Head coach Ioan Cunningham said, “We are looking at every way to best prepare the squad for the Rugby World Cup. We feel a training camp away from home, adapting to time zones and a different training environment will help us adjust to New Zealand when we arrive in September.
“And a Test match at the end of the week against Canada, who are currently third in the world will be a huge help in our preparations.
“We keep repeating ourselves but it really is a case of challenging ourselves to raise the bar by playing the best sides in the world as often as possible. The TikTok Women’s Six Nations was a brilliant tournament to be part of. We feel we have made significant progress since playing Canada last autumn and we want to keep improving over the summer.
“We are already excited to get started on our world cup preparations and being able to build on our progress so far this season.
“We were all disappointed not to finish with a win over Italy but there are a number of positives to take from the last few months. To finish third, our best position since 2009 is certainly an achievement, our improved fitness proved key in our late wins over Ireland and Scotland and also our comeback against Italy which provided a losing bonus point. Not only that but our whole squad played a crucial role. We increased our strength in depth this year, we are no longer relying on our starting XV.”
