Abby Dow makes a break during England’s dominant win against Scotland – Getty Images/Alex Livesey
To illustrate just how dominant England are in the Women’s Six Nations, I wanted to start by looking at their last seven games against Scotland. In those, England have scored an average of 58 points while Scotland have scored 29 points in total.
Scotland, Ireland, Wales and Italy are all improving year on year – there are lots of metrics to prove that – but when they play England, you know England will win. France are the one country that used to really test them but they have fallen back from where they used to be. They still have a physical pack and a bench that can live with England better than the other teams, so it is good that the England-France match has been moved to the last weekend for the past few years to build more excitement. It will be another Grand Slam decider on Saturday, but right now you would say France will not beat England at Twickenham.
If England do win, as expected, it would be their seventh straight Six Nations title. And England are going to keep growing because of the English pathway, the talent potential of Premiership Women’s Rugby and the standard of rugby they are playing week in, week out. Take the Scotland game: Scotland had three uncapped players on the bench whereas England had three World Cup winners and Zoe Harrison did not even make the England squad.
England are streets ahead of the other teams in the Women’s Six Nations – Getty Images/Alex Livesey
So how do you bridge that gap? How long does it realistically take? Scotland coach Bryan Easson reckons it will be five or six years; I think it is probably more like 10 to 12 years to build that base to your triangle of talent and have it filter up through the system.
And that is the problem for the Women’s Six Nations. It is a great tournament but you know England are going to win it. I’m not saying there are not good games of rugby but it is hard when there is no jeopardy. The beauty of sport is the unknown, the roller coaster – look at Rory McIlroy’s Masters win – but at the moment you cannot describe England games as competitive because they are putting 50 points on teams. That makes it difficult for broadcasters and others to sell it.
In short, England are too dominant. That is not taking away from anything England have done. I have been part of England sides that have been dominant; we won the Six Nations seven years on the bounce between 2006 and 2012, and the biggest upset was when we didn’t win the Grand Slam.
The narrative that England need to lose to become the best is something that I don’t totally agree with. After all, their training will be hugely challenging, but people are not watching that. The Six Nations tournament is up there at the pinnacle but a lack of competition can make the product harder to sell.
I don’t think you should penalise England, or any side, for being dominant. We should celebrate how good they are. It is not their fault; they are reaping the rewards of long-term investment in the team while other nations are in earlier stages of professionalism.
Be brave and try something
So how do you solve the problem and add more unpredictability? It is a fascinating question.
You could go extreme, rip everything up and merge the Women’s Six Nations with the Pacific Four Series, which involves Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, so you have the top teams in the world playing each other. But I think that is too tricky with costs, logistics, playing seasons, time zones and so on, as we have seen a little with the WXV tournament over the past two years.
Still, we don’t have to follow the men’s game. This is an opportunity to view the women’s game differently, to be brave and try something. Yes, we want to keep the core values and what is at the heart of it because the Six Nations is really special and players want to play in it.
My first cap was against Scotland and it was an amazing feeling to wear the white shirt in a tournament like the Six Nations, to feel the history. It is an honour. It is like playing at the big stadiums. I remember playing at Twickenham for the first time in 2007 and there were maybe 100 people there, but the opportunity to be in that dressing room and on that pitch was amazing.
Any changes must retain what is special but make it more competitive, add jeopardy, and give the other nations time to challenge. The best idea I’ve heard came from a conversation with BBC commentator Sara Orchard. It is a tiering system, which would be similar to what we did during Covid but instead of random pools it would be seeded because we want England to be challenged.
Finals day could be rotated
So you have the three best teams in tier one, which right now would be England, France and Ireland, and the other three – Italy, Scotland and Wales – in tier two. Teams play the other sides in their tier home and away, then there is a big finals day at one venue where one plays two to win the Six Nations, three plays four as in the bottom of tier one and top of tier two, and five plays six. That three v four game would be important because it would be for promotion and relegation for the following year’s championship.
The venue for the finals day could be rotated between the countries and if it was pre-planned it would be easier to sell. It could be held in Rome, for example, and I think fans would travel to Europe for a big event like that. You could have three games back-to-back, maybe 12pm, 3pm and 6pm, and we know the weather should be good in late April.
It would have been difficult to do this when we were playing on the same weekends as the men’s championship but now the Women’s Six Nations has its own space in the calendar it has made a massive difference and you don’t have to align everything. There is an opportunity to change things to make it more competitive, more marketable.
And it doesn’t have to be like this forever. This could be for three or five iterations, say, then we can look at whether it worked or if we need to change it as other teams may have improved. I think it would make it more exciting. You would have England and France playing each other home and away every year. Imagine seeing Wales lose to Scotland by two points in Edinburgh, as they did this year, and then playing again at the Principality a week or two later – I’d really like that.
Spain, pictured playing against Sweden, could be one of the teams in a third tier – Shutterstock/Manuel Bruque
You could even create a third tier with teams like Spain, Portugal and the Netherlands, and perhaps have another play-off match for promotion. I think the gap with the Six Nations sides would be huge to start with but it gives them exposure.
I’m not saying it’s logistically easy but we’ve got to be brave. It is still the Six Nations but done in a slightly different way that would create more competition, jeopardy and interest.
