England Women braced for first meeting with Australia in seven years
Tuesday 23 May 2017 16:34, UK
England's rugby team have upped their training as they get set to to face Australia for the first time in seven years.
The Grand Slam champions will face Australia for the first time since the Women's Rugby World Cup semi-final in 2010.
They will also play the Black Ferns and Canada as part of the 2017 International Women's Series from June 2-18 in New Zealand.
England centre Amber Reed said: "It will be exciting to play some new opposition and against some of the best teams in the world.
"There will be some challenging games but the training we've had behind us the last couple of weeks has been really physical and really intense and everyone has kind of stepped up.
"So we are looking to take that training and performance onto the pitch and turn it into a good result."
It will be an intense summer for the 28-player squad - due to be announced on Friday - as they will also compete in the World Cup, in Ireland later in the summer.
England hooker Vicky Fleetwood said: "Obviously the biggest thing is we want to retain our World Cup title in August but first things first are to get everything right in New Zealand."
England are currently ranked second behind New Zealand and will face the Black Ferns at the Rotorua International Stadium on Saturday, June 18, immediately before the Lions' match against the Maori All Blacks.
