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England's Poppy Cleall named 2021 Six Nations player of the championship

(Photo by Alex Davidson/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)

England forward Poppy Cleall has been named 2021 Women’s Six Nations player of the championship after winning the first-ever public vote for the Guinness award. Cleall was nominated alongside fellow England forward Zoe Aldcroft and Caroline Boujard of France by a panel featuring the head coaches, captains and an equal representation of members of the media from all six competing nations.

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She becomes the second-ever winner of the award, following in the footsteps of Emily Scarratt. Cleall was the overwhelming choice of fans, winning 62 per cent of over 12,000 votes cast. The 28-year-old was a force to be reckoned with at the back of the England scrum, winning player of the match against Scotland and following up with the match-winning try and another player of the match award in the final against France.

Cleal said: “It’s a huge honour to be named player of the championship. I’m not only a rugby player but a massive rugby fan and have been in awe of some of the games and moments in this tournament. It’s been such fun and a great occasion in women’s rugby to be a part of.

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    “It’s already a huge moment in my career to win back-to-back titles with this team but to win this award is thanks to all the hard work of those around me from my coaches, teammates and my family. Representing England is a massive honour and one I hope I do proud. 

    “This tournament has been one-of-a-kind and I hope other female rugby players and athletes are given the same opportunity to be the best they can be.”

    Six Nations CEO Ben Morel added: “Massive congratulations to Poppy on an outstanding championship. She is an incredible athlete who performed consistently throughout and also turned the biggest match of the year in her team’s favour. It’s great that so many fans have voted to recognise her outstanding contribution to England’s success.

    “It was also fantastic to witness a rise in TV audiences and stronger than ever engagement on our digital platforms. I would like to thank everyone who watched matches, played fantasy rugby and took the time to vote. You are helping us grow women’s rugby and give these brilliant players the platform they deserve.”

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    J
    JW 30 minutes ago
    'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

    Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


    So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


    Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

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