If there isn’t a conspiracy theory out there about England having a factory that churns out world-class players then there should be. The Red Roses squad will be without eight Rugby World Cup winners because of injury, pregnancies and retirements for the Women’s Six Nations but they are still overwhelming favourites for a grand slam.
For others, a squad so depleted would throw their campaign into chaos, but not for England. Abby Dow has retired? The brilliant Claudia Moloney-MacDonald can be brought in. The captain, Zoe Stratford, is pregnant? The World Rugby player of the year nominee Meg Jones steps up to take the armband. The seemingly endless conveyor belt of generational stars at England’s disposal is why they have been able to dominate the world stage for the past few years. That and bringing in full-time contracts before anyone else.
John Mitchell is yet to lose as England head coach but believes his side have not yet reached their full potential.
“Even though we do get the scoreboard right most of the time we’re definitely very challenging on ourselves around how we want to get better,” he said. “We are still unfinished. The youth in this squad, there are unfinished athletes. It’s an unfinished team that wants to play a style of rugby that we haven’t got to yet.
“There is the motivation of the Lions next year for some of the girls and there is the responsibility to maintain the standard and see how long we can maintain it for. The challenge is to see if we can do it for four years. That all starts on 11 April [against Ireland].”
No team is perfect and even the best have a weakness. England have had issues with discipline in recent years and are slightly stifled in attack if they get slow ball at the breakdown. So who has the best chance of exploiting these moments and downing the Six Nations juggernauts? Ireland and France.
Both teams threatened England in the last Six Nations. While the 49-5 scoreline told one story in the Red Roses’ game against Ireland, Scott Bemand’s side had England on the ropes in the first half. France, meanwhile, left it a few minutes too late to launch a comeback as they fell to a 43-42 defeat in a game that no one could take their eyes off.
Can either finally make the breakthrough this year? Ireland have been improving year on year since Bemand took over in 2023. They have individual talent across the pitch with the captain, Erin King, Aoife Wafer and Beibhinn Parsons ready to rip in.
That Ireland take on England in their opening game makes their task all the harder. And there is the small matter of the game being played at the Allianz Stadium in front of a Women’s Six Nations crowd of more than 75,000. So the odds are stacked against the underdogs but their captain, King, has belief in her side: “It’ll be a challenge but bring it on. We’ve shown that we can compete with the best in the world before, so why not do it again?”
England and France have played each other twice since the last Six Nations, most significantly in the World Cup semi-finals, where the Red Roses managed to run away with the result in the last quarter of the match. But for this competition France have a new head coach in François Ratier. They have been consistent over the past few years but have been unable to unlock their full potential – a new coach may shake up the team and give them a chance to get their first win over England since 2018. “The final step is finding ways to close that gap,” the France captain, Manaé Feleu, told the Six Nations website. “It’s all in the details. It’s about consistency. We cannot afford to wake up in the second half any more. We need a whole 80-minute performance.”
France, who have named six uncapped players in their matchday 23, are something of an unknown with their new head coach but the England back Helena Rowland feels there will be an unfamiliarity with the majority of teams this tournament.
“I think most teams are in the same boat in terms of missing a few key players,” the 26-year-old said. “Some of them have had fairly significant changes in coaching staff. For the first year in quite a long time there is quite an unknown going in. You are not sure how teams are going to play. You have got more and more teams who are further into their professional journey as well, which makes a big difference.”
There are other must-see matches in the tournament. Wales will host Scotland on Saturday at the Principality Stadium in a fixture that is typically a tight affair. Also on Saturday France take on Italy having shared a close encounter last year. Ireland are playing their first standalone match at the Aviva Stadium in their final round match, against Scotland, and their game against France in the third round should be spicy.
Bemand’s side are looking for revenge after the controversial World Cup quarter-final, where Ireland led 13-0 before losing 18-13 and after which the France flanker Axelle Berthoumieu was banned for biting the Ireland back-row Wafer.
This tournament will be like those that have come before. All fans who are not English will want the Red Roses to lose. Mitchell’s team are favourites to be crowned winners for the eighth year in a row but teams will try to dethrone them. Trying is one thing. Doing it is quite another.
