Red Roses in Pool C for 2021 Rugby World Cup
The Red Roses will be in Pool C for the 2021 Rugby World Cup after the draw was made in host country New Zealand.
England have been drawn in a pool with France, South Africa and Fiji in what is the first women's Rugby World Cup to be held in the southern hemisphere.
- Red Roses name side to face France at Twickenham
- Listen to Sarah Hunter with Owen Farrell on England Rugby Podcast: O2 Inside Line
- Highlights: France Women v Red Roses
The draw took place at SkyCity Theatre in Auckland at an event where New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and New Zealand Rugby Board member and former All Black Dan Carter were amongst those in attendance.
England have competed at eight Rugby World Cups and have been in the final in all but one, winning two of the seven finals they have contested.
At the 2017 Rugby World Cup in Ireland, the Red Roses progressed to the final where they were beaten by the Black Ferns 41-32 in a game that was watched on television by a peak audience of 2.6m people.
The tournament will run from 18 September 2021 until 16 October 2021 with the match schedule for the games to be confirmed at a later date.
Reaction
England head coach Simon Middleton: "I thought the draw was fantastic and if that is a taste of things to come then you don't want to miss the World Cup.
[When asked about the reaction from the squad] “You get the experienced players who had a few nods and looks at each other and you get a feel from them about ‘this is fine, there is a good slant on the game at the weekend now’, and then the younger players are bouncing off the walls as it’s a World Cup.
“South Africa are an incredibly proud nation and you only have to look at the men’s World Cup final and everything that went with that. It’s fantastic that we get to play them as we haven’t against their senior side for a while – it will be physical and high energy.
“I encountered Fiji a lot of the sevens series when I coached and they’re very similar to the men with their offloading game, very physical and will come out of the line in defence, so we’re going to have a few challenges that we’ve not had before.”
England captain Sarah Hunter: “I just had this gut feeling we were going to be drawn against France, I don’t know what it was about it. They’re one of our rival teams who we have regular encounters with and they’re always hard fought and entertaining for the neutral.
“When we played them in the semi-final of the last World Cup it was probably one of the most physically demanding games that I’ve played in.
“If we want to win the World Cup we’re going to have to play the best teams along the way so if they’re in our pool that is what we focus on to get out of our pool.
“I thought there was a sense of what the competition was going to be and if that’s the draw how good is the tournament going to be? As a player, team and a country we want to go and play on the biggest stage and you got a feeling this could be the biggest World Cup there has been in the women’s game.”
Red Roses at the Rugby World Cup
1991 - Runner-up
1994 - Winner
1998 - Third-place
2002 - Runner-up
2006 - Runner-up
2010 - Runner-up
2014 - Winner
2017 - Runner-up
