First Six Nations finale round looms

The first ever women's Six Nations 'final' takes place this weekend with a winner takes all match between France and England the highlight of the three-game finale of the competition

Published by Scrum Queens, April 22nd, 2021

7 minute read

Try Audio

First Six Nations finale round looms

Ireland v Italy, KO Midday, BBC iPlayer, RTE

Ireland have unexpected home advantage this weekend, after Italy were forced to travel due to issues around quarantine, and after their difficulties against France, Adam Griggs' side must have welcomed the smooth buildup to what now looks like a must-win game.

He has made several changes as sevens stars Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe and Stacey Flood both start while Brittany Hogan is on the bench.  Flood's performance at 10 will be interesting - she has a different style than Hannah Tyrell, who did very well against Wales, but Ireland are starting slowly to build some depth there.

The total omission of Clare Molloy is a surprise. Even if she has not been at her brilliant best, her experience in what could be a tight game, would have been helpful.

There is some extra sting in this game, as these sides could well meet again later this year in World Cup qualifiers.

Unsurprisingly Italy coach Andrea di Giandomenico has named an unchanged matchday 23, after their fine performance last weekend against Scotland.

Di Giandomenico said: “We have prepared the next match with great attention to detail and greater confidence in our means after the victory in Scotland.

“The precision in the construction of the game and the pressure in the defensive phase I think will be the two fundamental components that will be able to decide the match in Ireland.”

Ireland: E Considine; A Murphy Crowe, E Higgins, S Naoupu, B Parsons; S Flood, K Dane; L Peat, C Moloney, L Djougang; A McDermott, N Fryday; D Wall, B Hogan, C Griffin.Replacements: N Jones, L Feely, L Lyons, G Moore, H O'Connor, E Lane, H Tyrrell, E Breen.

Italy:V Ostuni Minuzzi; M Furlan, M Sillari, B Rigoni, M Magatti; V Madia, S Barratin; E Skofca, M Bettoni, L Gai; V Fedrighi, G Duca; I Arrighetti, F Sgorbini, E Giordano.Replacements:L Cammarano, G Maris, M Merlo, S Tounesi, I Locatelli, B Veronese, S Stefan, A Muzzo.

England v France, KO 2pm,BBC2

France have only one change to the starting XV from last weekend in Dublin, with Romane Menager starting at eight in place of Emeline Gros.  On the bench Jessy Tremouliere is back in place of Gabriel Vernier, and the hugely experienced Lénaïg Corson comes in too.

With access being given to both the sevens and fifteens squads, the result is the strongest team that coach Annick Hayraud believes she can field.

France widely refer to this fixture asle Crunch –and perhaps that describes this weekend’s game better than ever before.Their ambition is to return to the world’s top three – and stay there – and this will be the measure of how far away they are from that ambition. It is six years since they last won in England – they are the last team to beat England at home – and the impression from recent encounters is that the gap has grown.

England's selection sees Simon Middleton avoid sentiment by going for the flying and in-form Poppy Cleall at number 8 over skipper Sarah Hunter, who is still working her way back to full fitness after injury.

It means Emily Scarratt will captain in the centre alongside, Zoe Harrison who is making her first start of this year's tournament at 12.

Neither side has been unduly tested so far in this competition over the full 80 minutes. Though Ireland had moments against France early on and Italy did brilliantly for a half against England, they have largely cruised to convincing wins.

After so many one-sided matches, the tournament badly needs this game to be tightandexciting.

France:1 Annaëlle Deshaye; 2 Agathe Sochat; 3 Rose Bernadou; 4 Madoussou Fall; 5 Safi N'diaye; 6 Marjorie Mayans; 7 Gaëlle Hermet; 8 Romane Menager; 9 Laure Sansus; 10 Caroline Drouin; 11 Cyrielle Banet; 12 Jade Ulutule; 13 Carla Neisen; 14 Caroline Boujard; 15 Emilie BoulardReplacements: 16 Laure Touye; 17 Maïlys Traore; 18 Clara Joyeux; 19 Lénaïg Corson; 20 Coumba Diallo; 21 Pauline Bourdon; 22 Morgane Peyronnet; 23 Jessy Tremouliere

England:McKenna; Breach, Scarratt (capt), Harrison, Dow; Rowland, Riley; Cornborough, Davies, Brown, Ward, O'Donnell, Aldcroft, Packer, P Cleall.Replacements:Cokayne, Harper, B Cleall, Millar-Mills, Hunter, MacDonald, Tuima, Kildunne.

Scotland v Wales KO 5pmBBC iPlayer, BBC 2 Scotland

Though most of the focus have been on Welsh woes, in truth both of these sides have had tough campaigns.

Scotland had shown improvement against England but were still well beaten, while the result against Italy will have been more disappointing.

Wales have had a torrid time, on the end of two huge defeats, and they've lost their inspiring captain Siwan Lillicrap for this one to injury too.

Scotland head coach Bryan Easson has made three changes -  prop Christine Belisle, scrum-half Jenny Maxwell and outside centre Hannah Smith come back into the team while Lisa Thomson moves back to inside centre.

"We've made a few personnel and positional changes that I believe will allow us to put the best team available on the pitch this weekend," said the Scotland head coach Bryan Easson.

"We were disappointed in our defence against Italy last weekend but we have worked really hard during our training sessions to rectify this and we believe we have a good system in place ahead of the game."

Wales hand the captaincy to Hannah Jones, who has been one of their best players in the centre while there are first starts too for scrum-half Megan Davies and hooker Robyn Lock in the competition amid a massive nine changes.

Jasmine Joyce at full-back will be hoping to see plenty of attacking ball, with Robyn Wilkins moving back to her more familiar position of 10.

Wales:Jasmine Joyce; Lisa Neumann, Gemma Rowland, Hannah Jones (capt), Caitlin Lewis; Robyn Wilkins, Megan Davies; Caryl Thomas, Robyn Lock, Donna Rose, Natalia John, Teleri Wyn Davies, Manon Johnes, Bethan Dainton, Georgia Evans.Replacements:Kelsey Jones, Gwenllian Jenkins, Cerys Hale, Gwen Crabb, Shona Powell-Hughes, Abbie Fleming, Jade Knight, Megan Webb.

Scotland:Rollie, Musgrove, Smith, Thomson, Gaffney; Nelson, Maxwell; Belisle, Skeldon, Kennedy, Wassell, McMillan, Gallagher, McLachlan, Cattigan.Replacements:Rettie, Bartlett, Cockburn, Howat, McDonald, Law, Wills, Shankland.

Post