England captain Marlie Packer is confident her side will be ready to answer all the questions thrown at them when they bid to win the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup on home soil.
The Red Roses entered Thursday night’s draw as the highest-ranked team of all time on the back of a 20th successive victory when beating Canada to retain their WXV 1 title, adding to the Grand Slam success earlier in the year.
As top seeds in Pool A, England have been handed a testing opening schedule against Australia and the United States, who were winners of the first World Cup in 1991, as well as Samoa.
Scotland and Wales were both drawn in Pool B alongside Canada – who are ranked second overall behind England – and Fiji.
Ireland will face New Zealand again, having beaten the defending world champions in their opening WXV 1 match in Vancouver last month, in Pool C with Japan and Spain.
France are top seeds in Pool D, where they will take on Italy, South Africa and tournament debutants Brazil.
Should all of the seeded teams progress to the knockout stage as pool winners, then England would not meet either the Black Ferns or Canada until the final.
The full match schedule for the expanded 16-team tournament is to be released on October 22, with the fixtures running across six weekends from August 22 to September 27.
Packer believes whatever the opposition, England must focus on continuing to deliver the performances which have made them the dominant force in women’s rugby – having not tasted defeat since being edged out 34-31 by New Zealand in the 2022 World Cup final.
“It (the pool draw) is going to pose us questions, but I think that is really good for us,” Packer said.
“We don’t want to get into the knockout stages and not having being posed questions and made sure that we are in the best possible spot come those knockout stages.
“Every team that plays us wants to beat us, because we do have that dominance.
“That is what has been so great about these WXVs, is that we have had the opportunity to play the best teams in the world regularly for the last couple of years.
“We got posed questions by all the teams we played in lots of different areas, and it is all positive for us, because winning is a habit and we are very good at it as the Red Roses.”
It had already been confirmed England – who last won the World Cup in 2014 – will play their opening match in Sunderland, with the Red Roses’ remaining two pool fixtures being hosted at Franklin’s Gardens, Northampton and Brighton’s Amex Stadium.
Other venues will be Sandy Park in Exeter, Salford and York, as well as Ashton Gate in Bristol, which will also host a quarter-final and both semi-finals ahead of the final at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham.
Packer hopes a strong run in the tournament will inspire the nation.
“I think we could sell out the Allianz Stadium (for the final) – and what an incredible experience that would be, not only for the players that are playing in that game, but also the fans,” she said.
Ireland did not qualify for the last World Cup, but the recent wins over Australia in Belfast and then New Zealand have raised expectations.
“The group is quite familiar in terms of teams we have played in the last few years,” Ireland co-captain Sam Monaghan said following Thursday’s draw, which was live on the BBC’s The One Show.
“I am buzzing to play them (New Zealand) and I am sure they will be up for the rematch.”