There was a moment after France’s Joanna Grisez scored where fans were looking left and right wondering if this would be the day England’s stranglehold on this competition would come to an end. The Red Roses were 31-7 up after 23 minutes but a resolute France stayed in the fight and cut back the lead to one point in the final minute . A French knock-on ended the game and the sheer pressure the hosts were under was plain to see by the wild celebrations by the England players at full time as they sealed their seventh successive Women’s Six Nations title.
It felt like the French ran out of time and had their revival come five minutes earlier they could have become the first team since themselves in 2018 to beat England in this competition. It was most definitely the visitors’ best outing of this tournament with the scrum-half, Pauline Bourdon-Sansus, and the wing Kelly Arbey having particularly impressive performances.
To highlight how much France had England’s number at times, the visitors scored more points against England (42) than the Red Roses had conceded in their four other Six Nations games collectively (29) this year. An 80-minute performance has escaped the Red Roses– with the win over Wales in round two coming the closest – but they did still manage to stretch their winning run in this tournament to 34 games and 25 in all competitions.
England will be hoping the next game at Twickenham will not be as close as this as in five months time when they will hope to be competing in a Rugby World Cup final. That trophy has eluded them since 2014 and it remains their main target in 2025 in their pursuit for sporting immortality. Their position as one of the best teams in any sport would be cemented with that World Cup crown.
That has been in the England head coach John Mitchell’s mind this Six Nations tournament as he has tested different combinations that have demonstrated their seemingly bottomless depth across the squad. Starting Emma Sing in the opener became a hugely beneficial move for the decider with Ellie Kildunne ruled out with a hamstring injury. Sing was brought in to play the biggest game of her international career. She had a slightly nervous outing but scored two tries in her third start.
Humid but clear conditions welcomed the teams, as well as red smoke and a fire show. The hosts scored first through the wing Abby Dow, the score making Dow the top try-scorer of the tournament.
But England were not celebrating for long as France hit straight back. A well-worked effort put the fly-half, Carla Arbez, over and the toing and froing of scoring continued with Sing next in. The famous England maul was then deployed with Lark Atkin-Davies dotting down and Sing soon added another. The French prop Assia Khalfaoui – who received a red card in this fixture last year – was shown a yellow card for a high shot on Maud Muir. Taking advantage of being a player up, England scored through Claudia MacDonald.
Francesca McGhie’s last-gasp try gave Scotland their second Women’s Six Nations win as they beat Ireland at the Hive Stadium in Edinburgh.
Amee-Leigh Costigan sent Ireland ahead after sprinting down the left flank to cross in the corner and Dannah O’Brien converted from a tight angle.
The hosts managed to get their first points of the game when Lana Skeldon broke away from a maul to ground, and they took the lead on the stroke of half-time when Emma Orr squeezed through a gap before diving over the line, with Helen Nelson adding the extras.
Ireland responded early in the second half following a good show of strength on the tryline, where Linda Djougang’s effort was upheld following a television match official review, and Scotland’s afternoon took a further twist when Rhona Lloyd was sent to the sin-bin for head contact with Costigan in the buildup to the try.
Despite being a player down, Rachel McLachlan raced into the right corner to ground for the hosts and Nelson converted, but the fly-half was soon shown a yellow card with just over 10 minutes to play.
Emily Lane powered over the line for Ireland and O’Brien’s conversion levelled the scores, but in the 80th minute a quick switch of play to the left wing saw McGhie crash over the line, with Nelson adding the extras from a tight angle. PA Media
An error came next with a pass from the scrum-half, Mo Hunt, leading Harrison to knock-on and Bourdon-Sansus pounced to score. England were put under more pressure for the rest of the half and France’s patience paid off with a try from Marine Ménager to cut the point deficit to 10 points at the break.
England were forced into an early substitution in the second half as MacDonald went down and was in considerable pain with a knee injury. She got back to her feet, but was taken off shortly after. England continued to be rumbled by France and they needed a leader to steady the ship, in stepped their captain, Zoe Aldcroft, who superbly finished off a try.
France sniped back remained in touching distance of England with a brilliant solo try by Arbey. An exchange of tries from Dow and France’s Morgane Bourgeois and Grisez finished the action. One trophy down for the Red Roses, one more to go in 2025. The question on everybody’s lips is if England can back up their latest era of dominance with the Rugby World Cup title, something they failed to do three years ago.
