You would have got long odds on England’s men team reaching a second consecutive Rugby World Cup final in 2007. That they did was widely perceived to be because of a mid-tournament shake-up and sheer guts and determination rather than any carefully laid out plan.

The majority of England’s class of 2003 had called it a day by then, leaving the squad in a state of transition. And while some very good players such as Lawrence Dallaglio remained, and Jason Robinson was persuaded out of retirement, the road to the final in Paris was a decidedly rocky one.

For England’s women a smoother pathway lies ahead as they seek to mount a successful defence of the crown they won last August at the next Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2017, head coach Simon Middleton is making sure of that.

“It is a three-year cycle between World Cups and 2017 will be on us in no time whatsoever,” said Middleton, whose remit now covers both sevens and XVs.

“We had seven players of real quality retiring after the World Cup and those positions need to be filled. We already had some ready-made successors – the likes of Alex Matthews put in some great performances at the World Cup and she can play in any number of positions in the back row – but we felt that some of the other positions weren’t under-pinned by strong enough players.

“This is the point where we have got to develop the next generation of players which is why the Six Nations squad had the look that it did. Effectively we brought in seven to eight new caps and those players, who’d never played before, have now got 35 caps’ worth of experience between them, which is absolutely essential as we build a squad capable of winning the next World Cup.

"I’m absolutely positive that we wouldn’t have had a squad capable of doing that without going down the route we have gone down. If we’d have just looked at the players we had left in our systems and said ‘I think with a bit of luck she’ll be ready’, we would have been deluding ourselves and been very, very naïve in our approach.

“Ultimately the proof of the pudding will be in the eating but I’m much more confident now.

“We’ve got some great young kids coming through. Before the Six Nations who’d have heard of Bianca Blackburn (pictured)? She’s now go five three caps at scrum-half under her belt. In the front row Amy Cokayne, Vicky Cornborough and Justine Lucas have gained invaluable experience that you can only get through playing, and in the centre we brought in Abi Brown because we recognised that we’re a little bit light if Emily Scarratt wasn’t in the equation. Another key focus will be finding the successor to Katy Mclean’s crown (at fly-half).”

Top of the agenda

England’s fourth place finish in this year’s RBS Women’s 6 Nations certainly suggests that results were sacrificed on the altar of developing a squad built on firm foundations rather than on a wing and a prayer.

“We sort of knew what would happen going into the Six Nations,” Middleton explained. “When you’re going through a rebuilding process you’ve got to be prepared to take some hits. We knew we’d have some bullets fired at us about the quality of the squad. But ultimately we had to decide if we were going to start rebuilding for the next World Cup or prioritise winning another Six Nations.

"... with the euphoria created by the last World Cup it would have been foolhardy of us not to put that right at the top of our agenda."

Simon Middleton, England Women's head coach

“Obviously the Six Nations is a fantastic tournament that we want to win, we want to win every game, but with the euphoria created by the last World Cup it would have been foolhardy of us not to put that right at the top of our agenda. Ultimately that’s what we will be judged on.”

“We are 100 per cent behind what we are doing and that doesn’t mean we take the Six Nations lightly at all.” 

Rather than viewing the Six Nations as a failure, Middleton says England took a lot out of the campaign.

“Right from the word go we started to ask some really hard questions of the younger players of what being an international is all about and what playing for England is about: it is about winning and taking every opportunity.

“In the men’s game international rugby in not an environment where you go in and try and develop players, you try and develop players outside of that and then bring them in. But it’s different in the women’s game because there is a massive gulf between club and international rugby. So we have to bring youngsters in and, like with our sevens group now, try and accelerate their development.

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How did England win the 2014 Women's Rugby World Cup?
Last weekend England beat Canada 21-9 to lift the 2014 Womens Rugby World Cup in Paris, France. England went one step further than previous tournaments where they had finished second best to New Zealand on so many occasions.

“They got an unbelievable shock when we went to Wales and lost; they did brilliantly against Italy; we were massively critical of both the senior and younger players after losing to Ireland when we should have won; they responded really well in the win against Scotland; and then I think the France game was just a bit too far for us.

“I thought we showed great character in that game to come back when we were two scores down and staring down the barrel. We could have gone down by 30-40 points and really melted, but they dug in to lose by just six, which shows how much they’d developed from where they were against Wales to where they finished the tournament.

“We got an awful lot of things out of the Six Nations that we hoped we’d get out of it.”