Street: Balancing act will strengthen England

These are changing times in womens rugby, and having been at the helm since 2007, Gary Street finds himself in an environment which now requires a tougher balancing act than ever before.

As he prepares his England squad to take on the World Champions, England Sevens coach Barry Maddocks is also preparing a squad to head to Dubai for the first tournament of the Womens World Series.

The combination of a large number of Englands leading players being talented crossover athletes who continue to grace both forms of the sport, and the direct clash of schedule, makes that balancing act one that will only intensify in the year ahead as the Sevens World Cup looms in 2013.

But Street isnt fazed by the challenge; in fact he believes over the coming year, it will help develop an even stronger pool of top English talent.

Its no secret that we are prioritising Sevens in 2013 with the aim of sending a team to Russia capable of winning the Sevens World Cup, he said.

Weve looked really long and hard at our options and at what we felt was right and realistic for us in order to be able to compete to win both World Cups in 2013 and 2014. Our solution hasnt been to designate certain players as Sevens and certain as 15s we know that with proper management some can do both.

Englands programme next year will inevitably lead to a number of new and developing faces taking the field come Six Nations time, and Street is hopeful that that development will stand his side in good stead when the time comes around at the end of next summer to focus completely on the lead-up to the World Cup in 2014.

Right now, its certain to say, Street and his squad are totally focused on hosting a New Zealand side who are gunning for a much better return than their effort last year, managing just a draw after losing the first two tests.

Streets squad come into the series on the back of a superb 2012 which included a seventh Six Nations win in a row and a European Cup title. Crucially it also included a summer of hard individual skills work, with the England coaches travelling around the country to spend hours in one on one player sessions finessing a range of skills.

Street says: Myself, Graham Smith and Barry tried to identify three key specifics that wed like to see a player improve on. It could be something as simple as a slight adjustment to a passing technique and so on but it was great to be able to dedicate that sort of time to each player that you just dont get on a tour or in a group camp. It was invaluable really. As a result when we met up for a few days to prepare for the France game we were able to focus right away on our team structures and patterns because wed already invested a lot of time in the skills and so on over the summer

The win over France was a useful exercise in warming up for New Zealand, if only to get a number of key players who have returned from injury, such as Heather Fisher, Claire Allan and Danielle Waterman, valuable game time.

New Zealand travel to England cold in terms of international preparation, with not a single game under their belts in a year, but hot from highly competitive NPC action.

Their NPC competition is very strong, Street said.

I am not sure that the fact they havent played together in a New Zealand shirt is as relevant as it might have been before because a large bulk of their squad have just come through that campaign together in teams like Auckland and Canterbury and they have the advantage always of just having a fantastic skillset, so that even if they have new players you know they are going to be able to slot in quickly at this level. Of course though its tough on them not playing as many games as we do and we know how lucky we are.

As plenty of words and previews are circulated about the series ahead of the first game, Street can only but smile wryly when its suggested occasionally in New Zealand that the Black Ferns are up against a professional team something often thrown at England as their success has grown.

I can only take it as a compliment that others see the England girls as professional. I like to say that we are professional with a small p. We try to do everything extremely professionally but with a balancing act of all of the players being in fulltime jobs. I am incredibly proud of all of the girls who work so hard to be able to do that - they call it a choice, others would say sacrifice and they do it because they absolutely love pulling on an England shirt. We are very lucky to have access to top quality resources no doubt, but the girls have created their own winning culture despite balancing everything else in their lives.

Street's record with England makes superb reading. Since taking over as head coach in 2007, he has presided over just three losses twice to New Zealand and one to Wales- and England have won every Six Nations and a range of European Championship titles under his watch.

Undoubtedly though, the World Cup in 2014 in France is what keeps his desire to lead England burning.

That is what drives me. I want to do everything within my power and ability to take everything we learned from 2010 and push us all the way in 2014. I have no doubt that we are better, stronger team than we were 12 months ago and if we play well and to our standards then we are in with a shout I think of beating any side in the world. That starts with New Zealand in this series. It used to be different when we played them - we probably thought, well if they dont play that well and we play out of our skins we have a chance its not like that anymore.

Both teams have got to manage three games in eight days and Id look at it as being probably the toughest mini World Cup tournament in just over a week that you could imagine but if we can come through it with a series win it would be superb for us as we continue to grow and build.

You wouldnt bet against them.