is definitely focused.
“You get three jobs within a team [starter, finisher and non-playing] and the girls at the moment are definitely focused on that. Not everyone plays but everyone wins if they do their job well and raise the training level.”
From an Irish perspective, Scott Bemand said it was tough to let a game get away. “As we pick through the bones of it, there were questions asked of an English team that have not been asked of them recently,” the head coach said. “We got them under pressure, they’ve had to go back into the dressing room and rediscover how they play the game.
“It shows the depth of the English. It’s a step forward from where we were a year ago. But there’s more to come. I said to the players at the end, this isn’t the end of the Six Nations. There’s two massive games to come.”
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Ireland will play Wales next and finish their tournament against Scotland.
This article was amended on 13 April 2025. An earlier picture caption misnamed John Mitchell as “Alex”.
