Marlie Packer paid tribute to her teammates after being crowned the world’s best female player in the aftermath of leading the Red Roses to WXV glory in New Zealand.
In a rematch of the World Cup final a year ago, England turned the tables on New Zealand, downing the Black Ferns 33-12 to clinch the WXV 1 title in the tournament’s inaugural edition.
That was followed by Packer being named World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year for the first time, following in the footsteps of the likes of Zoe Aldcroft, Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter.
And Packer was overwhelmed at the recognition as England continue to lead the way a year on from their heart-breaking World Cup final defeat to the Black Ferns.
“I’m completely on a high at the moment and I’m so proud of this squad, both players and staff,” said Packer.
“We spoke about this journey 11 weeks ago in Chester, and we’ve grown over the tournament.
“Me getting World Player of the Year is credit to the players around me. I can’t do my job without them. I’m on cloud nine and the other girls should be too.”
Since that World Cup final defeat, England have won a fifth consecutive TikTok Women’s Six Nations title, clinching the Grand Slam in front of a world record crowd at Twickenham before completing an unbeaten year with three bonus-point wins in the inaugural WXV competition.
All that has been achieved despite many changes in the squad that went to the World Cup, with just seven players starting both the final and this decider – an indication of the depth England have built under interim coach Louis Deacon – who will now work alongside incoming boss John Mitchell.
Packer added: “It’s super impressive, but I think that goes down to the hard work and dedication that the girls put in to keep performing, not just at international level but week-in week-out at club level.
“We’re in a great place and it’s a whole squad effort to back up our performances every week. To train how we do and play how we do, we have to give credit to the whole squad because they’ve helped us prepare the best we can.”
England’s next assignment is defending their Six Nations title, starting in March, while the longer-term aim is to build towards a home Rugby World Cup in 2025.
That preparation could feature another game against New Zealand, wise have gone to Wasps, with talks held between the two nations about a standalone international at Twickenham in 2024.
“We keep saying that as the Red Roses we want to keep being world-leading, so to play a standalone game at Twickenham against New Zealand would be unreal,” Packer added. “We got a record crowd there for the Six Nations [against France in April], so what better way than to beat that at HQ?
“We have a lot of games until then, we will focus on the Six Nations but when that comes around, all the girls will be up for it.”
