Phil Neville Says England Women Want to Dominate Like Rugby Union's All Blacks

England women's manager Phil Neville has revealed his team want to become a dominant force like New Zealand's All Blacks have in rugby union.

The Lionesses are gearing up for the FIFA Women's World Cup this summer, and Neville spoke about their aims.

Per BBC Sport, he said in the next decade they want to become "one of the greatest teams in the world" and "to be talked about like the All Blacks, leave legacies that the young kids of today will always remember."

"[We were] talking about objectives," he added. "I wanted them to say 'win the World Cup' but they went bigger. I was like, 'wow, they're thinking bigger than I thought they were.' I had to readjust my own objectives."

As far as sports teams go, few would be better to emulate than the All Blacks.

New Zealand lifted the Rugby World Cup in 1987, 2011 and 2015 and have won 449 of their 586 matches since they began competing in 1903, a staggering success rate of 79 per cent.

The Lionesses finished third at the World Cup in 2015 and reached the semi-finals of the 2017 UEFA Women's Championship two years later.

Ahead of this year's World Cup, England warmed up for the tournament by winning the 2019 SheBelieves Cup.

The Lionesses beat Brazil 2-1, drew 2-2 with world champions USA and then beat Japan 3-0 to seal the trophy:

Alex Scott, who earned 140 caps for England before her international retirement in 2017, is hoping the team can build on that success:

So too is Neville, who told the Daily Mail's Dominic King: 

"We have to capitalise on this boom before, during and after the World Cup. If we don't it will be an absolute disgrace. We can take women's football up to a level nobody ever dreamed—it's that big a movement. I took the job because I thought it could be like this."

As a result of their success, England will be one of the teams to beat in France this summer:

There's a long way to go before they're a dominant force, though.

The United States can lay claim to that status, having reached the final in four of the seven Women's World Cups and won three times, as well as finishing third on every occasion they did not make it there.

It's an ambitious aim from the Lionesses, and if they can match it with a winning mentality from their recent success and put in another excellent showing at the World Cup, they'll have a strong platform to continue building on in the coming years.