Women’s World Cup winner Claire Purdy is confident England can be triumphant once again at this year’s competition in Ireland.
Purdy was part of the England side that beat Canada in the final three years ago in France before bowing out of the game.
England will line up against the US, Italy and Spain in their pool, playing all their games at Billings Park in Dublin. And the 37-year-old former prop has faith in the latest crop of English players as they bid to become back-to-back World Cup champions next month.
She said: “There is no doubting that England’s pool is tough. But am I confident we can achieve success in Ireland? Yes, of course I am.
“England begin the tournament against Spain which will be tough and we also face Italy and America. We played Italy in the Six Nations and they put us under a lot of pressure and we know the USA will be a battle.
“You do still have to be weary of everyone else like Australia, Canada and Ireland but I think going out to New Zealand last month was the biggest and the best test England could have had before coming into such a massive World Cup. They will take big confidence from those results.”
Purdy was an integral part of England’s previous two World Cup campaigns before hanging up her boots in 2014.
Capped 43 times by England, Purdy is pleased by the breadth of experience within the camp as well as an exciting crop of young players.
She added: “I think there is obviously a lot of experience in the side, but you have also got some good young guns coming through.
“I think they showed their worth especially in the Tests they had over in New Zealand so it is an exciting squad.
“The experienced players will have a massive impact in terms of their ability to see things before others which they can relate back to. They will know how to handle certain situations.”
