Short term pain worth it for England

An understrength England side, fielding a number of new faces this season with 17 leading players focusing on Sevens over the coming months, suffered back to back defeats to Ireland and France, before bouncing back strongly with a win over Italy.Street says however that he is incredibly proud of his side and that a win over Wales this weekend would be fantastic after a tough 6 Nations campaign.

??This 6 Nations been exactly what I expected and it??s been tough,?˜ but it's also been a massive learning curve for everyone. This group of girls came together in January to train for this competition and they??ve been through a lot of ups and downs in a short space of time but they??ve grown so much in a few weeks that I??m really proud of them.??

??Coming together for a few training session when we hadn??t worked together much before as this particular group ?˜was always going to be hard, but we know that the long term benefits are huge and I was thrilled to see a lot of their work come together at the weekend when we went out and played Italy. That was going to be a real tough challenge mentally as we went into it on the back of two losses and Italy are having a good tournament so the way we went out and played that first half was something they can be very proud of.??

Street has copped some flak from media this campaign from those not understanding fully England??s decision to prioritise their bid for World Cup Sevens glory this summer in Russia, and he admits that??s been frustrating.

??I??ve been interviewed more during this 6 Nations than ever before and been asked plenty of times if we are devaluing the tournament.?˜ I think that??s rubbish because there??s been more coverage of this 6 Nations than ever before and we??ve got a new winner in Ireland, who are also getting great visibility.?˜ It??s been frustrating answering the same question over and over but we know what the bigger picture is.??

Street says whatever happens in Wales this weekend, England are well on track with their overall plan. ?˜

??Our targets over the last few months were that our Sevens team would go to the Houston and win, that they would then go to the World Cup with a number one seeding and that we would have a competitive 6 Nations campaign and feature lots of new players and we have done all of those things. We are one win away from finishing second in the tournament, though we obviously face a massive task away in Wales, so while losing games is never nice and we??re not used to it, in the cold light of day you can deal with that.??

As to what happens post 2014 when Sevens rugby will take an ever bigger role in the lead up to the Olympics, Street says England??s aren??t yet known.

??We??re working towards 2014 at the moment but we??ll obviously need to look at it after that and see where we are. At the moment it??s difficult to plan as we haven??t got the timings and venues for all of the Sevens World Series beyond this year and we don??t actually have the dates for the 2014 World Cup yet either but when we have a calendar to plan around then we will.??

With Sevens pushing forward rapidly, Street also adds that he hopes the fifteens game is not left behind.

??I would desperately hope that wouldn??t happen, it would be a terrible thing for the women??s game. There is a place for both, and Sevens is such a specialist sport that it really isn??t for everyone.?˜ There??s a real charm around getting fifteen girls together of all shapes and sizes and making a team out of them and we??ll do everything we can to keep a strong England fifteens programmes going and help nations out with fixtures when we can to make sure that global calendar of matches exists.??

England are planning for a heavy calendar of fixtures this year with a three-test series in New Zealand followed by a Nations Cup for an England development squad and later this year will likely bring three more autumn tests.

Back to his current squad of players and he believes plenty will be all the better for their experiences this season.

??Someone like Amber Reed has really stepped up for a young player. Everything we??ve asked of her she??s done and she just isn??t fazed by anything ahead of her. There are girls there like Emily Scott and Lauren Cattell playing out of position and for England at Twickenham and that experience will be massive for their development.?˜ I feel that this group have grown up incredibly quickly. Wales will be desperate to beat us and they are a good side with a strong pack and backs that can cause you problems but it would be fantastic for our group here to go there and win.??