Smaller balls may be key development tool for women's game – John Mitchell

England head coach John Mitchell believes smaller balls could be an important development tool for the women's game.

World Rugby is to analyse data collected from a trial in the recent Women’s Under-18 Six Nations festival, as well as from the training sessions of three Celtic Challenge teams.

The current size 5 ball is the same as that used in the men’s game, while the trial tested the size 4.5 ball, which is around 3% smaller and up to 4% lighter.

"We use the big ball and we’re quite happy with that. When the smaller ball arrives, we’ll deal with that," Mitchell said.

"But if I put my development hat on, these young girls have been exposed to a big ball their whole life.

"If you’ve got younger girls wanting to come into the game and you have smaller communities that don’t have the ability to play 15s but could do a lot more in school yards with smaller balls, if that gives them confidence to play the game then I’m all for it."

Ireland players Deirbhle Nic a Bháird and Eimear Considine have previously welcomed trials with a smaller ball.

"It's worth looking at," Ireland back row Nic a Bháird, currently rehabbing a serious ACL injury, told RTÉ Sport.

England's Zoe Aldcroft, who has replaced Marlie Packer as captain for Saturday’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations clash with Scotland, has an open mind to the possible benefits of the smaller ball.

"We haven’t had many issues so far with a size 5, but we’ll go ahead and see what the 4.5 ball will do," Aldcroft said.

Packer was dropped for the first time since taking over the England captaincy a year ago and must settle for a place on the bench for the trip to Edinburgh, while veteran centre Emily Scarratt was overlooked altogether for a second-successive match.

The omission of two big name