Women's Six Nations 2024, Week 2

Last week we had an interesting opening round, with France looking more like a group of strangers than a team, Wales just losing to Scotland on a heart-breaking last second missed conversion, and England looking very ordinary for the first half.

This week, we’re looking for improvements for lots of those sides, plus looking to see how much Italy bounce back after being totally repressed by England, even when they weren’t playing well.

The Matches

Scotland v France

Last week we saw solid defence and a rather one-dimensional attack from Scotland, while France were rather chaotic but far too good for Ireland.

I am starting there because France closed down the Scottish attack line from last week, giving up their only try to ongoing pressure close to the line, but in attack they were awful - they did enough to win, and some of their blown chances were down to inspired Scottish defence, but some were down to just plain bad French skills and alignment.

However, where last week the Scottish defence pinned the Welsh back in their own 22 for large parts of the match, the French attack only lost their skills close to the try line - a case of white line fever maybe - and they ripped the Scottish defence to pieces until they got into the 22, in fact, until the pass to the player in space looking at the try line. The score should have been closer to 35-5.

There is no doubt that France were better than Scotland and that France were better than last week, but they have a lot of work to do. The good news is that they have improved from last week, and I would imagine they’ll improve more over the coming weeks.

For Scotland, their defence was resolute. It will be interesting to see how it holds up against England, but against Ireland and Italy it could well hold them to very low scores. It will be interesting to see whether these sides can shut down the Scottish attack, as the Welsh were able to do after the first half.

England v Wales

The scoreline says 46-10 but, perhaps oddly, I think the Welsh women will take more positives from this match than the English women.

For huge parts of the game Wales not only had the ball - we’ve seen in the men’s game teams like New Zealand and South Africa win comfortably with less ball - but they were looking comfortable on attack, camped in the English 22 for large periods of the match. England’s defence was good enough (and sometimes lucky enough) to limit them to only one try, but there was a held up, and a couple of other great chances as well as a lot of continuing pressure.

If we look at those men’s teams that win and absorb pressure then counterattack, they’re rarely pushed back like this, into their own 22, the game is contained in the middle third of the pitch, except when they pounce and run in a try.

Of course, England were more than good enough that just about any break from Welsh attacking pressure led to a try down the other end. But the ability to consistently apply attacking pressure was good to see.

Wales definitely have work ons, their lineouts were a disaster (although they messed up the English lineouts a few times too), but last year they couldn’t manage to score a try, this year they were unlucky it wasn’t two or three, and they did score one. Likewise last year they conceded over 50 points, this year it’s under 50.

Rugby is a cruel game sometimes, if you’re 1% better across the park than your opposition, it’s easy to have a 60-0 scoreline. England are still looking like the best side in this 6N, with France hoping to improve and beat them. But Wales have shifted the needle so they’re not that 1% worse across the park, and, possibly for the first time, if I was picking a combined 23-woman team from these two, it would have several Welsh women in it. We are starting to see professionalism in Wales leading to us catching up with them. Not there yet, but we can see it starting to have an effect.

Ireland v Italy

I listened, perhaps inevitably, to the Irish commentary which was enthusiastically pro-Irish to say the least. If you’d listened, without watching, you might believe the Irish women, brave but poor last week, had transformed into the Black Ferns or Red Roses. Instead they scored a penalty try in about the seventh minute, totally deserved, kept up the pressure while Italy were down a woman, then largely tried to absorb pressure. Every time they tried to break out, they shot themselves in the foot. Bad kicks, bad passes and if they did keep it together, the Italian defence picked off unsupported runners for penalties or turnovers. After Ireland finally scored their second try, Italy responded by scoring their fourth, to go with some penalty goals. The final score was close because of an interception from Ireland but Italy held on to win.

I’m not sure these are the worst two sides in the tournament. We'll have to see Italy against Scotland and Wales to be sure. However, I’d be surprised if Ireland challenge anyone, and I think Italy are that half-step behind the Welsh and Scots. If they play at their best and one of them has an off day, they could win, but it would be an upset this year.

That said, it was nice to see Italy able to express themselves in offence and put together a solid defensive effort. Much better than last week. Ireland had improved too, but their top end is not as high.

Happy Coaches

For the first time I’m struggling to write this. Which of the coaches are happy? Probably none of them. You would think all the winning coaches should be happier than the losing coaches but you can bet that Mitchell won’t be happy about how dominant the Welsh attack looked, except for the last few metres. Cunningham, on the other hand will be happy that his team visibly improved from last week.

Mignot and Ortiz ought to be hairless after the last two weeks. Although Les Bleues improved, there’s sill a long way to go if they’re to challenge England in the final match. Relieved to have come away with the victory rather than happy I think. Easson was talking up a Scottish victory before the match, and the team have a defence to be proud of but their attack needs a lot of work.

Then there’s Raineri, who ought to be happy with a win but will look at the way the team tried really hard to self-destruct and hand it back to Ireland. Equally Bemand will be happy that the Irish didn’t give up, but not happy that they really only played for very small patches against the Italians and they have much more dangerous looking defences left to come.

I don’t think any of them are really happy this week. There’s a relieved index, there’s a “yes, but” index but not a happiness one.

Looking Ahead

Next week is a rest week, on the weekend of 13/14 April we have the following matches.

Scotland v England

Even with home field advantage for both these matches, it’s hard to see the lacklustre Scottish attack troubling the English defence. They might score one try but I doubt more than that. Particularly after all the pressure the Welsh put them under this week, that will be an issue they work on over the next fortnight. What will be more interesting, and might be more of a battle, will the Scottish defence against the Scottish defence. I can see Scotland slowing down the English, rather than stopping them, but maybe enough to prevent them from scoring a bonus point? That would be the target I’m sure.

England to win, fairly comfortably. The question will be, how comfortably?

Ireland v Wales

Wales had a good defence in week one, a working attacking system in week two (albeit up against a ruthless, possibly best in the world defence). If they can bring both of those to the RDA Arena, there’s only one winner here.

France v Italy

France made improvements from their opening game against Ireland to, what I think was a much harder game, this week against Scotland. They really need to work on their lineouts, supporting breakaways and focussing on catching passes when the try line is beckoning. The last of those will come with more experience, but the other two can be worked on in practise. So I’ll assume we’ll see big improvements there. French blue rather than Azzurri blue to win the day.