\n<\/p>\n
England have needed all that trust and togetherness over the past six weeks.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
With plans twisted out of shape, and under stress and scrutiny, they won all the same.<\/p>\n
Ultimately the blood the French thought they could sniff as during a second-half comeback turned out to be Anglo-Saxon bloody-mindedness.<\/p>\n
It was triumph of a team, but also a system.<\/p>\n
As skipper Meg Jones lifted the Six Nations trophy, it was a celebration of Premiership Women’s Rugby.<\/p>\n
England’s top flight is the world’s premier domestic rugby competition, the standard of rugby attracting Test stars from around the globe.<\/p>\n
“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.<\/p>\n
“Our younger players are arriving with readiness to play for the Red Roses.”<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
France don’t have such a strong domestic competition. Not yet.<\/p>\n
Elite 1 is less professional, less competitive and less deep. The talent is concentrated in a handful of clubs.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
France’s age-grade sides are phenomenal. Last week, in Bedford, their under-21s beat their English counterparts 71-17., external<\/span><\/a> 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<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n But that talent lacks a finishing school.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n An emotional France captain Manae Feleu though pressed for the process to accelerate further.<\/p>\n “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.”<\/p>\n If they do, the Red Roses dominance will be tested even more thoroughly in the coming years.<\/p>\n Which is undoubtedly what the tournament needs.<\/p>\n On the back of the Rugby World Cup, this Six Nations has returned stellar numbers.<\/p>\n 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).<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Television audiences and online engagement also set new standards.<\/p>\n Sustained jeopardy for this all-conquering England, more rivals and less certainty, would boost those figures once more.<\/p>\n For now though, whatever growth graphs the organisers offer, the most impressive numbers belong to the Red Roses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n