Women's Six Nations, Week Five

This weekend really played out with he matches in reverse order of significance, which was a bit of a shame. Without any more fuss, let’s dive in.

Match Reports

England v France

Let’s start with something other than the game. Twickenham had 58,498 people, a new record attendance for a women's rugby match. We’re going to have these records broken fairly regularly for a while, until the big games are selling out the big stadia routinely. We’re not there yet, but it wasn’t that long ago that this match was played after the men's game in front of about 2,000 people that stayed behind out of curiosity more than anything. Now it’s a huge, stand-alone event, shown on the BBC main channels (the other matches this weekend were on the red button but are there too) and attracting over 58k people just for this game.

To subvert the old cliché, this was a game of three parts. In the first 15-20 minutes England barely got out of their own 22 with the ball, except to kick it out on the full, and didn’t get out of their own half. France, on the other hand, were practically camped between the English 5m and try lines. Crucially in this period, the English defence held firm and France were unable to score at all. Then England broke away, Dow scored and the floodgates opened. It was five tries and 33-0 by half time. A couple of yellow cards, both deserved, and a penalty try, pretty harsh IMO, certainly helped England but their defence was solid and their attack ruthless once unleashed. While I’m vaguely criticising the ref and TMO there was a clear out on Bourdon that looked dodgy to me. I saw it once as full speed and it might have been fine but I’d have liked to have seen it again.

Last week I praised Wales for winning the second half 14-10 against France. This week, France won the second half 33-5 against England! Some of that was a subtle change: France had shifted to play a slightly more traditional ruck-based phase game. Players ran lines to be there and make the rucks, clean out the jackal. But they were not consistent enough at this and conceded turnovers and penalties. In the second half they largely abandoned this, reverted to an offloading game and this stressed and stretched the English defence. When the French had to go to normal phase play, the English defence was already stressed, England’s turnover specialists were rarely there, so the ball kept coming back.

England will be relieved, France disappointed. This is a game we’re you can sit there, drink in had (traditionally over a pint of course) and play “what if?”

What if Trémoulière had kicked just a bit better? She kicked well, but missed a couple of relatively easy kicks, that’s enough to have made up the five point margin. What if France had scored two or three times in that opening period? They certainly had the time and pressure to do so, one try and conversion, victory to France… plus whatever knock on in terms of changes to confidence in the players had. England supporters can counter with what if those two held up tries had been awarded? Which feels fair on one hand but less impactful somehow, denying a piece of scramble defence is less generous than saying what if about a long period of pressure.

This game could have been more entertaining than England scoring a load of points, then France scoring a load of points and racing against the clock to see if they could win. But it was an incredibly tense game in the end.

Congratulations to England on their millionth slam.

Italy v Wales

Italy v Wales was always going to be a clash of rugby cultures. Wales might still have work to do at lineout time, although it’s improved over the tournament, but they fundamentally play a strong defensive and forward dominated attacking style. Part of that s because, while they have youngsters including Tuipulotu, in their pack, they also have older heads. Once you get to the numbers higher than 10, they’re all babies in the backs. We are starting to see them get used more as they gain experience but it’s not the first thing you think of. By contrast, much like their men, the Italian women don’t like to kick (even when they probably should) but will run the ball from everywhere and hope it works out. Surprisingly often it does, even against top flight teams.

It’s never really certain who will come out on top in this sort of culture clash. However, the Welsh defence, scrum and breakdown work was on point and their lineout was good enough.

For the first half an hour or more it was nervy, at first the two sides couldn’t really settle down and no one could score. After that, Wales stretched out to a 10-0 lead, then Italy came back to level the score. Just before halftime Tuipulotu scored and after that the scoreboard was just one way, ticking up for the women in red fairly regularly. That doesn’t quite tell the full story, Italy had some great attacks and, at times, it was heroic defending that kept them out, but that’s been such a feature of the Welsh game this season that it didn’t feel surprising. The final score was 36-10 which felt about fair for the difference in the sides in particular thanks to the Welsh defensive efforts but also, after that first half hour, their cohesion in attack. Wales ended third in the W6N for the first time in 14 years. They’re also confirmed in the top tier of the WXV Flor the autumn and playing the top sided again.

Italy will feel disappointed not to have scored more, they made opportunities but the Welsh defence always shut them down.

Sadly, in wider terms, this really left the next game as having nothing on the line unless Ireland could pull off a massive upset.

Scotland v Ireland

Going into this match, Scotland had nothing to win - they couldn’t catch Wales in third place - but they could lose which would be somewhat embarrassing after the way everybody else had demolished the Irish. Realistically you’d suggest the Irish had nothing to play for except pride, but sometimes that’s enough. Theoretically if they won with either +62 points difference or (and it’s hard to imagine +62 points without this) four tries and the bonus point, they would edge above Italy in the standings. In previous years that would just be a pride thing but this year WXV is launching and the split points for the W6N side are top three go into tier one, places four and five go into tier two, place six goes into tier three. (More on this below.) So a good win for Ireland has extra rewards.

For almost all of the first half, Ireland clung to a 3-0 lead. They strove and strained but the Scottish defence stood up sufficiently well when it mattered. But a combination of resolute Irish defence and a stuttering Scottish attack meant it looked as comfortable as a 3-0 lead in rugby ever can. Then, with the last play of the first half, Scotland bullied their way over the try line, 7-3. It wasn’t quite plain sailing from then on, with 20 to go it was 10-10, but then the Irish just dropped off the pace and while I’m loathe to quite characterise it as “the floodgates opened” four tries in the last 20 minutes made the result look like more of a blowout than it felt like watching it.

