RED ROSES

LUNCHTIME IS spent scrolling through photo libraries on their phones. Players have been asked to select three pictures that mean something to them to present at a team social the following day. Rugby World interrupts Marlie Packer as the Red Roses flanker debates which one of her son, Oliver, she should pick.

It’s all quite a contrast from the intensity of the morning’s training sessions. Having turned up the heat on the toaster at breakfast, resulting in several players tucking into toast that was, let’s say, crispier than they wanted, Packer proceeded to do the same at England’s Performance Centre at Pennyhill Park where she called for a “savage mindset” from her team-mates.

The 32-year-old Saracen finds it tricky to describe what the expression means, at least in a way that is printable, but the essence is giving everything, be it in a match or training. “If you have one job, it’s doing that one job and doing that job as well as you can,” says Packer. “You’ve got to be legal but if there’s a 50-50 ball, it’s