Six Nations round one: 'As enjoyable as the event itself was, rugby was the real spectacle'
Wow! What a fantastic opening round of rugby to kick off this year’s Guinness Women’s Six Nations. While wins in Le Mans and Parma were heavily predicted, Cardiff hosted an epic Celtic showdown where Scotland held on with the tips of their fingers for their first win in Wales in 20 years and their seventh successive win. A late Alex Callendar try provided a nervy finish for the visitors but the conversion went unsuccessful and Scotland took the W in the first round.
Italy provided a tough opening half for England in Parma and it took the reigning Grand Slam Champions 30 minutes to get over the Italian try line. They also received a yellow card for a dangerous ruck incident, which was the first card ever in the women’s six nations to be upgraded to red using the new bunker system. England played 70 minutes with 14 players but were still able to rack up the tries from late in the first half and the scoreline finished 48-0.
The tournament kicked off in the town of Le Mans on Saturday where Ireland came to the beautiful northwestern region of France to play Les Bleues in an entertaining encounter for the 15,000-plus fans in attendance. Although it may be more known for the 25 Hours of Le Mans car race, this proved to be a great host city for the occasion.
The Stade Marie Marvingt is a beautiful stadium which owes its name to the phenomenal French athlete who achieved milestones in numerous sports and is an important figure in French feminist history. A symbol of the ambition of French women’s sports which was on clear display on Saturday.
I was lucky enough to be in Marseille for the same round of the men’s tournament back in February. The similarities in celebrating the occasion are impressive. Pyrotechnics, flames, fireworks, free flags for all and of course the renowned sounds of the French brass bands entertaining everyone from the stands throughout the game.
Some particularly enjoyable moments from Saturday’s game were when they displayed the lyrics to “Freed From Desire” on the screens for everyone to belt out together at full time. (Yes, the words are “He’s got his strong beliefs”.) Also when the half-time announcer posed the controversial question to the French crowd: Do you say pain au chocolat or chocolatine? A heated debate in France which caused a huge reaction from fans cheering and booing for one or the other. It was great craic.
As enjoyable as the event itself was, rugby was the real spectacle. An early opportunity presented itself to Pauline Bourdon-Sansus who pounced and punished Ireland to open the account after just 2 minutes. Uh oh! Will this be the theme of the afternoon?
Beyond another first-half moment of magic from Bourdon-Sansus linking up with Menager to dot down for a second try, Ireland simply didn’t allow the theme to set in. They absorbed continuous attacking pressure from a French side who had a clear plan to work around the corner at pace and force Ireland into defending in waves until they broke them down.
However, after two further fruitless visits inside Ireland’s 5-metre line, Ireland’s defence was paid the ultimate compliment by France just opting to take the points from the kicking tee before halftime.
The second half saw three more tries from France including two from ultimate Player of the Match and second row Madoussou Fall, and hooker Agathe Sochat who has had her two-year-old daughter with her in camp at times during the preparation for the tournament.
However, it wasn’t just the French who found the grass beyond the try line. Ireland’s persistence and dogged attitude were rewarded with two tries of their own before the day was out. Aoife Wafer, who worked hard all afternoon with a big defensive impact as well as strong carries in attack, got over for her first try in green. Another Aoife of the Dalton kind showed that her defensive pressure was worthwhile by capitalising on some costly French fumbles on their own try line.
Weirdly, the game finished with the same scoreline as the men’s game in Marseille in February, just in reverse. France 38-17 Ireland.
Before the game, I was asked multiple times what would look like a good result for this Irish team. Squeezing France to a smaller gap in score: tick. Lower their missed tackle count: tick. Find some shining lights in individual player performances across the squad: tick. Score some tries and see the girls high-fiving and celebrating the small wins: big tick.
After a disastrous 2023 campaign marred with controversy and disappointing results and ultimately ending with the wooden spoon for Ireland this is progress. Across the whole tournament, they scored only 3 tries, one of which was a penalty try. To already have two on the board after just the first round and even more impressively against a superior French side, it’s progress.
Ireland’s defence needs to become one of their superpowers. With players like Neve Jones who is always a menace for any team trying to attack against Ireland and others who impressed defensively like Dalton, Wafer, and Hogan to name just a few, it’s clear that this is becoming something they can use to rebuild their status in this competition.
Sevens star and scrum-half Aoibheann Reilly was bouncing around on her toes behind the rucks, bossing around her defensive line and using her voice to bring energy and confidence to the waves of defence Ireland were forced to play with. We love to see it! And if the punters in the stand were enjoying seeing Ireland defend like women possessed, then the players must have also been relishing in it.
To avoid naively looking past the demise of Irish women’s rugby in recent years, I sign off with a taste of realism. Despite the positive reflections on Ireland’s first-round performance let’s not go patting everyone on the back for a loss with no points gained.
Yes, feel hopeful about the progress. Yes, celebrate the small wins. Yes, take the positives from a difficult fixture. But let’s not forget, this is not where this team wants to be. The road to success will be long and arduous, but after seeing what I saw from this team last weekend, do I believe that this is the team that can finally start positively rebuilding what once was and has since been lost? Yes, I do.
