Simon Middleton: All my energy is in preparation for England’s Grand Slam, not my exit | Rugby Union News

Simon Middleton says all his energy this week will be focused on preparing the Red Roses for the crucial Women’s Six Nations Grand Slam against France as the head coach takes charge of England for the last time.

Middleton has been in charge since 2015 in his role as England manager after Saturday’s decider, leading the Six Nations to five wins and two World Cup final defeats.

The 57-year-old former Castleford rugby league player said Sky Sports he thought little of Red Rose’s departure before the weekend.

“Honestly, I didn’t think too much about it,” Middleton said. “I’ve been thinking a lot about how big a game it is: England v France is always a big test, so you have to really focus on your game and their game and the preparation of the squad.

“Obviously, because he’s now a Grand Slam Six Nations decider. So that was my whole point.

“It’s not even like the last week, because we’re really into the training of the team.

Middleton said he was putting all his energy into preparing England for their Six Nations Grand Slam match against France.

“You don’t want to wake up on Sunday morning and win a trophy.

“We woke up the day after a big game on the wrong side of it, and you don’t want to go down like that. I would be lying if I said anything else.

“But we know what’s involved. We know what it takes to win. We will be as prepared as possible and hopefully we can get a result.”

Middleton said that even though it was an emotional situation, she had to take weeks of preparation out of it.

“Yes [emotion needs to be controlled]. If you get too emotional, it will cloud your judgment and it won’t allow you to prepare as well as you can,” Middleton said.

“That’s why we paid a lot of attention to the preparation of the side this week.

“This game is bigger than anything that’s going on with me and Scotty [Scott Bemand, England attack coach since 2015] or something else.

“For the Six Nations, the first stand-alone meeting at Twickenham for girls, it’s huge in terms of the women’s game as a whole. This is the new standard.

Middleton, who has been in charge since 2015, says emotion should be avoided because it can “cloud judgement”.

“We focused on that. We have a lot of players who have played with France before and had a lot of success against them.

“The players have not forgotten that Scotty and I will be retiring, but they are very focused on the performance.

“Because they know that’s what we all want. Get the win and then we can all celebrate. This is the main issue on their agenda.

“It’s going to be huge, 55,000 or whatever. But I think both teams will love the atmosphere and it will depend on the performance. You will thrive on it.”

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England’s Marley Packer says the record crowd at Twickenham on Saturday will play a big role.

Middleton: It doesn’t matter if the next manager of the Red Roses is a man or a woman

When asked if he felt his successor was important because the Red Roses boss was a woman, Middleton disagreed that the incumbent’s gender was a major factor, looking at the success of England Lions boss Sarina Wigman.

“I think the players will be the first to say that the main person is the right person, it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman.

“It has to be someone who can take the game forward and take the players to a new level individually and collectively.

England are aiming for a fifth successive Women’s Six Nations title

“There are some fantastic female coaches at the moment and some with a lot of experience in the game and that can have an impact on this type of role.

“But ultimately, who can deliver the right program. The right level of coaching and the right level of management.

“And it doesn’t matter if it’s male or female, I don’t care anyway.”