By Mitch Phillips
LONDON (Reuters) – There will be a world record crowd for women’s rugby of more than 53,000 at Twickenham on Saturday and almost all of them will expect to see England beat France, their only serious European rivals, to secure a fifth successive Six Nations title.
Other than a Covid-hit 2021, all those championships have been grand slams and another looks likely after they swatted aside the rest of the under-powered challengers this year.
In their four wins to date over Scotland, Italy, Ireland and Wales, England scored almost 10 tries a game as they chalked up 233 points and conceded 15, letting in only two tries.
Their almost unstoppable rolling maul has again proved fruitful with captain and flanker Marlie Packer scoring six tries, but against some disorganised and tiring defences, England’s backs have also cut loose, led by potential player of the tournament in winger Abby Dow, who has five.
England, however, will be taking nothing for granted after last year’s World Cup when their 30-game winning run ended with heartbreaking defeat by New Zealand in the final, when 42,579 set the attendance record that will be smashed on Saturday.
France are the only team remotely capable of upsetting the European status quo. They have not been quite as comfortable through the tournament, but not far off, with a positive points difference of 140.
They are ranked third in the world behind England and New Zealand and but when it comes to facing England, they have lost 11 in a row, winning only one of the last 16 over the last seven years.
They did push them in a 13-7 World Cup pool phase defeat last year and had two and four-point defeats in attritional contests in 2021, but will need to find more in attack to end a run of three successive Six Nations second places as they seek their first title since 2018.
The match will also mark the end of French flyhalf Jessy Tremouliere’s illustrious career after 12 years of pulling the strings during which time she was named women’s 15s player of the decade in 2020.
LACK OF COMPETITION
The huge crowd and a BBC prime-time audience are evidence of the growing interest in the women’s game and the attractiveness of this fixture, but the desperate lack of competitiveness elsewhere across the championship remains an issue.
“I’m not sure it can continue in the guise it is now where it’s always going to come down to the last game – England and France – because that’s not good for anybody,” said England coach Simon Middleton, who will be in charge for the final time after eight years.
“We’ve been in this situation for a long time and we have to make these (other) games more competitive. It’s all dependent on how the unions get behind it. The rate of acceleration and closing the gap will all depend on funding.”
England and, to some extent, France have been professional since 2019, while Wales embraced professionalism two years ago and Ireland, Italy and Scotland are less than a year into pro status.
Former England captain Sarah Hunter, who retired from the sport after winning her 141st cap in the opening game against Scotland, expects the gap to close but does not see any radical changing of the guard coming soon.
“We’re really fortunate (to have been professional) over the last four or five years, and it’s going to be a push for the teams to catch us, because obviously we want to keep growing and don’t want teams to,” she said.
“I think over the next couple of years, the other countries will really try and narrow that, so that it doesn’t always become a two-horse race between England and France.”
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips, editing by Christian Radnedge)
