England’s best still ‘earning her money’ despite injury

England Women head coach Simon Middleton has revealed injured star player Emily Scarratt will be helping from the sidelines as the Red Roses prepare for a tough autumn.

World Rugby Women’s Player of the Year Scarratt broke her leg on the opening day of the Premier 15s season, with a return date uncertain.

Autumn internationals against New Zealand, Canada and USA mark an experimental phase for Middleton's squad with a year to go before the 2022 Rugby World Cup.

"Emily is doing fine, the surgery went well, she's on track in terms of return to play and, she's still going to be earning her money,” Middleton said. “We've already got her working on stuff and she wants to be massively involved from all aspects.

“Players get injured she accepts that and the first thing she wanted to do was right well how do I improve? How can I support the squad?

“Scotty Beman tasked her with a few things yesterday and we've still got a massive sort of experience that we've got with Scaz to play on.

"Ultimately she'll be able to give a different perspective on the games and particularly on New Zealand and that will help us massively as we go forward, so we'll still be putting her to work.”

Middleton named a 40-strong training squad including 11 uncapped players alongside the experience of the likes of captain Sarah Hunter, Amber Reed and Amy Cokayne.

The Red Roses will face New Zealand on back-to-back weekends in Exeter and Northampton before taking on Canada at Twickenham Stoop with the USA following a week later in Worcester.

Potential debutants such as Emily Robinson, Merryn Doidge and Maud Muir have been tasked by Middleton to grab the opportunity in front of them, with just a year to go to the World Cup in New Zealand.

“I think a combination of the experience we've got possibly with one or two debutants against New Zealand I think we've got enough [to beat New Zealand],” he added.

“Ultimately, it will come down to how we train over the next couple of weeks and how we perform but, if we play to our potential, we've definitely got the chance to win.

“Sometimes opportunities present themselves, but they never present themselves again, so you've got to grasp them while they're in front of you.

“Sarah Bern, Zoe Aldcroft, a couple of players who came from nowhere in the 2017 World Cup and didn't just make the side but made the side and excelled.

“You look at some of these players we've got and you can see they've definitely got the potential to do that so that's the message.”

All four games will be shown live on TV, which skipper Hunter believes is necessary to help the women’s game evolve.

“Hopefully, there'll be four real good quality games to really showcase where the women's game is at," she said.

“I'd like to say we've turned the corner, but we've only turned a corner of it keeps happening and we don't have to keep having the same conversation being like, Oh, isn't it brilliant that BBC and terrestrial TV are showing the women's game.

“That for me will be when we're fully there is that actually just becomes the norm and people know when our games are and expect to see them.”