Women’s Six Nations – Marlie Packer: New England group is ‘galvanising together’ | Rugby Union News

England’s Marlie Packer speaks following her side’s 59-3 win in front of a raucous crowd in Cardiff; Hannah Jones, skipper for the hosts, admitted she was “disappointed” but insists Wales are closing the gap to the Red Roses; England on maximum 15 points after first three rounds of games

Marlie Packer celebrates England’s Six Nations victory over Wales

Marlie Packer says new-look England are “galvanising together” after a dominant victory against Wales in the Women’s Six Nations.

In front of a record crowd for a women’s rugby game in Wales at Cardiff Arms Park, England scored nine tries to run out comprehensive 59-3 victors, securing a bonus point to ensure they lead the standings with a maximum 15 points.

Wales provided strong resistance after Kiera Bevan’s early penalty put them ahead before Lucy Packer, Tatyana Heard and Abby Dow scored to put England in control at half-time.

Lucy Packer celebrates with team-mates after scoring England’s first try vs Wales

The lead then expanded in the second half, with six further tries – including one scored while England had just 13 players against Wales’ full complement – to prove that this reassembled Red Roses team, which seen quite a lot of turnover since November’s World Cup final defeat to New Zealand, is growing together all the time.

“I’m really proud of the girls’ performance,” said England captain Packer. “There’s only probably about 10 players that were in the World Cup final, that were playing today. So it just shows this is a new group for us. We’re galvanising together, we’re learning on the go, we’re growing as this tournament goes on.

“We’ve got Ireland next week, and there’ll be a lot of learning from [this game]. That’s the Test match rugby that we want, and then we go on into France at Twickenham with a really big crowd there.”

England and Wales was tight early on in the game

Packer was also impressed by the character her team showed by overcoming stiff first-half resistance and continuing their domination after the break even during the spell where both she and sub May Campbell were sin-binned at the same time.

“We went down to 13 but the test of the character within the group to put on the performance – Hannah Botterman coming on, turning over those balls – you couldn’t ask for much else in the way we finished that game,” said Packer, speaking to BBC Sport.

Jess Breach showed her pace out wide on a number of occasions

“We talked a lot in the week about the putting the focus on us today. A massive occasion here at Cardiff Arms Park, 8,000 sell out.

“Wales brought it to us, we knew they were going to, but we’re really happy with our performance, there’ll be a lot of stuff we go and learn from it, same as I’m sure Wales will as well. I wish them the best of luck for the rest of the tournament.”

Jones: We are closing the gap, there are world-class moments

Wales skipper Hannah Jones was crestfallen at the end given the comprehensive nature of the defeat in front of a raucous crowd.

The hosts claimed maximum points in their opening two games with a convincing 31-5 win over Ireland in their Six Nations opener, before following it up with a hard-fought 34-22 victory in Scotland.

There were hopes the team could use the home support to propel them on Saturday and for 35 minutes, it seemed they could, but England got two tries in the final five minutes before half-time which provided the launchpad for what was to come in an imperious second 40 minutes.

Hannah Jones in action in the 2023 Women’s Six Nations

“Mostly, we’re disappointed with the score,” said Wales captain Jones. “The aim coming into this is was to see where we’re at. We definitely know where we’re at. The score doesn’t really reflect some of the performance but we’ll reflect, regather and move on to the next match.

“I think we are closing the gap. There’s definitely moments of world class in there. I know we’ll have reflection of some moments that maybe we will reflect on to work on into the next game.

“I’d just like to thank the crowd for buying the ticket, coming along to support, it really does mean a lot.”

Wales coach Ioan Cunningham believes England’s two tries scored quickly before half-time made a massive difference in the game.

England’s Maud Muir (centre) celebrates scoring her side’s seventh try with team-mates against Wales

The first came when a little grubber kick from Holly Aitchison was pounced on by Tatyana Heard, who was named player of the match, then Aitchison – once again the creator – produced an incredible pass tossed up-and-across more than half of the width of the field to find jet-heeled winger Dow, who beat no fewer than six Wales defenders with a mix of hand-offs and burning pace to finish for an incredible score.

“We’re definitely improving, going in the right direction,” said Cunningham, echoing the sentiments of his captain. “We had three entries in their 22 in the first half and only had three points. So that’s the difference, then in the championship moments where England scored just by half-time, it’s three scores instead of two scores. And that makes the message at half-time a bit different.

“I’m so proud of the effort of the players. We had to dig deep. We can look back at that and go, ‘we really troubled England’ and we’re pleased with that. Well, we’re definitely closing the gap. I do believe that, even though the gap is a big one to close, we’ll keep working hard and this group deserves some success from the work they put in.”