England coach Mitchell to stay past home World Cup
England women's head coach John Mitchell will stay on even if the Red Roses fail to win this year's home Rugby World Cup, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) has confirmed.The RFU revealed Mitchell, 61, and his England coaching staff all have contracts until 30 June 2026, regardless of the outcome of the World Cup that starts in August.England, who last won the World Cup in 2014, have lost the past two finals to New Zealand.RFU director of rugby performance Conor O'Shea said: "Results are important, but you don't want people thinking about what their next job is by having a contract finishing at that time."There will be no thought for anything until we get through the World Cup and Six Nations."
Mitchell was part of the coaching staff when Eddie Jones's England lost the 2019 World Cup final to South Africa and O'Shea backed him to handle the inherent pressure that comes with leading a side at a home World Cup.The Red Roses lost the 2010 World Cup final on home soil to New Zealand, while the men's team failed to get out of their pool at a home World Cup in 2015."The process that Mitch [John Mitchell] will bring the group through over the next four or five months will be to attempt to take that pressure away from them, but also deal with it and rationalise," O'Shea added."Anyone who has coached the All Blacks, England, the United States and Japan to the levels he has will have the battle scars to understand how to block out noise, but also use that pressure in a really good way."England comfortably won their opening four games of this year's Women's Six Nations, before holding on to defeat France by a point in a 43-42 thriller at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham on Saturday.The victory secured a fourth consecutive Grand Slam and seventh Six Nations title in a row to extend their winning run in all competitions to 25 games.The Red Roses's last defeat was by the Black Ferns at the World Cup final in 2022, with the match against Les Bleues the closest that sequence has come to ending."Anyone that thinks you are going to go into a World Cup and roll teams over because you are the hosts is deluding themselves," former Harlequins director of rugby O'Shea added."It's going to be an unbelievable summer for that group of players. The carrot is huge, but you don't write your own script. In sport, you never do."
Women still loss-making
England's women are still yet to return a profit, with the RFU continuing to invest £15m annually.However, there are green shoots with a 391% increase in ticketing in the last four years, compared to the four previous years.Despite the women's game making an overall loss they have collected £2.4m from ticketing revenue in the last season alone.Alex Teasdale , the RFU's director of the women's game, told the BBC: "It's not all about making money. I think ultimately we're here to be able to grow the game."There was a crowd of 37,573 at Allianz Stadium for last Saturday's win over France, a significant drop from the 58,498 who attended the same match in 2023.However, Teasdale is not concerned by the figures, adding: "We have got Rugby World Cup tickets on sale at the moment as well."I think a really interesting kind of stat from this season is that between Premiership Women's Rugby and the RFU, we sold 250,000 tickets for (women's) rugby in England this year."Then you add the Rugby World Cup tickets on top of that (275,000) and we're in for over half a million tickets this year."One small success story from the Allianz fixture was the sale of 500 red cowboy hats in the official stadium shop and outlets.The hats stem from a small group of Red Roses players, including Ellie Kildunne and Megan Jones, who self-styled themselves as the cowboys.The hats sold out nearly two hours before kick-off, with Teasdale adding the volume would need to "significantly" increase for the World Cup."The cowboy hats I think are just a really important moment in us trying to create a really strong fan engagement piece, as we know the Red Roses are very strong on their kind of country background and influences," she added."Seeing those hats around the ground, I think it's going be something to 'see' at the Rugby World Cup if we can get enough of them out there."
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