Former England Women’s coach Simon Middleton has praised successor John Mitchell for his approach of winning the “hearts and minds” of his new players while implementing a game plan they “will really enjoy”.
Having served as an assistant for the Red Roses’ 2014 World Cup triumph, Middleton was head coach of the team from 2015 to 2023, winning five Six Nations Grand Slams and a further title and guiding his players to two World Cup finals in that time.
In his first two matches officially in charge of the team, Mitchell has attempted to implement a more free-flowing attacking style to the Roses whilst maintaining their recent dominance in the championship.
It’s Mitchell’s emphasis on freedom that Middleton admires most, which he believes has allowed his successor to have an instant impact both tactically and as a leader.
“I don’t know him that much as a coach and I’ve never met him,” Middleton admitted, speaking on The Rugby Paper Podcast. “But he looks like he’s trying to bring a real freedom of mind to the team, which I know is becoming more of a trait in the sport – particularly in the women’s game.
“They talk a lot about expressing themselves and playing from that point of view, and if you want to make an immediate impact on a group getting hearts and minds first positions you well to do some of the other stuff.
“You can see how they’re working on that cultural stuff, and then from a playing perspective you can see categorically what they’re trying to do. They want to raise the tempo that they’re playing at, and against Italy that started a bit too fast with lots of errors, but you look at the second half of that game and [the Wales game and] they’re just getting the balance better between control and accuracy.
“The error count has come down massively and they look incredibly threatening, anywhere on the park they look like they’re ready to go. It’s a type of rugby that’s exciting to watch without a shadow of a doubt.”
Despite winning 36 out of his last 37 matches as coach Middleton faced occasional criticism for the style of rugby he had overseen whilst at the helm of England, with some putting their narrow World Cup final defeat in 2022 down to an over-reliance on their usually brutally effective lineout drive.
Though that could be seen as an overly simplistic analysis of his tenure, Middleton graciously acknowledged that Mitchell was indeed increasing the team’s range of gameplans and that his former players would relish the new challenge.
He added: “There’s a number of ways to skin a cat, a lot of it depends on the personnel you’ve got, but he’s talked about the ability to play a number of types of game.
“I think we’ve always had that, but because he’s really focussing on that run rather than kick strategy and you can see that developing quicker in the side whereas we were more structured, more controlled.
“They’ve got such an abundance of high quality players who are very adaptable and I think the girls will really enjoy playing the style that John is implementing.”
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