England’s sky-high expectations of themselves make them immune to any pressure from being white-hot World Cup favourites, says Zoe Harrison.
The Red Roses, who have won their past 26 Tests, are odds-on to lift the title in New Zealand.
“It doesn’t matter what streak we are on, be it two, 40 or 12, I don’t care,” said Harrison, who plays at fly-half.
“The only pressure we have is from ourselves – we know we are a good bunch of girls and should be performing.”
Harrison added: “I just want to win games. I want to win the game coming this weekend and win the tournament.”
England’s latest victory was Saturday’s 84-19 thrashing of Fiji in their tournament opener.
Next Saturday, England play France, the team that has come closest to breaking their three-year winning run.
England’s average winning margin has been fewer than eight points in the teams’ eight matches since November 2019.
In the wake of England’s Six Nations-sealing 24-12 win in Bayonne in April, France have shuffled their coaching staff, with Thomas Darracq, formerly in charge of France’s women’s under-20s, brought in as head coach and Annick Hayraud moved sideways.
Gaelle Mignot, a Grand Slam winner in her playing days, and David Ortiz also joined the set-up in May.
“We watched their win over South Africa, looking at what they may have with new coaches, seeing if there is anything different, but there are a lot of the same girls in there from the last time we played them,” added Harrison.
“We play them so much, we have had so many big finals against them – autumn games, Six Nations games – so we know how they play.
“We want to do the best of what we can and don’t want to get sucked into what they can do.”
