Red Roses recognised in World Rugby awards

4 Nov 2023 | 3 min |

Red Roses recognised in World Rugby awards

Marlie Packer has been named World Rugby Women’s 15s Player of the Year and features in the World Rugby Women’s 15s Dream Team of the Year alongside six England teammates.

Packer was one of four players nominated for the Player of the Year award. Fellow Red Rose Abby Dow also received a nomination alongside New Zealand’s Ruahei Demant and France’s Gabrielle Vernier.

She was announced as the winner following the Red Roses' 33-12 victory over the Black Ferns in Auckland.

"I'm completely on a high at the moment and I'm so proud of this squad, both players and staff," said Packer after receiving the award. "We spoke about this journey 11 weeks ago in Chester, and we've grown over the tournament.

"Me getting World Player of the Year is credit to the players around me. I can't do my job without them. I'm on cloud nine and the other girls should be too."

AUCKLAND, NEW ZEALAND - NOVEMBER 04: Captain Marlie Packer of England receives the trophy for being named World Rugby Women's 15s Player of the Year after the WXV1 match between New Zealand Silver Ferns and England at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart on November 04, 2023 in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Dave Rowland/Getty Images)

The inaugural WXV1 tournament saw England continue their unbeaten run with wins over Australia, Canada and New Zealand following their two warmup fixtures against Canada in September. Their dominance on the world stage is reflected by seven inclusions in World Rugby's Women's 15s Dream Team of the Year.

Louis Deacon said: "It's amazing. To think about all the players that we don't have available at the moment shows what an exciting period this is. That's what we wanted to find out within this competition - to see where we are as a squad.

"It's so exciting, the players who have been involved have been absolutely outstanding and the future is definitely bright. There's still a long road to go, but we're building strong foundations which is awesome."

Packer echoed Deacon's comments: "It's super impressive, but I think that goes down to the hard work and dedication that the girls put in to keep performing, not just at international level but week-in week-out at club level.

"We're in a great place and it's a whole squad effort to back up our performances every week. To train how we do and play how we do, we have to give credit to the whole squad because they've helped us prepare the best we can."