LONDON — England‘s status as the dominant force in women’s rugby was further cemented on Saturday at Twickenham as they secured their fourth Grand Slam in a row with a 43-42 win over France. It was the Six Nations outcome just about anybody and everybody predicted pre-tournament but France gave them an almighty scare.
Had France’s handling been a little more pinpoint in the closing stages, then English hearts would have been smashed to pieces. Those in Twickenham who would have come for a party would have witnessed a funeral. Despite nerves shredded, England secured their seventh Six Nations title on the bounce by the narrowest of margins.
The expectations around this Red Roses group are sky high. Despite both teams heading to Twickenham contesting a Grand Slam, England were overwhelming favourites to complete the clean sweep. They’d simply forgotten how to lose. The tournament organisers may as well have carved England’s name on the trophy before the first tackle of the tournament. But this narrative was so nearly ripped up by a spirited and wonderfully ambitious French team.
Red Roses head coach John Mitchell challenged his team to put together a complete performance against France, and this fell short, but still they ended up with the win and the Grand Slam. That’s the barometer of success this group hold themselves against. They’re going for immortality, rather than domination.
Of course this is all being played out with England’s home World Cup lying in wait on the horizon later this year. Everything is balanced against that, including the crushing weight of expectation this group carry as the sport’s dominant force. They have suffered one defeat in 56 matches — that was the Rugby World Cup final in November 2022. Red Roses head coach John Mitchell took charge in May 2023 and remains undefeated with England currently on a 25-match winning run. But this whole journey has the date Sept. 27, 2025 ringed as the hopeful end point as they seek to emulate the 1994 and 2014 immortals in winning the sport’s biggest prize.
If last year’s Six Nations was about improving the speed and accuracy of the team’s passing, this year’s focus was on positional versatility and fine tuning their best XV for the World Cup later this year. Take Maddie Feaunati as a case in point: Saturday’s match against France was her 15th cap, but her first start at openside — she’d previously had starts at No.6 and No.8. Holly Aitchison was first-choice No.10 heading into this year’s competition but it was Zoe Harrison who started three of their five matches at fly-half. In Mitchell’s own words, he knows what Aitchison can do, but he needs to learn more about Harrison and Helena Rowland’s ability to handle Test-match pressure at No.10.
Mitchell used an ethos of “one team operating as two” for the tournament — teams were shuffled match to match, 34 players were used, but the results remained the same. Ahead of France, England had beaten Italy 38-5, Wales 67-12, Ireland 49-5 and Scotland 59-7 — offering a total difference of 213-29. It was a brutal showcase of how far ahead of the rest of the pack they are. Such a gulf even saw suggestions this week from World Cup-winning No.10 Katy Daley-McLean (and BBC commentator Sara Orchard) on how to increase competition in the Six Nations by introducing a two-tier structure.
But such thoughts can wait. First, the good news. There were times where England looked unstoppable against France. Their attack was ruthless, carving open France in the blink of an eye and there were, as usual, slews of positives. Megan Jones was outstanding at outside centre, Emma Sing showed a couple of early nerves standing in for the injured Ellie Kildunne at fullback but was largely assured and proved she can step in at a moment’s notice for one of the world’s best players if required.
Their driving lineout secured one first-half try and teed up another while their ability to come away from France’s 22 was pretty much flawless. Their five first-half tries came from Abby Dow, Sing (two), Lark Atkin-Davies and MacDonald, who was preferred to Jess Breach. It was a call from Mitchell which broke up the so-called “holy trinity” back-three England possess. The second half saw Dow score just before the hour mark to give England a 15-point advantage and from there, England just about held out. Aldcroft was outstanding at blindside and has repaid Mitchell’s faith ten-fold as the player who will captain England into the World Cup later this year.
But this wasn’t flawless. England will look at the tries they shipped. France’s first after five minutes was a result of Les Bleues opening up England’s defence through a flurry of offloads, while their second was an opportunistic effort after Natasha Hunt’s pass left Robinson dropping it in her own in-goal area for Pauline Bourdon Sansus to pounce. The third was off a strong maul on England’s 22, which gave them space to go wide. There were three missed tackles on Joanna Grisez in the second-half and the manner in which Kelly Arbey danced down England’s wing for their fourth was alarming. France grabbed a fifth through Morgane Bourgeois and a sixth from the brilliant Grisez to offer a far more tense finish than England should have allowed. The Red Roses’ defence needs finetuning before their pre-World Cup warm-up matches.
Ever since England suffered that heartbreaking defeat to New Zealand in 2022, the journey has been about acceptance, rebirth and redemption. Their attack is far more fluid than three years ago, and they’ve gone through several transitional phases and brutal selection calls — no more so than for Marlie Packer who was captain last year, but not even in the matchday squad today. That’s all got them to this stage where they host their own World Cup in August and will be expected to win the whole thing. Nothing less will do for this group but they can’t afford to be as sloppy defensively when the global gathering ticks around.
The image of the outstanding Aldcroft holding up the trophy on this still spring evening offers further confirmation of progress, and the Red Roses’ domination. But this group don’t want this to be the moment where they peaked. They will hope that comes later this year on Sept. 27 where Aldcroft is standing on this same patch of grass lifting the sport’s biggest prize.
Source: espn.com