Women's Six Nations 2023, Week Two

Having set the scene last week, straight into the match reports.

Ireland v France

This was another game where the weather, the wind to be precise, played a huge part. So did the dominance of the French over the Irish. So did the ref. Hang on, so far this is sounding the same as last week’s write-up involving Ireland!

Well some of that is deliberate of course, and while those are the talking points, they’re phrased a bit misleadingly to emphasise the similarities.

The wind was probably similar in strength, and really seemed to mess up the French goal kicking at first (I think it was actually just a bad day with the boot for Bourdon), but it had less impact on France overall than Wales because they didn’t rely on their set piece as much as Wales, running the ball from anywhere (more on that later).

Overall, certainly in the loose, the French ran riot. It wasn’t only the backs, although they got most of the tries; the French forwards were enjoying running around too. At times, in the breakdown the Irish caused problems. Then, at others, people didn’t pay attention to the basics and the French scored a really simple try by picking up at the back of the ruck, charging straight forward because there were no guards and offloading to the support runner after drawing the last defender. I remember being screamed at, literally, at U12’s level to get into the guard position. I was never going to be as good as these players but it should be second nature for them… Some of that might be due to speed and fatigue of course, but some of it seemed like a group of players out of their depth. They would focus after a stoppage, a set piece, a restart or similar for a few phases - maybe two or three - and then the chaos of rugby would set in as the clearly dastardly French dared to run their own devious attacks and suck in key Irish defenders. How dare they! (The Welsh did the same, I’m sure the Italians and Scottish will too… The English might not bother and just power straight through.) This is an Irish team just not up to speed and this was one of the ways it showed.

Last week I criticised the ref for some odd decisions that made it look like she wasn’t in control. This week I want to do the opposite. There were a few decisions I thought were dubious but they were mostly little things where it’s a shrug and an ok. One very noticeable “wrong” no call for not straight at the lineout that felt sympathetic with the wind. The fact that Ireland didn’t jump and the French jumper took it in both hands made the no call easier I’m sure. And the Red Card she showed to the French prop after 15 minutes was absolutely right. This is partially why I’ve avoided talking about scrums until now. An Ireland eight vs a France seven for an hour is a big difference. However, there weren’t that many scrums. France generally handled well, and when Ireland knocked on, France counter-attacked and used their advantage that way. The scrums were basically stable, which for a team with an extra body is pretty poor. The Irish did win a couple of scrum penalties, but France managed to score a pushover try even. How? Who knows, but they did. When either side tried a driving maul, Les Bleues clearly had the upper hand despite being a woman down. A lot of maul work, both in attack and defence, is down to teamwork and communication (like I know from personal experience) according to commentators who have been there and done it at the highest level. The extra body advantage isn’t really an advantage if you’re not doing the teamwork, and the French were clearly more cohesive.

I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture, and to be honest it is still bleak, for Ireland. They’re going to get the wooden spoon again barring a miracle. Their final game is their best chance and it’s against Scotland who appear to be the weakest of the others so it could happen, but I’m not going to be holding my breath. However, Ireland have improved from last week, will hopefully continue to improve, so who knows?

Scotland v Wales

Wales, via a neat move from the lineout and a great run from Tuipulotu scored the opening try after about three minutes. She would end up with two tries, 20 carries - highest of any player - and 93 metres - highest of any forward - made, playing the match through into the 79th minute, along with the rest of the Welsh front row, and winning POTM again.) A few minutes later Scotland had a lineout on the Welsh 5m line, overthrew it and Wales cleared, pushed them back and were cruelly denied a try of their own by a interfering TMO (that the referee wasn’t sure was right but didn’t want to overrule). At the time I thought to myself “I wonder if that’s the story of the match, in microcosm?”

In some ways it was. Wales dominated the set piece and the final real action of the match was a defensive scrum on the Scottish 5m line that the Welsh pack absolutely monstered, winning first a penalty, then a tighthead which led to the final try of the match.

But leaving it there really doesn’t tell the whole story. Both Wales and Scotland attacked successfully through their backs. Scotland moreso which will be concerning for the Welsh coaches. Even more concerning, from a Welsh perspective, is the penalty count. It wasn’t as high as last week, quite, but it was too high, and too concentrated, leading to a yellow card. The penalties didn’t reliably give Scotland field position, the Welsh defensive lineout was too good for that, but it broke up the Welsh attack too often, as well as giving up territory too frequently. Wales won this game, but need much, much better discipline to challenge France, England and possibly Italy. Still, an away win in Scotland is not to be sneezed at. And while there were a lot of penalties, a lot were similar in terms of the reasons they were given and so they can be worked on easily. Scotland have a lot of positives to take away too, but they would have targeted this their first win and they didn’t even get a bonus point.

