Packer Reveals Personal Story Behind Shaun Edwards’ Red Roses Move
Shaun Edwards has joined the Red Roses’ coaching staff for the rest of their autumn campaign, arriving straight after six and a half years working in France. Marlie Packer says the Shaun Edwards Red Roses move carries a personal story that goes well beyond tactics. The back row explained that Edwards addressed the squad on his first day and told them exactly why he wanted the job.
“He told us a little story, telling us why he wanted to be here,” Packer said in an interview with BBC Sport. That story centred on his late mother, Phyllis, who never had the chance to play the game herself.
“He was saying about his mum not ever being able to have the opportunity to play, and that she would have loved to have done so,” Packer explained. Phyllis, she added, had followed the women’s team closely. “It was really cool to hear that she thought we were amazing,” Packer said.
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Phyllis Edwards worked as a hairdresser in Wigan. She also cared for Edwards’ father, Jackie, after a spinal injury ended his rugby league career at the age of 24. She died in March 2021.
Edwards has spoken before about how his mother pushed him towards union long before the code turned professional. “Back in the mid-1990s she was the first person to tell me to study rugby union as well as rugby league, because I always wanted to be a coach and I always took notes of what coaches said,” he said.
“When rugby union went professional in 1995, I was at the top of the league game, captain of Wigan who were world champions, but she always told me to learn about rugby union,” Edwards added. Details of his short-term coaching arrangement with England women were confirmed this week, alongside a coaching background across international rugby that stretches back decades.
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The Shaun Edwards Red Roses appointment already looks shrewd given his trophy record. He won domestic and European titles at Wasps and collected seven Six Nations titles across spells with Wales and France. “He’s got more Six Nations than quite a few of the girls, to be fair to him!” Packer said.
Packer believes bringing in a coach of that calibre reflects how far the women’s game has come, and what this Red Roses squad has built over recent years. “It’s amazing for the whole programme,” she said.
Packer also described his style on the training field. “He’s straight talking. He doesn’t say too much, but when he does say something, you hear it,” she said. Edwards steps into a consultancy role in the squad that still needs answers after last weekend.
England drew 26-26 with Canada at Sandy Park, a result that ended a 39-Test winning run. “We’re not happy with the draw, but we didn’t lose a match,” Packer said. “It was a really great game of rugby. If you’re a neutral that’s the kind of rugby that you want to come and watch, you don’t know who’s going to win, end-to-end scoring, and such a physical, physical game.”
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Packer says there is work to do before the next fixture. “We know we have to build from last week. We’re in a Test series against Canada; that’s our first game, now we’ve got two away legs. We know what we have got to put right,” she said.
England face New Zealand at Allianz Stadium on Saturday, 26 September. Packer welcomes the tighter contests appearing across the women’s game this autumn. “The Red Roses are always pushing that bar higher, then it’s for the other teams to raise their game, that’s exactly what’s happening and that’s what we want as players,” she said.
“The more the game goes professional, the more the unions put money into their women’s sides, we’re going to see better contests of rugby,” Packer added. She expects that trend to keep pushing England themselves. “We’re going to see that the Red Roses have it won in the first half. There will have to be 80-minute performances.”
“We don’t want to turn up and have to have targets within games because we know we’re going to win. We want to be in a rugby contest,” Packer said.
