The eagle-eyed watchers of the Red Roses, of which John Mitchell may now count himself one, may notice something different about the England head coach as his side return to action for the first time since Rugby World Cup glory. The six-and-a-bit months since that fabulous September day have been useful time for repair and recuperation – cataract surgery, one of a number undergone by the affable New Zealander recently, means there is no longer a need for the famous clear-framed spectacles from behind which he oversaw England’s Twickenham triumph.
New World Cup cycle, new perspective? Certainly, it is not just the head coach of the world champions that looks different. Of the victorious 32 players, wing Abby Dow and centre Emily Scarratt have retired, with the latter moving into Mitchell’s coaching staff; injury has accounted for Tatyana Heard’s campaign, and possibly Hannah Botterman’s too; and pregnancies rule out captain Zoe Stratford, Rosie Galligan, Abbie Ward and Lark Atkin-Davies. Opportunities, it would seem, abound within a team seeking an eighth straight Women’s Six Nations success.
“I think this team has probably already built a legacy,” Mitchell said after naming his first team of the tournament to face Ireland. “I guess there's an opportunity to build a dynasty but we're going to have to earn that right. It also won't hurt if we don't get it right occasionally.
“Over the next two years, there's a lot of girls becoming mums, which is fantastic. There's a Lions tour in 2027 so there's a lot of factors that will distract our girls along the way, so we've just got to be where our feet are and remain focused.”
The pace of change within the women’s game is clear from England’s opener. Two years ago, 48,778 watched Mitchell’s side thrash Ireland 88-10 at Twickenham’s Allianz Stadium; come Saturday, a bumper crowd approaching a sell-out is expected to watch an altogether closer contest. If it would be wrong to suggest that England are anything other than overwhelming favourites, there is a slight nagging sense of the unknown about where they go next - a 33-match winning run will not come to an end in round one but a few growing pains are perhaps to be expected as they attempt to raise the bar again.
Several of the squad have been open about the challenges they faced in the comedown from the intoxicating high of the World Cup. “It’s called tournament blues,” new captain Meg Jones suggested. “You have massive elation, [a] huge high and then you get back to reality. It hits you. You have gone from 82,000 to a couple of thousand in the PWR. The adrenaline isn’t quite there.” A sizeable crowd this weekend should help clear any lingering impacts.
The installation of Holly Aitchison at No 10 is a nod to Mitchell’s desire for greater attacking expansion, with Helena Rowland paired in playmaking partnership with her fellow fly half in the absence of Heard at inside centre. New skipper Jones steps in for Stratford, unavailable for the happiest of reasons like fellow locks Ward and Galligan – to be without one’s top three line out callers due to pregnancy is not a scenario any World Cup-winning coach has had to face before.
“We've got the opportunity to grow some younger locks while the other girls are becoming mums,” Mitchell stressed. “They need to enjoy motherhood rather than putting themselves under pressure on coming back. But in the meantime in two years time we'll have great depth. The Red Roses will blossom if that's the right word.” The highly-rated Lilli Ives Campion gets first crack at partnering Morwenna Talling; the 19-year-old Haineala Lutui, daughter of former Tonga international Aleki and among the most forceful carriers in Premiership Women’s Rugby (PWR), is tipped for big things and awaits a debut from the bench.
The nature of England’s dominance within women’s Test rugby means that new faces can be bedded in to the most comfortable of queen-sized mattresses. Ireland, though, will be confident of asking a few alternative questions having been desperately disappointed with their no-show two years ago. The former England assistant coach Scott Bemand has been rewarded with a contract extension on the back of an impressive 2025 that his team should have ended as World Cup semi-finalists – a rewatch of their last-eight defeat to France reveals just how fortune did not favour them, and how they squandered their opportunities. With Dannah O’Brien trusted again at fly half, one can expect plenty of kicking; the tactical battle could be more intriguing than one might expect.
The need to do something different will be underlined by all five of the non-England coaches as they look to close the gap. Taking each in isolation, it is easy to find reason for both optimism and a more gloomy outlook. There are two new faces in France’s Francois Ratier and Sione Fukofuka, who takes charge of Scotland after leading the United States at the World Cup. Sean Lynn is back for more, and rather more settled, having been thrown in to the deep end by Wales just days before last year’s Women’s Six Nations; Fabio Roselli has boldly left out Beatrice Rigoni in a bid to address an Italian slump.
The World Cup was illuminating not just in terms of England’s excellence but as to the rocky landscape beyond the tournament. News on contract cuts within the Scottish squad rumbled away during the tournament and came to head almost immediately thereafter as a couple of senior figures stepped away. Fukofuka has been proactive in building bridges with a hurting squad ahead of the tournament. "I think it ultimately wasn't good enough in terms of how the players were treated and team-mates were feeling," said captain Rachel Malcolm. "The Scottish Rugby Union is now working with us and making sure those processes are better so the same doesn't happen and people aren't made to feel that way in the future.”
They will find solidarity across pretty much every nation in this competition given each has experienced the difficulties of a nascent age of professionalism. It is that, in part, that gives hope for a more hard-fought future; there is a sense that great strides can be made, and quickly, too. For now, though, it is true that the games not involving England are generally infinitely more interesting than those that do; barring a likely grand slam decider against France in Bordeaux on 17 May, even a rotated Red Roses will be expected to romp to victory each week.
Can anyone close the gap? It is eight years since England lost in this competition and that run could extend for a while yet. A tournament schedule that takes in standalone games at Murrayfield, the Principality, the Aviva and the Matmut Atlantique shows the pace of change in this competition but some things remain the same.
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