There was a moment after France’s Joanna Grisez scored where fans were looking left and right wondering if this would be the day England’s stranglehold on this competition would come to an end. The Red Roses were 31-7 up after 23 minutes but a resolute France stayed in the fight and cut back the lead to one point in the final minute . A French knock-on ended the game and the sheer pressure the hosts were under was plain to see by the wild celebrations by the England players at full time as they sealed their seventh successive Women’s Six Nations title.
It felt like the French ran out of time and had their revival come five minutes earlier they could have become the first team since themselves in 2018 to beat England in this competition. It was most definitely the visitors’ best outing of this tournament with the scrum-half, Pauline Bourdon-Sansus, and the wing Kelly Arbey having particularly impressive performances.
