Women's Six Nations 2024: England Women want Pinehill Park to be a 'consistent training base'

England Women want Pennyhill Park to become a “fixed training base” for them, says head coach John Mitchell.

The men's team stayed and trained at the five-star hotel during the Six Nations, but the women used other venues in the lead-up to the tournament.

They are now training at Pennyhill but are staying at a four-star hotel nearby.

In response, the Rugby Football Union (RFU) said: “As the game continues to grow and develop, the RFU will evaluate where to prioritize investment.”

The RFU added: “The Red Roses have consistently used Pennyhill Park as a high-performance training base, in preparation for last year’s WXV Championship, and will use it throughout the Guinness Women’s Six Nations this year.

“As with the men’s team, they have sometimes chosen to use training bases elsewhere to be exposed to different environments and deal with different areas of the country.”

In 2024, English women used St George's Park in Burton upon Trent and Hazelwood in Sunbury-on-Thames for camps, along with Pinehill Park.

Pennyhill Park in Surrey has world-class indoor training facilities as well as a full-sized outdoor rugby pitch made from the same turf used at Twickenham Stadium.

Mitchell takes over as Red Roses head coach in 2023 and this will be his first Women's Nations Championship.

“Our girls are living in a TikTok world these days, so it's important to see it and do it, rather than seeing it and having to wait a long time to do it, which you can often find when you go into environments that aren't it,” Mitchell told BBC Sport. Create that.”

“The one thing Pennyhill Park does is it allows you to learn faster and do it faster, so yeah, a consistent training base does that.

“But we have very good resources and that's probably the only thing I think that really impacts our learning.”

When asked if Mitchell was in discussions with the RFU for the Red Roses to remain permanently at Pinehill Park, he replied: “We talk about those things, but we also understand the realities of the priorities of tournaments and the way the calendar works.”

“But it's like our time now in the Six Nations and we're very lucky to be able to be here.”

The Red Roses begin their Six Nations campaign away in Italy in Parma on Sunday.