Amy Cokayne Eager for Red Roses Return

Cokayne has spent nearly 10 weeks on the sidelines due to a calf injury, but could make her return on Sunday against Ireland.

England’s strength in depth is enviable for most teams and it’s no different as Lark Davies and Connie Powell have stepped up in her absence. The Red Roses have kept their winning run intact whilst Cokayne has been in rehab, and she notes that standards haven’t slipped since she has returned to the training squad.

“You have to have so much hunger to get in that starting shirt,” she said. “You really have to work for it because there’s people all over the place who are ready to take your shirt.

“It’s been a tough week, the training has been really hard to be honest and you can see the competition for places in training. It’s only a good thing that we’re building the strength in depth, getting that competition back in camp for me and Lark is great and excited to get back involved.

“I was told that I probably wouldn’t feature at all in the Six Nations so to get that glimmer of light that I could be fit for these two fixtures I just focused on that.”

Simon Middleton’s side are on track for a fourth straight Six Nations title, currently sitting top of the table with three bonus point wins from their opening three contests.

There’s more to shout about off the pitch as a record crowd of over 14,000 watched the Red Roses beat Wales in Gloucester in the last round with another big crowd set for the weekend at Welford Road.

The women’s game is in good shape and Cokayne believes the chances of selling out Twickenham are improving day by day.

“That’s the dream,” added Cokayne. “When we got spoken to about bidding for the World Cup, the idea of selling out Twickenham was thrown out there. For a lot of girls it was like 'good luck doing that'. But to see the crowds we've been creating for the Six Nations, we're closing the gap on that for sure."