'We need our best performance': France preparing for 'final' against England

France hooker Élisa Riffonneau says that her side are preparing for a “final” against England in their 2026 Guinness Women’s Six Nations and Grand Slam decider in Bordeaux this Sunday.

Two years ago when the tournament decider was last played in the same city, England came out on top 42-21 at the Stade Chaban-Delmas.

France had tighthead prop Assia Khalfaoui red carded for a dangerous tackle, which handicapped the hosts for the final 36 minutes, and this time the decider is being played at the 42,000 capacity Stade Atlantique. But will this weekend’s outcome be any different?

Well, World Rugby’s fourth ranked side France have been in good form throughout the Championship and ran in 11 tries to beat Scotland 69-28 in Round 4.

Les Bleues are well aware that they will need to step things up at least a couple of levels if they are to have any chance of competing with a world number one and world champion Red Roses side.

“It was always the aim for us during the tournament to make sure we would have a final at home in France when Round 5 came around,” Riffonneau, the 22-year-old Grenoble front-rower, said.

“Now that we still have a chance of winning the title we are preparing this week as if we are going into a final and we are looking forward to playing this game.

“In our last game against Scotland I think we did well during the first minutes when we scored an early try and then had some pressure, but after we made a lot of mistakes in terms of discipline in the first half.

“Scotland got a lot of penalties because of us and I think we did well to be ahead by so much [31-14] at half-time because we had not been at our best.

“In the changing room at half-time we said that we wanted to be better and I think we were able to be better in the second half and we scored some good tries.

“I think Scotland put in a good performance and, at times, it was difficult to defend against them. It was a good battle, but they scored more points than we would have liked.

“Still, we put in a big performance as a team and the focus all of last week had been on getting five points against Scotland and we did that.

“Now the focus is on England and we know that we need our best performance.”