“If you asked me at the start of pre-season: ‘Am I going to this World Cup?’ No. I didn’t think I was going,” says the former England captain Marlie Packer.
Self-doubt around her selection may surprise a lot of people. A World Cup winner in 2014, the 35-year-old will compete in her fourth successive global showpiece for the Red Roses after being duly confirmed in the 32-player squad for the host nation. But Packer has been through a lot in the past 12 months. She was named world player of the year in 2023 and during the two seasons that she led England, the side won all 20 games.
Then, in January, the openside flanker had the captaincy taken away, with the second-row Zoe Aldcroft given the armband. Packer was made a vice-captain for the 2025 Six Nations but was only included in two matchday squads.
Defiance and determination have been hallmarks of her 111-cap international career. She has built a resilience and is keen to push the message that whatever is right for the team to put them in the best position to win the World Cup when it gets under way on 22 August is the decision she will always agree with. But she also describes decisions out of her control in 2025 as “tough”.
When asked which hurt more, having the captaincy taken from her or being left out of matchday squads Packer lets out a little laugh, looks away out of the window and is a little emotional before saying: “That’s a question isn’t it?”
She adds: “When me and Mitch [coach John Mitchell] sat down and talked about the captaincy, I am an openside flanker and what he sees and wants from his flanker is to cover six and eight; I don’t cover six and eight in the role he wants it to be.
“The game has changed and evolved, that is the way he wants to play. I knew if I wasn’t starting that I am more likely not to be in that matchday 23. He has told me that in black and white. I know where I stand and where I sit.
“Anything can happen, injuries happen so I always have to make sure I am ready. But with that, all I can keep doing is when we do extras at the end of training sessions I am showing I am upskilling myself in those areas so if I ever was called upon I know I can do what is asked of me. That’s all I can do.
“I’m not going to lie to you and sit here and say that being left out of the matchday 23 wasn’t hard but what happened is that even though I wasn’t in the matchday 23, I still travelled with the squad, I was still a massive part of it. I felt so much value in that.”
Nonetheless, being left out for the France game at Twickenham – when England squeaked to a 43-42 victory to seal their grand slam in April – stung.
“It’s always tough not to be selected for the France game,” Packer says. “Playing at Allianz Stadium is everything. Two years ago when I captained my country to a world-record crowd and my son was mascot, that is one moment I bottle up and it means everything.
“But at the start of the game week [in 2025] Mitch says: ‘I want you in the coaching box with us.’ The value of learning what it’s like to be up there, what he is thinking, what he is seeing, the plans. You’re in the know, you’re trusted. That does mean a lot.
“He’ll say it; it’s one man’s decision and it’s tough. But he genuinely cares and I know he does and I genuinely care about him and this squad as well.”
Mitchell was full of praise for Packer at the World Cup squad announcement and it is clear she remains a key aspect of the Red Roses machine. She is also one of the most experienced in the squad with only Emily Scarratt – who is poised to feature in her fifth tournament – having played in more. But still doubt remained in her mind over her own selection.
“Oh yeah,” Packer responds when asked if there were any worries around her selection. “100%, of course. Any athlete would tell you that in any sport. If you get comfortable being where you are then it’s going to get taken from underneath you.
“You get swamped down with things but you have to keep pushing yourself to be the best of the best. We ain’t got time for people to be complacent in their role and in their job. We need to keep elevating each other and being the best of the best because that is the difference between winning and losing a World Cup.
“I put myself in the best possible step to go to this World Cup. I came into pre-season, I felt fit, strong, and good.
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“I am actually really happy … with Mitch’s communication with me about where I am going, what his thinking was and what his decisions were looking like over the warm-up games and pool games. For me I know where I’m at, head down, keep going, keep working hard and keep elevating everyone around me.”
The warm-ups have not gone completely to plan, though, with Packer being sent off against Spain on 2 August, risking a suspension that would see her ruled out of the tournament. A disciplinary panel, however, handed her only a one-game ban, putting her out of the warm-up against France, but leaving her free to play at the World Cup.
This may be Packer’s fourth World Cup but it is her first at home, something she describes as the “icing on the cake” with the cherry coming if the team wins the trophy. The tournament has already broken records, selling the most tickets of any Women’s Rugby World Cup with 350,000 sold so far. The final at Twickenham is expected to be sold out which would set a new milestone for the highest-attended women’s rugby game.
The Red Roses have the opportunity to do something special by winning the trophy at home but they have fallen at the last hurdle in the previous two tournaments, losing both finals to New Zealand.
The talk around that will inevitably grow the further England go in the competition but it is apparently not a focus in the Red Roses camp.
Packer says: “That was three years ago and the one before that was eight years ago, there is no point living in the past. This is a whole new group of players. This is a whole new coaching staff apart from Deacs [forwards coach Louis Deacon]. You have to be in the here and now.
“The media can say and do whatever they want. Some players are going to read into it, some won’t but it’s what we know within. That’s all that matters.
“We know we are going to be under scrutiny, we are the Red Roses. We have been a professional team for a lot longer than a lot of these other nations.
We are the team that is ranked No 1 in the world with the highest-ever ranking that has ever been in rugby – not just women’s rugby. We are an outfit that can be scrutinised but what we know is we have got to keep living in the moment and enjoying it.”
For Packer, past World Cups are chapters already written. Now, with doubts behind her and selection secured, her eyes are on the story England aim to write in this one.
