A brassy Bayonne crowd was beginning to empty as England again hoisted the Women’s Six Nations trophy aloft. A crowd of 11,000 French fans had barracked and brayed throughout to try to lift their home heroes to a first La Crunch win in four years but at the end of the 2022 tournament, as is becoming familiar, it was Simon Middleton’s squad climbing up on to the rostrum to receive their spoils – again victors of the tournament they now so thoroughly dominate.
And that is cause for concern. This has been an historic, transformative tournament, with greater broadcast, media and spectator interest than ever before. But it took until the final Saturday for there to be more than one game upon which there was genuine jeopardy and doubt.
