Arizona Tribune - England women's rugby coach Mitchell says World Cup favourites' tag 'irrelevant'

Tournament hosts England kick-off this year's World Cup against the United States in Sunderland on Friday, with the Red Roses also facing Samoa and Australia in Pool A.

England, the world's top-ranked side, have lost only once in their past 58 matches -- a defeat by Mitchell's native New Zealand in the Covid-delayed 2022 World Cup final.

Mitchell, after naming his side Wednesday to play the United States, was asked about the challenge of being dubbed favourites even though England have lost lost five of the past six World Cup finals to New Zealand and were last crowned world champions back in 2014

"It doesn't really matter," said Mitchell, a former head coach of New Zealand's men's All Blacks. "We start the tournament equal like everyone else.

"Being favourites is irrelevant to us. It might be relevant to your (media) section of the world. We've just got to be where our feet are and earn the right each week."

England, currently on a 27-game winning run, face a United States side ranked 10th in the world, with Mitchell urging his side to embrace being "hunted" by their opponents during the World Cup.

"It's really important to basically focus on ourselves," he said. "We understand their threats –- it's not that we don't look at their threats –- but ultimately at the end of the day it's really important to focus on what we do and how we improve our margins, make sure that we perform above our standards."

Mitchell added: "I'm sure if we take care of that, then that will take care of the threats.

"Every team will rise 10 or 15 percent in this tournament because they're playing against England, that's just what we expect. From that point of view, we realise we're hunted but we also look forward to that as well."

O.Brown--AT