When you think of a scrum-half, you probably picture someone small, loud, and brimming with confidence. Lucy Packer? She's the quiet exception who lets her play do the talking.
As England chase a fifth straight Six Nations Grand Slam, all eyes are on this 26-year-old with the lightning-quick pass. And while she's become a key figure in the Red Roses' title decider against France on Sunday, she'll be the first to admit she'd rather be anywhere but in front of a microphone.
"I don't really enjoy interviews," Packer says with a laugh. "It's not really my thing. But I'm getting a lot more comfortable doing it."
That comfort is growing just in time. When veteran scrum-half Natasha Hunt—a cornerstone of England's World Cup-winning campaign—went down with a knee injury in the opening Six Nations match against Ireland, the succession plan kicked into overdrive. Suddenly, Packer was thrust into the spotlight, a place she admits isn't her natural habitat.
At England's team base, while her room-mate Maud Muir is downstairs playing games with the rest of the squad, Packer is more likely to be curled up with a book. Right now, that's science-fiction bestseller The Martian.
"Maud's obviously the more extroverted friend, we are opposites but we really suit each other," Packer says.
Her social media tells the same story—just 105 Instagram posts, most of them quiet and understated. Instead, her focus is on a part-time master's degree in neuroscience she'll start in September at University College London, studying the biochemistry of concussion.
"It's a really big topic at the minute and something that I'm really passionate about," she adds.
That grey matter—both the one she studies and the one she protects—has been tested in high-pressure moments. Back on the morning of 12 November 2022, then-England coach Simon Middleton pulled her aside in the lobby of the team's Auckland hotel. At just 22 and with only eight caps, Packer thought her World Cup was over after tearing ankle ligaments. Instead, she was told she'd be starting the final against New Zealand later that day.
Now, with her 44th cap on the horizon and a Grand Slam on the line, Packer is proving that the best scrum-halves don't need to be the loudest in the room—just the sharpest on the pitch.