Hooker Atkin-Davies won the first of her 71 caps more than a decade ago.”I have scored quite a lot of tries off the back of a maul,” she says.”My first role though, the most important thing, it to throw the ball accurately [into the initial line-out].”As a hooker you have quite a habitual process – you will see I spin the ball a lot in my hands before the throw, that is part of my process.”Then I join the back of the maul and, first and foremost, push as hard as I can.”Depending on the set-up of the opposition, we might be looking to twist and find a weakness, but mostly it is about making sure we are tight and going forward. “The girls in the front of the maul do a lot of the work, while at the back, our variety means sometimes we have a flanker on the ball, sometimes a hooker.”Asked about the number of different variations for driven line-outs England have in their arsenal, Deacon replies coyly “a lot”.His team revealed one in the win over the United States. With 50 minutes gone and the Red Roses 40-7 up, England front jumper Zoe Aldcroft caught a line-out eight metres out from the American line.As the USA braced themselves for a shove, Kabeya and second row Morweena Talling instead peeled round into the narrow blind-side channel, linking up with hooker Amy Cokayne, who went in at the corner.Those trick plays are essential. For England’s strength can, conversely, also be a weakness.Such is their forward power and the usual slickness of their line-out, that the Red Roses have previously leaned on the line-out drive too heavily.In the last play of the previous Rugby World Cup final in 2022, England, trailing New Zealand by three points, had a line-out five metres out from the Black Ferns line.Everyone in Eden Park knew what was coming next and Atkin-Davies’ throw to Abbie Ward was disrupted to spark wild celebrations.
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England v Scotland: How Red Roses steamroller opposition off line-out
