RWC2025 | Assistant coach Sam Needs, Piper Duck and Georgina Friedrichs look ahead to Australia's match against England

Assistant coach Sam Needs, Piper Duck and Georgina Friedrichs (pictured) look ahead to Australia's match against England, their final Pool A encounter, at Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium on Saturday.

Sam Needs, assistant coach

On the points difference with USA:
"We don’t worry about the point difference. We're coming here to win and that’s our mindset."

On what he thinks of the Red Roses:
"They’re a classy outfit. They’re very strong, they’ve been very strong for a number of years now, so we’re excited for the challenge. They’re number one for a reason and we’re here to test ourselves against the best in the world, so it’s going to be an immense battle."

On their gameplan against England:
"We’re not worried about gearing our system focusing on shutting down certain individuals. We’re more focused on kind of working together as a connected line as opposed to picking out different individuals and what they might bring."

Piper Duck

On dealing with pressure ahead of games:
"I’m really proud of the campaign we’ve had. Everyone says it, pressure is a privilege, you play rugby to compete. We train to compete at the highest level and to be given the opportunity to come against England, the world’s best right now. To create that upset and be that underdog, I’m really excited for it."

On the points needed to qualify for the quarter-finals:
"We’re going attacking into this game like any other game that we would in understanding that we have a job to do that we’re here to execute well. So it’s funny that people keep saying, oh you need this result, you need that. But I don’t know, if you play good rugby and you’re there to win, the result will take care of itself."

On England’s back row:
"They have a really solid back row, but I believe in the shot we have as well, but going against a team like that, I just get excited. I get to compete against the best in the world and putting my best foot forward. I’m extremely excited to get out there on Saturday and to see ourselves against them, but also them against us. We’re hard to control, so it’s going to go both ways."

Georgina Friedrichs

When asked about going up against Meg Jones:
"She’s a world-class player, so I’m expecting her to put her footwork on and she’s got really good ball skills coming from a sevens background. We’ve done our research, hopefully we can contain her."

On her playing style with different teammates:
"Obviously there’s different cues for different players, we’ve been playing together long enough that we know each other well enough to be able to make those adjustments going into each game."