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Women’s Six Nations: 4 things we learned in round one
Defending champions England started their quest for a seventh successive Guinness Women’s Six Nations crown with a routine victory, while there were also wins for France and Scotland in round one.
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In the opening match of the 2025 championship, France held off a spirited performance from Ireland in Belfast to win 27-15 thanks in no small part to a blistering start and composed finish.
Later on Saturday, Scotland handed Wales a losing start to Sean Lynn’s reign, holding on to win 24-21 as both teams lost a player to a red card.
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The opening round came to a close in York on Sunday, where England raced into a 26-0 lead within half an hour before closing out a 38-5 victory.
And as the dust settles, here are four things we learned from an enthralling first round.
A tale of ‘what if’ for Ireland
On their two most recent visits to Ireland, France had scored at least 50 points and on the one before that had fallen just short of that mark, winning 47-17.
It is a sign of the progress made under Scott Bemand that the overriding feeling in Belfast following Saturday’s 27-15 defeat was that Ireland had let an opportunity slip.
Certainly, the hosts rallied from falling 14-0 behind in the opening quarter at Kingspan Stadium to give themselves a brilliant chance of ending their eight-year wait for a victory in this fixture.
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Ireland dominated possession, enjoying 54 per cent of it, and shaded territory too – particularly in the second half – while making more carries (149 to 84) and gaining almost double the number of metres from them (800m to 444m).
The wind of momentum appeared to be in the hosts’ sails when the impressive Aoife Wafer crossed for the second time to bring her side within two points with 13 minutes left.
But they ultimately paid for handling errors – 31 of them – missed conversions and not making more of their 20-minute player advantage. France were ruthless in the closing stages, scoring 10 points from their rare forages into Irish territory to close out the game.
Ireland will play a lot worse than this and win over the course of the next five weeks, but that will be scant consolation as they begin their preparations for the second round and a trip to Parma to play Italy.
Gallagher red dampens Scotland joy
There is a lot for Bryan Easson and Scotland to be pleased about heading to France for a mouthwatering match against Les Bleues next Saturday.
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As captain Rachel Malcolm suggested after their nail-biting 24-21 defeat of Wales in Edinburgh, the home side shut out the noise surrounding their visitors’ new coaching set-up and fully deserved their victory.
Scotland dominated the match stats, enjoying almost two-thirds possession and territory while making 811m with ball in hand, and could have been further in front had – as Malcolm also noted – they had been a little more accurate.
Yet, they also showed a significant amount of resilience to close out the match in difficult conditions after Gwenllian Pyrs’ try and Keira Bevan’s third conversion had made it a three-point match.
However, their task in La Rochelle will be made all the more difficult if they have to make the trip to France’s west coast without Evie Gallagher.
Gallagher was shown a yellow card, which was later upgraded to a 20-minute red by the bunker official, with about half an hour to play at Hive Stadium, putting her involvement in round two in some doubt.
The No.8’s importance to her country on both sides of the ball is highlighted by the fact she made 70m from nine carries and completed 10 tackles in her 52 minutes on the pitch. If anyone can fill her boots though, it’s the woman waiting in the wings, Jade Konkel.
Wales show positive early signs in defeat
Sean Lynn told his players to believe as he insisted Wales had displayed a resilience and “fight” that can’t be coached after they almost pulled off a memorable victory in Edinburgh.
It was always going to be difficult for Lynn to implement his game plan with just a six-day turnaround from the PWR final, his last match in charge of Gloucester-Hartpury.
But there were plenty of positive signs on Saturday at Hive Stadium, where the visitors could have crumbled in the face of a first-half onslaught from their determined hosts.
It took less than five minutes for Carys Phillips to score the first try of the Lynn era, but that proved a brief highlight as Scotland took control in the opening 40 minutes.
Indeed, the hosts could have built a bigger lead had it not been for some indiscipline and the a couple of TMO interventions, while Wales’ 35 missed tackles suggests work needs to be done on defence this week.
But as Lynn says, there are some things you can’t coach and what was clear as Wales closed to within three points in the closing five minutes is that this is a group of players ready to give everything for their new coaching staff.
“That belief when we went [10] points down, that’s what I wanted from this group of players,” Lynn said.
“There were some tears out there and I was hoping those tears were because they care. If you have made a mistake, these things happen. You will never get an 80-minute perfect picture.
“That’s why I’m here as a coach; that’s why the other coaching staff are here and we’ll review this and we’ll move forward as a group.”
Feaunati stars for England
Ahead of England’s Six Nations opener in York, John Mitchell spoke openly about the need to use two teams on the road to his side’s home World Cup.
In round one that resulted in what one journalist described as a ‘scattergun’ selection and a performance that was at times disjointed at LNER Community Stadium, albeit one that yielded a try bonus point within 30 minutes.
When you are as dominant as the Red Roses are, you sometimes need to create your own adversity and Mitchell and his coaching staff will undoubtedly have learned from England’s 21st straight victory.
Perhaps the biggest takeaway came in the form of Maddie Feaunati, the Player of the Match who proved she can be an option at No.8.
Feaunati made 16 carries for an incredible 118m – bettered only by Mia Venner’s 151m – while putting in 17 tackles in defence. The find of Mitchell’s first year in charge, this performance suggested she has levels still to climb.
Other experiments did not work quite so well, but there were impressive full debuts for try-scorer Venner and former U20 captain Lilli Ives Campion, who completed 18 tackles, and a promising cameo from Jade Shekells.
Mitchell is likely to change things up again for next week’s trip to the Principality, but expect the England machine to keep rolling forwards.
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France will find it somewhat easier from hereon in until they get to Twickenham. Scotland are much improved but French home advantage, flair and nous should see them victorious. Italy will have their hands full with Ireland and even home advantage may not be enough for them. Ireland will be better in the final third and O’Brien will have her kicking boots on. I would not discount Italy completely as they showed much resilience against England. Wales were flattered by the scoreline against Scotland and will have more than their hands full with probably another experimental Red Roses side. Wales need to find some creativity behind the scrum and whilst their forwards are fierce competitors they are lacking a little in physical presence. England can play poorly by their standards and still win by 30+ points. If they play well you need a calculator against some teams. I would like to see Shekells get a chance at 12 as she, I thought, was the main positive for the RRs amongst the new/newish players. Others performed OK but did not suggest they were of the same standard as the usual incumbents and worthy of being in match day squads for KO matches. Perhaps Robinson will get a start to prove me wrong. I suspect almost everyone in the squad will at least be named in a match day squad after the first two or three matches.