The Red Roses face France in their second pool game on Saturday in Whangarei knowing victory over their opponents would put them in control of their own destiny for World Cup glory; Claudia MacDonald and Marlie Packer look ahead to facing Les Bleues
Wednesday 12 October 2022 09:25, UK
Red Roses wing Claudia MacDonald says being the top-ranked team goes out of the window at a World Cup with England set to take on France in their second match of the tournament on Saturday.
MacDonald top-scored with four tries in England's emphatic 84-19 win over tournament debutants Fiji in their World Cup opener extending their incredible match-winning streak to 26 Tests.
The 84 points bettered their previous best of 82 in the competition, set against Kazakhstan in 2010.
England's second game of the competition takes place this Saturday against Six Nations opponents France, who opened their tournament with a 40-5 bonus-point win over South Africa.
"I think we're just excited to go out there and play France, I mean, it's a World Cup. You want to be playing huge fixtures all the time, results that when you walk into a game you don't know who's going to come out on top," MacDonald told Sky Sports.
"We obviously have to be confident in ourselves and what we can perform and what we can put out on show on the pitch.
"It's an opportunity to play them on a huge stage and, whilst they are a much more familiar opposition, they've had new coaches come in and they've got a slightly new set-up. You can see they're doing slightly different things when we analyse them, so we're just incredibly excited to play them."
The match is a repeat of England's hard-fought 24-12 victory over France in Bayonne earlier this year where two tries from Sarah Bern and Abbie Ward, in addition to nine points via the boot of Emily Scarratt, saw England wrap up their fourth Six Nations triumph in a row.
MacDonald continued: "They're an incredibly skilful team. They've got a really good kicking game which if we give them space and time they can come alive. They're very good at offloading and their skill sets are very good, so we've got to be diligent with getting off the line and cutting down their space and respecting that they are good players. We need to put them under as much pressure as possible."
MacDonald added that the World Cup will not affect England's performances at a tournament where they are overwhelming favourites.
"Being world number one leading into a World Cup certainly has given us a lot of confidence but I think that's a point at which it stops because the World Cup is a different ball game," she said. "It doesn't matter how good your performances are at this point, it's purely what you can produce in 80 minutes and as we saw from Fiji, any team can disrupt anyone.
"At any point, 80 minutes is all you have to produce your best performance and that's all that matters because it is very much a knockout competition so every game matters.
"I think it's brilliant to be coming into it as number one, but you've got to be number one for 80 minutes."
Veteran flanker Marlie Packer revealed her main motivation at the tournament is her son, Oliver, with her mother, brother and grandad all travelling the length and breadth of New Zealand watching her in action for the Red Roses.
"I know they're super proud of me to play in front of them, but for them to follow me around the World is a massive driver in itself, she said.
"I play my game like it's my last game because you never know what's going to happen. But then at the same time you've got to be enjoying it. You're playing your best rugby when you've got a smile on your face and enjoying it with the people that you're doing it with as well.
"We enjoy each other's company in this Red Roses squad, but we have those tough conversations, we all have that same drive and we enjoy winning together. When things get tough we can dig deep together and pre-season was like that."