England v Italy

Italy had their moments but the gulf in class between the sides is still too great. England mostly controlled the territory, the pace and were largely in control at the set piece. Not completely, Italy scored their only try off a lineout and driving maul. They weren’t destroyed at scrum and lineout, but they were often under pressure or disrupted. The opposite was not true. But Italy's try came from a penalty at a time when they were close to half way, a great kick for touch, and so on. That’s all fine but when the game is played closer to the Italian 22 for most of the match, it explains why Italy only scored one try.

England were far from perfect but their mistakes were almost all made so far from their own try line that it didn’t cost them in terms of points. Some of that was, if you’re a tennis fan, the rugby equivalent of unforced errors. Passes behind people, too low and the like when there wasn’t any pressure. But some was the fact that the Italian women defended much better than the English men on that day. They may have been soundly beaten, but their heads never dropped and they were making tackles, hitting rucks and so on just as enthusiastically in the 79th minute as the 9th. However, if you compare this England performance to the French men at Twickenham a few weeks ago, not for the style but for the precision, they come up very short. If they were playing to that standard, this would have been a 100-point drubbing.

Happy Coaches

Middleton, Mignot and Ortiz. As with last week, it’s hard to pick some of these coaches apart. This time it’s the English and French coaches, although the Welsh coach is only a hair’s breadth behind. Middleton would want more precision, absolutely, but England were ruthless and won well. There’s a lot to be happy about but there are a few things to worry him too. As for the French pair, while they won’t be happy their prop didn’t tackle lower, and it was certainly a RC, it wasn’t a terrible red. They won’t be happy with Bordon’s goal-kicking either, but those are both individual things rather than team issues. Otherwise there is a lot here to be happy about. They adapted well to losing a player, counter-attacked well, and were smarter, faster and stronger in all areas of the game. Despite being down to 14 for over 60 minutes, they racked up over 50 points and didn’t concede a try. Big plus.

Cunningham. Wales have things to work on. But they improved, mostly, from last week, against much better opposition and, at the end of the day his team came away with a bonus point win, away from home, denying the Scots a losing bonus point. That’s mission accomplished. Some of the things on the to do list are similar, but they’re refinements from last week, so that’s good. It’s more a case of details, rather than big picture items this week.

Raineri. Although Italy got hammered, this was a case of a side losing to a better team but keeping on fighting despite being outclassed. Hopefully in a couple of years they’ll be a genuine contender for England but, for now, it’s a case of licking their wounds, then picking off Ireland, Scotland and, in Raineri's mind at least, Wales as well.

Easson. I toyed with putting Easson right at the bottom of this list. He has to be hugely disappointed that Scotland came away with nothing from this game. The Irish score line was worse but their improvement from last week was obvious, which is really what McWilliams was looking for. But is disappointed the same as unhappy? Scotland scored three tries and for 65 minutes it was nip and tuck. Scotland have positives to take away as well as areas where they really need to improve. Disappointed, yes. Unhappy, less so, or tempered by the good things he saw.

McWilliams. Ireland have shown definite signs of improvement. They have a long way to go but they are going in the right direction. McWilliams is in a similar position to Crowley a couple of years ago. His side is getting hammered and having to learn despite that, from that. Can he keep their morale and cohesion up? But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a rest week. Unlike in the men’s this won’t change that much you would have to think. The stratification is too severe still. There may be some players back, you would imagine that the lists of things to work on will have been worked on further, but two weeks is not going to be enough to let Ireland win this match, unless Italy are have just been destroyed, which I doubt.

Wales v England Really the question here is whether the new Welsh pack can challenge the English pack, and whether the Welsh defensive system (which is different to anything the English have faced so far) can pressure them into more mistakes. The Welsh backs are not yet up to really challenging the English backs in attack, although they’re definitely improving. This is not yet really a contest, but it’s a question of can the Welsh keep it close? Keeping it under 30 would be massive for Wales. So would scoring two or more tries.

Italy v Ireland Ireland are, sadly, nowhere near the pace of international rugby yet. This is really a question of how many.

France v Scotland France at home, and with an extra week to improve on the details. Scotland have time to improve as well, but this French side look like they’ve got something to prove. Whether they’re buoyed by the men’s performances, the general support for the RWC or the disappointment of the semi-final in New Zealand is hard to judge. Perhaps a combination of them all. But there is something about them, and Scotland are not going to get close.