Just before England’s Women’s Six Nations match against Scotland kicked off on Saturday, Red Roses head coach John Mitchell was asked if this spell was the biggest test of his team’s strength in depth since he took charge.
“No doubt,” he replied. “But you have to adapt and respond to it.”
In front of 30,498 people at Murrayfield – a record crowd for a standalone women’s sporting event in Scotland – the world champions did that and more, winning 84-7.
England were not quite at their best in the 33-12 home victory against Ireland seven days earlier, which in hindsight was probably to have been expected given the turnover in their squad since they lifted the World Cup on that magical day at Allianz Stadium in September.
Four players, including captain Zoe Stratford, are unavailable because of pregnancy. Emily Scarratt and Abby Dow have both since retired.
Earlier this week, injured quartet Natasha Hunt, Morwenna Talling, Hannah Botterman and May Campbell were ruled out for the remainder of the tournament. The same fate had befallen Tatyana Heard before it had even started, while Alex Matthews’ shoulder problem prevented her from being involved in Edinburgh.
But a much-changed line-up delivered a statement victory that demonstrated once more why the Red Roses are the benchmark to which all other nations aspire in women’s rugby union.
Mitchell described it as a “special performance”, while captain Meg Jones, who scored one of England’s 12 tries, said the Red Roses were “relentless” in registering a 35th consecutive victory.
She added: “We want to keep building on every performance we have. This game gives us tremendous feedback and we can just keep getting better and better.”