England pass Six Nations stress test, but rivals will return

It isn't just the 38 straight victories.

It's the five successive Grand Slams, the eight Six Nations titles, the Rugby World Cup title and a world number one ranking so strong it has essentially broken the spreadsheet., external

It's a spell of near-total supremacy that stretches back almost a decade.

Sixty-eight wins in the last 69 games. Eighty out of the last 82. Ninety-nine out of the last 103.

To death and taxes, add Red Rose victories to life's certainties.

But there was nothing routine about Sunday's 43-28 win over France in Bordeaux for John Mitchell and his players.

Asked about his emotions afterwards, the head coach couldn't contain them.

"As nice as it is for people to talk about us in that way [as one of the great English sporting teams], what is more important to us is the values that we live by," Mitchell said, before, his voice choked with emotion, he had to check himself.

"The girls are brave, they are so driven and that what makes them so good.

"Once you get know them and create that trust with them, it is an easy role really. They share their feeling so readily and it has enabled me to be a better coach and a better person."

England have needed all that trust and togetherness over the past six weeks.

More than half of the 32-strong squad that won the Rugby World Cup last year have been injured or absent for at least part of this Six Nations campaign. And most of those have been unavailable for its entirety.

With plans twisted out of shape, and under stress and scrutiny, they won all the same.

Ultimately the blood the French thought they could sniff as during a second-half comeback turned out to be Anglo-Saxon bloody-mindedness.

It was triumph of a team, but also a system.

As skipper Meg Jones lifted the Six Nations trophy, it was a celebration of Premiership Women's Rugby.

England's top flight is the world's premier domestic rugby competition, the standard of rugby attracting Test stars from around the globe.

"We are very fortunate to have that very strong competition, and we know for a fact as soon as our younger girls get 1,000 minutes in PWR they have a high probability of playing for England," said Mitchell.

"Our younger players are arriving with readiness to play for the Red Roses."

The way that teenager Demelza Short has flown into the fray during this campaign, stealing a turnover and relishing the battle with France off the bench in the Grand Slam decider, is exhibit A.

France don't have such a strong domestic competition. Not yet.

Elite 1 is less professional, less competitive and less deep. The talent is concentrated in a handful of clubs.

While England's starting XV had representation from eight of the PWR's nine sides, France line-up drew on just four of their domestic clubs; Toulouse, Stade Bordelais, Grenoble and Romagnat.

France's age-grade sides are phenomenal. Last week, in Bedford, their under-21s beat their English counterparts 71-17., external Last month, at Wellington College, in the under-18s, it was a similar story; a 75-7 thumping dished out to England's youngsters., external

But that talent lacks a finishing school.

The French federation is making promises, big companies are signing sponsorship deals and the Top 14, the vigorously healthy men's top flight, is better placed than any league to support women's programmes.

An emotional France captain Manae Feleu though pressed for the process to accelerate further.

"We are going to have close the gap, with investment and the shape of the game," she said. "We have great potential, we now have to invest."

If they do, the Red Roses dominance will be tested even more thoroughly in the coming years.

Which is undoubtedly what the tournament needs.

On the back of the Rugby World Cup, this Six Nations has returned stellar numbers.

There were new attendance records for the tournament in five of the six participating nations: England (77,120), France (35,062), Ireland (31,294), Scotland (30,498) and Italy (4,787).

Even with England, the biggest crowd-pullers, playing three away games, the cumulative attendance record was smashed with 279,760 watching in person, beating 188,182 in 2024.

Television audiences and online engagement also set new standards.

Sustained jeopardy for this all-conquering England, more rivals and less certainty, would boost those figures once more.

For now though, whatever growth graphs the organisers offer, the most impressive numbers belong to the Red Roses.