Italy come to Dublin this weekend and you’d better believe Ireland will be hungry for their first win in this tournament since 2022.
Comments on RugbyPass
Why cant I watch Rugby games please?
1 Go to commentsBeautiful shot from Finau, end of story. Gutted for Shaun Stevenson though.
4 Go to commentsThe Chiefs definitely didn’t win ugly. They had the superior scrum, a dominant lineout, and their defence was excellent once the Waratahs scored their two tries (thanks to some lucky refereeing calls mind you). They put pressure on the Waratahs lineout throughout the game, and the mind boggles as to why the referee did not award a yellow card or a penalty try against the Waratahs for repeated scrum infringements on their own try line before Narawa’s first try. And the Chiefs were slick with their passing and running angles on attack. It was a dominant performance all round, even with many questionable refereeing decisions.
1 Go to commentsWasnt late. Ref 2 assistants andTMO all saw it so who are you to say it was?
4 Go to commentsAre the Brumbies playing the Blues twice in a row?
4 Go to commentsBig difference from the Saders. Forwards really muscled up and laid a solid platform. Scooter brought some steel and I liked the loosie combination. Newell has been rather disappointing this season but stepped up big time - happy also to see Franks dot down. He should do that more often! Reihana had a good game and there seems to be more flair and invention with him in the saddle. McNicoll plays well from the back and is reliable plus inventive when he joins the line. Keep it up chaps!
3 Go to comments🤦♂️🤣 who cares who’s the best . All I know is the All Blacks have the star coach but have few star players now …
31 Go to commentsJe suis sûr que Farrell est impatient de jouer avec Lopez et Machenaud et d’être entraîné par Collazo… 🤭
1 Go to commentsAn on field red (aka a full red) in SRP must surely carry a bigger suspension than a red card given by the bunker as that carries a 20 minute team punishment. Had Damon Murphy abdicated his responsibility as a ref and issued both Drua players a yellow, which would have been upgraded to a 20 minute red by the bunker, that would have killed Australia and New Zealand’s push for the 20 minute red to be trialled globally from July this year.
11 Go to commentsEver so often you all post a Danny Care story that isn’t the announcement that he has finally re-signed for one more, victory tour season at Quins and I’m just like, “well you fooled me again!” My absolute favorite player ever, we need to make his final year at the Stoop (and Twickers) official already. I know he supposedly snubbed France but I won’t feel better until he signs.
1 Go to commentslate hit what late hit it wasn’t at all late and can clearly see he was committed before the tackle
4 Go to commentsChristian Lio -Willies 2 try perfomance was a standout. As was captain Scott Barrett. Up front was where the boys won it.They are a great team and players. Fantastic Crusaders , you can keep going.
3 Go to commentsI don't know how the locals feel about that? I guess if you call yourselves the Worcester Wasps that might be appease. But really we need more teams in the Premiership in my view so they are not padding it out as they are at the moment. It might curtail so many players going abroad as well
5 Go to commentsNZ 😭😭😭is certainly rivaling England for best whingers cup!😭😭😭 !!!
31 Go to commentsYup. New Zealand won 3 out of 10 world cups played. SA 4 out of 8 attempts 30 Vs 50 per cent.🤔🤔
31 Go to commentsShould've done this years ago. Change Saturday kick off times to around 11am. Up and off and back home before 3pm, limit travel time too. Allows players to actually do something else with their Saturday that's family oriented or being rugby fans they could ‘watch’ pro rugby. Increases crowds etc. How can anyone that enjoys grassroots and pro rugby have to choose between the two on Saturdays?
9 Go to commentsI bet he inspired those supporters just as much.
1 Go to commentsBen Smith Springboks living rent free in his head 😊😂
67 Go to commentsGood to hear he would like to play the game at the highest level, I hadn’t been to sure how much of a motivator that was before now. Sadly he’s probably chosen the rugby club to go to. Try not to worry about all the input about how you should play rugby Joey and just try to emulate what you do on the league field and have fun. You’ll limit your game too much (well not really because he’s a standard athlete like SBW and he’ll still have enough) if you’re trying to make sure you can recycle the ball back etc. On the other hard, you can totally just try and recycle by looking to offload any and everywhere if you’re going to ground 😋
1 Go to commentsThis just proves that theres always a stat and a metric to use to justify your abilities and your success. Ben did it last week by creating an imaginary competition and now you did the same to counter his argument and espouse a new yardstick for success. Why not just use the current one and lets say the Boks have won 4 world cups making them the most successful world cup team. Outside of the world cup the All Blacks are the most successful team winning countless rugby championships and dominating the rankings with high win percentages. Over the last 4 years statistically the Irish are the best having the highest win rate and also having positive records against every tier 1 side. The most successful Northern team in the game has been England with a world cup title and the most six nations titles in history. The AB’s are the most dominant team in history with the highest win rate and 3 world cups. Lets not try to reinvent the wheel. Just be honest about the actual stats and what each team has been good at doing and that will be enough to define their level of success.
31 Go to comments