Right time for a new Red Roses captain – Marlie Packer


Before Packer heads into Six Nations camp as England’s vice-captain, she will captain Saracens in the Premiership Women’s Rugby league against Exeter Chiefs on Saturday.

Nine points separate second and fifth in a highly competitive PWR league, Saracens are in third and know victory over fifth-place Exeter would book their spot in the semi-finals.

However, pipping second-place Harlequins to a home semi-final spot is Packer’s side’s ultimate aim.

“We need to make sure that against Exeter we maximise the score and come away with five points and a good performance,” the 108-cap flanker added.

“We are at the back end of the season now which is knockout rugby and we aren’t usually when it comes to the league. It is knockout rugby to get into the top four. We want to get a home semi-final against whoever it is.”

Gloucester-Hartpury, who sit top of the PWR, are chasing a third PWR title in a row, but have lost three league games this campaign, with Harlequins also losing three times.

“Usually the top two teams would lose one or two games max in the regular season. You would never get it quite all over the place like this league has gone,” Packer added.

“It is really exciting for the PWR. It shows the calibre of players playing in all the teams and you have to show up every game.

“The best league in the world is here at the PWR with the competitiveness week in and week out.”

Harlequins v Bristol Bears on Friday (19:45 GMT) is the first of four PWR matches that will be shown live on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website and app in the run-in to the season finale.

Defending champions Gloucester-Hartpury’s final regular-season match, when they take on Harlequins, will follow on 21 February.

BBC Sport will then show one of the semi-finals on the weekend of 1/2 March and the final, live from London’s StoneX Stadium, on 16 March.

BBC Sport is the home of women’s rugby this year with the Women’s Six Nations kicking off in March and exclusive coverage of this summer’s Women’s Rugby World Cup in England, starting on 22 August.



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