A former Waikato man, Mitchell played for the Mooloos alongside Warren Gatland, and became a trophy-winning, totemic figure as captain.
There are few coaches more experienced at the elite level than Mitchell, 60, whose CV in the men’s game includes the All Blacks, England (twice) and Japan - and that’s just at international level. His club coaching career has taken him from England to New Zealand to South Africa.
Now, this Super Saturday, he could be about to steer his unbeaten Red Roses to what would be one of their most dominant campaigns in Championship history.
Was there anything in this game he hadn’t encountered in his almost thirty years as a coach, you might wonder. Becoming head coach of the Red Roses and working with an elite women’s team would have been one answer. “It helps to have experience, and it’s also pure fluke that I chose to coach this team,” reflected Mitchell. “There was no premeditated thinking behind it: just to treat them as people and driven athletes. That’s held me in good stead.”
Mitchell benefited from the seven-month period between his appointment being made official, and actually taking up the reins proper. “I was invisible for a long period of time, but there were also windows where I had the opportunity to get some new developments in, which we transferred in during WXV,” he explained. “I had a chance to get out to New Zealand for the whole tournament, so since then it’s been about creating more alignment, strengthening relationships.
“2023 was actually a really good period to build. Just coming in immediately before a tournament would be so much harder. Obviously there’s a lot of common context [between the men’s and women’s game] but there are parts where I’ve got no context, but because I’ve got really good staff that can help me out. I’m still learning lots, which is good.”
He may still be learning, but it’s what he’s been teaching that has evidently had an extraordinary effect on England. Take the results that have led to this weekend’s decider in Bordeaux: Italy 0-48 England; England 46-10 Wales; Scotland 0-46 England; England 88-10 Ireland. That near-watertight defence should come as no surprise given this is Mitchell’s domain (it was his defensive intelligence that helped take England to the 2019 Rugby World Cup final).
Helpfully, he also has willing students in the Red Roses camp, and a sterling prefect in captain Marlie Packer, who her head coach describes as “a beautiful human being”. What is it that makes openside Packer, who became a centurion during this campaign, such a powerful presence for her team? After all, as a back rower himself during his playing days, he knows what it requires to thrive at the back of the pack.
“She’s found a way in life where she’s excelled, getting to a point where [she’s played 100 games for her country], which is huge,” Mitchell said. “I don’t think some people understand how much rugby can take out of you, physically and emotionally, and yet she’s found a way to get to this point.
“When you meet her, her presence is homely; she’s very considerate, she’s a mother. Ultimately she leads through her actions. She doesn’t choose to be anyone else. If you asked me what player she’s comparable to that I’ve coached in the past, I’d say she reminds me a lot of someone I had at the Chiefs, Marty Holah, who was unfortunate to be behind Riche McCaw [for the All Blacks]. And she’s got a little bit of Neil Back about her as well.”
Taking over from his predecessor, Simon Middleton, Mitchell knew he was starting from a position of strength - albeit the team had fallen at the final hurdle at the World Cup in 2022. What he outlined before this campaign was a desire to add new strings to England’s bow. And how that has played out, in a manner that will have sent shivers down the spines of opponents outside the Six Nations.
As Mitchell described it: “Firstly, we’ve got to keep our DNA. We have strengths, we have power, so we can go to that, but I think what it really is about is how we can become quicker, how we can repeat, which then creates more pressure on the opposition. But more importantly, I’d like to see by the end of this tournament that we’ve found multiple options to attack through, rather than going through our traditional strengths.
“So that’s where we’re heading, and I guess the girls are pretty excited by that, because if you looked at our past before my time - much as we’ve been a good team - we haven’t been a champion team [in the World Cup] for 11 years. We’ve got to be able to find ways to advance our game and make sure that we play as one team. I think we’ve been perceived as a team of forwards [in the past], and what do our backs do et cetera? So I want to change that perception.”
Thirty-six tries later (22 of which have been scored by backs), and a possible Grand Slam on the cards, that perception has surely changed dramatically.
