Rugby World Cup: England want to 'create a movement' like Lionesses
- Published
England go into the Rugby World Cup top of the world rankings
Rugby World Cup: Fiji v England |
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Venue: Eden Park, Auckland Date: Saturday, 8 October Kick-off: 04:45 BST |
Coverage: Live text commentary on the BBC Sport website and app. |
England scrum-half Leanne Infante says they want to "create a movement" at the Rugby World Cup and emulate the success of football's Lionesses.
The Lionesses won Euro 2022 in front of a record crowd at Wembley and the Red Roses are favourites to match that success by winning a third World Cup.
Their title bid starts against Fiji at Auckland's Eden Park on Saturday.
Infante said she hoped England's performances would show the sport was "an exciting game to watch".
"The Lionesses attracted such a huge crowd," she added, referencing the 87,192 that watched the final in July.
"I wasn't a women's football fan before that but tuning in and getting behind them, from a women's sport perspective, was huge and I think a lot of people did that.
"If we can have that same influence - people might not have ever watched women's rugby before but they have that opportunity to tune in."
Attendance records are already set to be broken in New Zealand, with more than 30,000 tickets sold for the opening match day at Eden Park.
England, who are ranked number one and have won a record 25 Tests in a row, are expected to feature in the final at the same venue on 12 November.
After their return home, the Red Roses will play a first stand-alone fixture at Twickenham when they take on France in the Women's Six Nations.
It is hoped that a successful World Cup campaign would help them build on record ticket sales in the 2022 Women's Six Nations, when 15,836 fans watched England beat Ireland in Leicester.
Infante said: "Thinking about where we are now as a sport and what we could come back to, we want to push ourselves.
"Hopefully [viewers] can see it is an exciting game to watch.
"When we get the opportunity to bring that back to England, we're on the road with the Six Nations fixtures and hopefully we can drum up more interest and keep building on it.
"It just feels really special at the moment to be a part of."