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Red Roses' Heard ruled out of Six Nations

LANGLEY, BRITISH COLUMBIA - OCTOBER 06: Tatyana Heard of England runs with the ball during the WXV1 match between New Zealand and England at Langley Events Center on October 06, 2024 in Langley, British Columbia. (Photo by Rich Lam - World Rugby/World Rugby via Getty Images)
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Women’s Rugby World Cup winner Tatyana Heard has been ruled out of the 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations with a foot injury.

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The centre sustained the injury in Gloucester Hartpury’s 43-38 win over Loughborough Lightning in Round 15 of the 2025/26 Premiership Women’s Rugby season.

Loughborough and England Under-21 centre Carmela Morrall will replace Heard in John Mitchell’s training camp.

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Heard has made 36 Test match appearances for England since her debut in 2018. In last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup victory on home soil, the 31-year-old started in five of England’s six matches at the tournament.

While Heard has been an international for almost eight years, she has had numerous hurdles to overcome, including three ACL injuries by the age of 24.

For much of the past half-decade Heard has been a near-constant in the England midfield and a mainstay under Mitchell.

Morrall has won seven caps for England U20 and has impressed greatly for Nathan Smith’s Lightning so far in PWR this term. In January the 21-year-old was called into Red Roses camp.

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So far this season Morrall has scored two tries, provided six try assists, carried the ball 157 times for 320 metres and beaten 27 defenders. In defence she has made 92 tackles and won five turnovers.

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3 Comments
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BC1812 92 days ago

With Heard out I suspect there will be limited new faces in the first match against an improving Irish side and a 70000 plus crowd. Perhaps Rowland will get a start at 12 and Aitcheson on the bench . Perhaps even Jones will start at 12 and either Rowland or Aitcheson at 13. If the match was against Wales or Italy we might have seen more experimentation.

E
Elia 92 days ago

Sarah Parry or Carmela Morrall can drop straight in to 12 and do a great job. But perhaps JM will stick with the knowns: Jade Shekells ?

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NoLongerARuck 1 hour ago
Nations Championship: 'The data shows the north has finally caught up with the south'

The Six Nations produced so many compelling games and so much of action packed moments that you can only conclude that its the best international comp out there at the moment except for a world cup. If Wales improve it will be even better especially given the strides Italy have made in recent times. The Rugby Championship is now taking a hiatus in a year it really should be building toward something better which is terrible considering the competition was so tight last year. The Nations Champs promises much but one gets the feeling that the 6 Nations teams will not be at their peak given its at the end of their long season. In terms of rugby quality and entertainment Id rather watch the 6 Nations over everything else other than a world cup right now. The North arguably offers more in terms of entertainment than the South at club level as well. The Prem, the Champs Cup, URC and Top 14 all feature plenty of scoring and different playing styles while Super Rugby seems to be the same thing game in game out. While the South tries to speed up the game artificially with new trials and law variations the North has shown you can do it with good refereeing which penalises cynical play harshly and encourages positive actions on the field. In terms of entertainment the North wins. In terms of winning? They are making strides but until they win another world cup or get a team to rank number 1 again for an extended time again they cant really say they are better than the South.

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