One little bright note, for the first time all championship, the Irish replacement front row didn’t get monstered. I don’t remember the Scottish replacements being beaten up either, so I’ll chalk that up as an improvement.

Happy Coaches

• Cunningham. There are things for the Welsh women to work on, sure, but Wales played to their game plan and stopped the Italians executing their own. Ultimately that’s a coach's dream and puts him top of this list.
• Easson and Middleton. Scotland won, and won convincingly. But sheesh that first half. England won. England had a great defensive period and then a great attacking period. All was good. Then came the second half…
• Ortiz and Mignot. Speaking of that second half, France proved they can do it against England but, omg, that first half went from poor to worse.
• Raineri. Italy got stuffed. There’s little to say that’s positive for Raineri here. A season that started quite brightly has fallen apart.
• McWilliams. It’s arguable that McWilliams should be above Raineri on just today’s performance. That first half, first hour really, was a solid defensive effort. The attack was not as good but it was still Ireland’s best performance. But, overall, Ireland ended up on 0 points, -190 points difference and hardly any points scored. They were not in this game over the full 80, just as much as they were not in the other games.

Where Next - WXV

This contest is a global women’s XV's test tournament. It will be played in the autumn (NH) and that means this year it is competing against the MRWC - that’s really not good timing, well done World Rugby. There are three tiers with six teams each, and each team will have a cross-pool tournament in a single location. Exactly what that means I’m not 100% sure but I guess two pools of three. You play the three teams in the other pool and have a combined league log at the end? Maybe a fourth week where top of pool A plays top of pool B and so on down to formalise the rankings.

Exactly who the teams will be we don’t know yet. Tier One is going to be England, France, Wales and three from New Zealand, Australia, Canada and USA. Tier Two is Scotland, Italy, the last one from Americas/ANZACs and one team from each of Africa, Asia and Oceania. Tier Three is two from Europe (Ireland+1), then one from Africa, Asia, Oceania and South America.

In 2024 the top five countries who haven’t already qualified for RWC will qualify.

There are some weird things going on as things get established but I think the idea is that you can get promoted and relegated within the tiers (at first tier one is going to be elite and ring-fenced so that won’t happen fully), the team that should be relegated from Tier Three will play off against the best ranked outsider to try and retain their spot.

I don’t know how the teams have changed since NZ but based on the rankings:

Tier One: England, France, Wales, NZ, Canada, Australia.

Tier Two: Scotland, Italy, USA, Japan, SA, Fiji

Tier Three: Ireland, Spain, Hong Kong, Samoa, Kenya and Columbia (unless the Caribbean counts as South America, in which case Trinidad and Tobago).

I’m sure the final lineups will be a little different to this. I appreciate this is a world rugby tournament, and mostly these seem to make sense, but Africa-2 and Asia-2 are dipping a long way down and skipping some much higher ranked countries. Oh well.

Side Note

I’m not going to pick a team of the tournament for the W6N. It would be a travesty in so many ways if I didn’t pick a team very largely compromised of England and French players. After that final match I think it’s fair to say a pretty even mix of the two would be fair. If I picked individuals rather than units I’d add Tuipulotu, who was way, way up there too, and we can wrangle over a 7-7 or an 8-6 split on the rest.

However, both France and England tried multiple new players in at least one match (France against Italy, England against Ireland) and both sides had a number of injuries, both over the championship and lingering from beforehand that caused changes as players returned. England also had Hunter play one test and retire. This was all planned and I’m not going to criticise them for doing this for such a long-standing player, but in terms of picking a TOTT, it makes things harder.

This means, if you look at team sheets, there are hardly any units that stayed intact, particularly for England and France.

So, instead, in no particular order, I’m going to list some players that caught my eye.

• Tuipulotu. I’ve already mentioned her, but here she is again. She played a full game, bar a few seconds, against Ireland and won a tighthead scrum in the last minute from which Wales scored their final try. She scored in just about every game, and was frequently the highest tackler, highest carrier and the highest metres gainer on either side. And she plays tighthead prop! Oh, and she’s 19. Against England she was on the bench to give her a rest, the starting THP was injured, so she came on and played a 60 minute shift, and instantly - against England Remember - the Welsh scrums stopped being bullied. Incredible talent.
• Bourdon and Trémoulière. I’m putting these two together as a unit, because they play as a unit. Bourdon has played second fiddle for club and country to her fiancée Laure Sansus for ages. Sansus retired and Bourdon has really stepped up. I would argue she was the best 9 we saw in this championship. Trémoulière is retiring, sadly, to go and her dad on his farm. World rugby will be poorer for her departure. England might have more players that can kick, but kicking well, intelligently? I don’t think there many players, men or women, who make such good decisions nor, when they kick, put the ball in such good places as she does.
• Dow and D’Inca. These two play for very different teams, but when they touch the ball the excitement levels rise because they’re both electric. Dow has the benefit of playing for England and basically only touching the ball after everyone inside her has broken the defence, or pulled it in, so she’s running around the edge. D’Inca plays for Italy and they often look to her to pull off miracles, but often she can.
• Rigoni. Just as the men have a couple of superstars, so do the women. You can’t mention D’Inca without mentioning Rigoni. She’s all Italian passion and flair.

There are doubtless many others who deserve a mention, but these are the ones that I always remember bringing a rugby thrill to my jaded old heart when they touched the ball. In my write-up I lauded, quite fairly, the Welsh pack - but that was largely an all round effort, everyone contributes. And then there was Tuipulotu.