England's dominant women's rugby team, the Red Roses, are driven by an unrelenting pursuit of perfection despite their overwhelming success on the field.
Prop Sarah Bern, a key player in England's formidable lineup, revealed that the team remains unsatisfied with their performances, even after extending their remarkable winning streak to 35 consecutive Test matches with an 84-7 victory over Scotland last Saturday.
"If you ask any of the girls, I don't think we've put out a performance that we're super proud of yet," Bern said. "Every week we look at how can we develop our game. How can we push to have the best attack, the best defence, the best everything. That might seem like an unattainable goal, but that's in the Red Roses' DNA to keep striving and pushing the barriers. Until we have that perfect game, I don't think anyone will be happy."
England's dominance has been staggering—they've won 65 of their last 66 matches, with their only defeat coming against New Zealand in the 2022 Rugby World Cup final. Now they're aiming for an eighth consecutive Women's Six Nations title.
Bern explained that the team's training sessions are often more intense than actual matches as they chase their ideal performance. "Our training sessions are not as long, but we try to push above and beyond the standards of a game so that when we get to the game we can problem-solve and figure it out," she added.
The Red Roses face Wales this Saturday at Ashton Gate in Bristol, continuing their Six Nations campaign. Bern has already scored two tries in each of England's opening two victories against Scotland and Ireland.
Despite winning last year's World Cup with a forward-dominated approach that produced 10 of their 16 knockout stage tries, England is now evolving their attack strategy. With Emily Scarratt taking over as attack coach, the team is working to become more versatile and entertaining.
"Where we're trying to evolve to now is being threats from anywhere," Bern explained. "We recognise that we won a World Cup, and it was great, but we definitely could have made improvements in our attack. We always talk about how even if something's not broken, we can break it and start again. Just because it worked doesn't mean we can't change anything. We want people to come to the stadium and see something different every week. We want to be entertaining."
This relentless drive for improvement comes as England faces the challenge of maintaining fan interest despite their overwhelming dominance in women's rugby. By evolving their game and pursuing perfection, the Red Roses aim to keep pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the sport.