Red Roses stars pay visit to Sandy Park

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By Mark Stevens
1/3/19

England Women’s Marlie Packer and Lagi Tuima today visited Sandy Park ahead of round four of the Women’s Six Nations where England will take on Italy on Saturday, March 9 (12.05pm).

With over 8,700 tickets currently sold, the upcoming game will be a record breaker in terms of number of tickets sold to a Red Roses’ home fixture outside of a Women’s Rugby World Cup.

As well as meeting with a number of stakeholders from local clubs, universities, colleges and Exeter City Council, Packer and Tuima spent the morning with over 100 girls and the Exeter Chiefs Community department who are involved in Project Rugby – a joint initiative between England Rugby and Premiership Rugby designed to increase participation in the game by people from traditionally under-represented groups.

Born in Yeovil, Somerset, Packer said: “Being from the West Country having the opportunity for the Red Roses to play to a home crowd in Exeter this Six Nations is hugely exciting.

“I know first-hand how much people love their rugby in this part of the world but taking the Red Roses across the country is also about trying to grow interest in women’s rugby, and that’s exactly what we’re hoping to do by playing here.

“The fact that we’ve already hit a record in terms of number of tickets sold to a Red Roses’ home game is amazing and it would be even better to see as many people come along to support us as possible.”

Exeter University student and Red Rose Tuima added: “It’s so important that we continue to drive interest in the women’s game from grassroots right the way up to the professional level.

“As the Red Roses we have the responsibility to act as role models for women and girls who are looking to get into rugby and hopefully by bringing the women’s game to Exeter and other parts of the country we can do our bit in getting more people involved.”

With three wins from three in this year’s Women’s Six Nations tournament, England Women are currently sitting top of the table with Italy ranked second.