Mitchell embraces favourites tag as Red Roses eye World Cup glory

England coach John Mitchell insists the favourites tag won't bother his side as they start their Rugby World Cup campaign.

The Red Roses have only lost one match in their last 57 but that was against New Zealand in the final three years ago.

They arrive at their home tournament as the world's number one side, courtesy of a seventh consecutive Six Nations title.

But while they've reached the last six World Cup finals - they've only won once.

"It doesn’t really matter. We start the tour equal like everyone else. Being favourites is irrelevant to us. We’ve just got to earn the right each week," said Mitchell.

"It’s a huge vehicle for us to have presence. I heard a few months ago that before this tournament a few years ago, as far back as 2018 we only had 1% watching. By the end of 2025 we’ll have something like 20%. That’s still not enough. The only way we can have a presence is being watched and this is simply a vehicle for women’s rugby and English rugby to prosper from.

"I don’t believe that we can talk in the future or the past either. We must deal with the present. We have to earn the right over the next three weeks to progress any further so that’s where our focus is."

Mitchell has named an unchanged 23 to the team that beat France in their final warm-up match for the opening group match with the USA at Sunderland's Stadium of Light.

T-Minus two days 👊

Here is your Red Roses squad facing USA on Friday in the World Cup opener 👏

Read more here 👉 https://t.co/c7640EWg4F#PWR pic.twitter.com/IhbXXOOkFj

— Premiership Women's Rugby (@ThePWR) August 20, 2025

However, he expects the injured Helena Rowland, Holly Aitchison and Claudia Moloney-MacDonald to be back in contention for their second group match against Samoa in Northampton.

"We are trying to build cohesion," added Mithcell, whose most marginal selection appeared choosing Loughborough Lightning's Sadia Kabeya at openside flanker ahead of former captain Marlie Packer.

"We’re not like the southern hemisphere teams which have had a lot of rugby. We are just building so it’s important you have combinations that the players are familiar with.

"We do have history together. Over the last three years something like 1,200 caps are spread among those girls and that’s a lot of experience and a lot of belief and you must play those cards in a tournament like this.

"Every team will rise 10 or 15% because they’re playing against England. That’s what we expect. We realise we’re hunted but we look forward to that as well.

"The USA are well into their programme, we’re starting out, so it’s really important to focus on ourselves. We understand their threats, it’s not that we don’t look at their threats, but we focus on what we do and how we improve our margins and make sure we fall above our standards."

Trailfinders Women's Meg Jones insists the team are straining at the leash to tackle the USA - with a record crowd of over 40,000 expected as the Red Roses take temporary focus away from the Black Cats in Wearside.

"We've trained so much. I'm sick of training against each other. I want some opposition," she said.

"I couldn't have asked for a better group to be around and I think that's going to bring us so much trust going into this, because I trust that group now and I know everyone's out to help each other.

"When we go into big pressure situations and your backs against the wall, you want to look to your left and your right and know that you've got an emotional connection with someone."

With more than 330,000 tickets already sold, and prices starting at just £5 for children and £10 for adults, fans are encouraged to secure their tickets now via tickets.rugbyworldcup.com