Women's Six Nations 2024, Week One

The main event is here! Not only are the women back in action, but this year whoever finishes third will also guarantee a place at next year’s Rugby World Cup. England and France have already qualified, and are presumed to finish first and second again before we start. Teams that finish lower will have to try and qualify by finishing in the top six unqualified places in WXV later this year, but finishing third in a few weeks removes any worries.

The Matches

France v Ireland

Because Stade de France is undergoing redevelopment work for the Olympics, Les Bleues are on tour too. France have a blend of players from last year’s W6N, WXV and a few real youngsters in their squad. They have enough strength and depth that their sevens squad is basically separate. Players do move between them but, a bit like Dupont for the men, it’s more of an occasional thing. Not so Ireland, last year they took the decision to strip the best players and send them to the sevens circuit, focusing on the Olympics. A chunk of last year’s squad from both tournaments is here again, but again too many have been stripped away for potential Olympic duties.

The game itself was chaotic. Some of that was down to the players, particularly the French, who wanted high tempo jouer, jouer. That’s always high risk, and there were some poor passes anc the like, but some of the apparent poor handling can, I think, be chalked up to the continuous Irish big defensive hits. But the referee seemed to not blow for a lot of fairly clear things. No bias in them, but there were forward passes, players playing the ball on the floor and more, all ignored.

France made almost all the offensive running, but that combination of loose passing and big hits restricted their attack. So did their early lineout woes. At one point they’d won several (I think three) lineouts off Irish throws to zero on their own. They did improve that bit of their game at least.

The stats will show France won, scoring five tries to two. That doesn’t show that France missed at least another five chances, maybe more, while you can argue that both Irish tries were lucky rather than constructed and worked for.

The good news for France is that most of their errors are things that can be fixed quickly. Ireland have a game that could have them jockeying for third, depending on the other teams, and how they match up.

Wales v Scotland

The history books, both long term and recent history, were against Scotland. However, they were the WXV2 champions, while Wales had been the WXV1 whipping girls. Would that difference in confidence affect them?

In addition, while the Welsh women are not undergoing anything like the rebuild that the Welsh men are, they’ve had retirements at 8, 10 and 15. Their new players there are good, don’t get me wrong, but it’s also a significant chunk of their decision makers.

This was a match decided by a missed kick in the end. That’s not quite the whole story.

Wales were clinical in attack, they took I think every opportunity they had to score, except that last missed conversion. They may have missed taking points once.

Scotland, on the other hand, camped in the Welsh half, whether they had the wind at their backs (throughout the first half) or not (the second half, unsurprisingly). But, after the first 25 minutes or so, when the Scottish left wing ran around the Welsh defence twice, leading to the first try and scoring the second, the Welsh defence was immaculate, over many, many phases.

I think both coaches will go away feeling a bit frustrated from this. Scotland completely dominated possession and territory. While they’re not always reliable stats these days, for this match they were. But they couldn’t score. Wales defended heroically, but should have produced something more in attack.

But there are areas for both coaches to work on and improve over the weeks to come.

Italy v England.

The question was, really, how unstoppable will England be this year? In the first half, they looked poor. Too many parts were not working and the Italians kept them to 10 points. In addition a stupid croc roll earned them a red card, it’s been red for years, nothing to do with the new law tightening, but a week or two after that was announced, even stupider than normal.

In the second half, England settled down, and started to rip Italy apart. Somehow Italy kept England under 50, probably due to that poor first half, but 48-0 is still a hard pill to swallow.

England are moving on, new coach, new systems, but it will take a better team than Italy to defeat them. The France we saw yesterday might be up to the job, but both sides will get better, so that final game will be interesting.

Happy Coaches

Mignot and Ortiz While I think France were not the complete package, I think they were closer than England. The coaching duo have little things to work on, not big things, and the fixes are easier than I think they are for England.

MItchell Although I think England have more things to sort out to reach the point where they put together a complete game, they showed they’re still the team to beat. The “other teams” might be getting closer, but they’re not yet a threat. Do England have the time before they meet France?

Bemand, Cunningham and Easson In the end I couldn’t separate these three, they’re in alphabetical order, nothing more. Ireland have quite a bit to work on, but had their moments, against France. Wales and Scotland both have quite a bit to work on, but have positives to take from their match. They’re all in a lump of meh.

Raineri last. He shouldn’t be super unhappy, not Gatland after the Wales v Italy match for example. Italy had a decent half, albeit aided by England’s woes, and an acceptable half. This was always going to be a tough match, and Italy came out of it better than many expected.

Predictions

Scotland v France

It’s hard to see anything except a French victory here. How big will be interesting, but it’s really a question of how much the French have bedded in their new combinations.

England v Wales

Again it’s hard to see anything except an England win. The Welsh defence was heroic against Scotland, but it will need to be twice as good, or more, to keep England out over 80 minutes. Denying them a bonus point would be a huge achievement for Wales.

Ireland v Italy

This is the match where there is some doubt. Both sides were thrashed by much better teams this week. Who has the resilience to take that, bounce back and beat a team that’s more on their level. I think Ireland showed a bit more, but it’s hard to be sure - once England got going it was so one way, Italy never had a chance to show anything. With no confidence, because they’re playing at home, Ireland.

A final word on the scheduling. This year, there is only one team (sorry Scotland) who get back-to-back France then England in either order. Previously there have been two, sometimes three sides getting teed up like that. Scotland get a rest week in the middle of their matches too. Can I just say, while we’re having “the rest” raise their standard to try and catch France and England, this feels like and excellent thing to do. Last year Italy opened with matches against France then England, and were pulverised out of the competition before they had a chance to get going. Those matches are always tough, going to stay that way, probably for the next four years as professionalism gradually evens out and there’s something closer to equality across the countries. That doesn’t necessarily mean France and England won’t still win, but the games will be competitive for Wales, Italy and Ireland at least.

Not just smashing a side off the park will help in the mean time.