Stand-in England captain Marlie Packer says the Red Roses will “keep their feet on the ground” and not let complacency creep in when they face Samoa in the Women’s Rugby World Cup.
England will be expected to dismiss their opponents handsomely at Franklin’s Gardens on Saturday (5pm kick-off) despite making 13 changes to the starting XV from the 69-7 win over United States at the Stadium of Light in Sunderland last week.
Samoa, who are fully amateur, were thumped 73-0 by Australia in their tournament opener and if the Red Roses are on their game, they could challenge their biggest winning margin at a World Cup, which is 82-0 over Kazakhstan back in 2010.
However, openside flanker Packer – deputing as skipper for the injured Zoe Aldcroft (knee) – said: “It’s making sure we stick to our processes, keep our feet on the ground.
“This group, this combination has been training together for a long time.
“We’ve played a couple of matches together and a few players just want to kick off their tournament this weekend – go out there and express themselves and enjoy it.
“We always have team goals or targets that we want to hit and I know that this 23 want to do that just like last week did.”