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Marlie Packer eyes Twickenham sellout after England clinch Grand Slam
By PA
Marlie Packer believes England can sell out Twickenham before the 2025 World Cup final after the Grand Slam was completed in front of a crowd of 58,498.
France were edged 38-33 in a riveting Tik Tok Women’s Six Nations title decider that set a new record attendance for a women’s game, surpassing the previous highest of 42,579.
The Rugby Football Union has targeted a full house for the World Cup final when it hosts the tournament in two years’ time, but Packer believes that on the evidence of Saturday that goal could arrive earlier.
“For me as a Red Rose, I want to sell out Twickenham,” said England’s captain after the first standalone women’s match to be staged at Twickenham.
“I believe we can do it and I believe we can do it before 2025 for the World Cup final. Look at today – we weren’t a curtain raiser, it was all about us.
“The other nations are closing the gap and getting professional contracts, so the quality of the games is getting better and not just England v France games.
“Everything is on the rise so more tickets will be sold and more stadiums will sell out.”
While Packer sees the possibilities at Twickenham, the Saracens openside is keen for England to continue their policy of playing at Premiership grounds.
“When we take the Red Roses on the road, we get fans in from all over the country. We’re a brand and we want to keep selling our brand,” Packer said.
“Yes it would be great to play at Twickenham every time and that in itself will come in time, but we need to keep building our fanbase.”
England led 33-0 at half-time but France hit back with five tries in a tense finish.
“We had done enough in the first-half and we took our points in the second-half to finish off the game,” Packer said.
“But we’ll look back at this game to see what we need to work on in the second-half. We got the victory and that’s what we came here to do today.”
France captain Audrey Forlani admitted her side failed to do themselves justice as they slipped to a 33-0 interval deficit.
“In the first-half, that is not a true reflection of our team,” Forlani said.
“If you look at the second-half, that is our real team. We need to keep working and keep that second half in mind.”
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Latest Comments
No because if it was a 1:1 correspondence it would have been 10 top14, 3 URC and 3 Prem. I did arbitrarily put a max limit per league at 8 because for me if half of the teams are from the top14 it will make no sense. I genuinely didn't think the discussion will go that way tbh as for me it is a details.
Go to commentsFoster should never have been appointed, and I never liked him as a coach, but the hysteria over his coaching and Sam Cane as a player was grounded in prejudice rather than fact.
The New Zealand Rugby public were blinded by their dislike of Foster to the point of idiocy.
Anything the All Blacks did that was good was attributed to Ryan and Schmidt and Fozzie had nothing to do with it.
Any losses were solely blamed on Foster and Cane.
Foster did develop new talent and kept all the main trophies except the World Cup.
His successor kept the core of his team as well as picking Cane despite him leaving for overseas because he saw the irreplaceable value in him.
Razor will take the ABs to the next level, I have full confidence in that.
He should have been appointed in 2020.
But he wasn’t. And the guy who was has never been treated fairly.
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