After a thoroughly enthralling month and a half of action, the curtain fell on the 2024 Women’s Six Nations at the weekend, with the final match of this year’s competition seeing the two sides vying for the title clash in Bordeaux as France hosted England in a straight shootout for the trophy.
In the end, it was England who took the win, with their ability to take their opportunities and France’s constant mistakes allowing the visitors to largely control the flow of the game, and the home side will know that it was a chance missed as they look to end their wait to reclaim their place at the top of the European women’s game. With that in mind, this tactical analysis will look at why they fell short once again and where they could have improved, as well as the tactics that helped England to defeat them and to lift the trophy for a sixth consecutive year.
Lineups
France made four changes to their starting XV from the side that defeated Wales with a clean sheet in their previous outing, with joint-head coaches Gaëlle Mignot and David Ortiz looking to keep their team as fresh as possible. The pack saw a slight reshuffle as Charlotte Escudero switched from lock to flanker, Romane Ménager moved across to number 8 and both Émeline Gros and Teani Feleu dropped to the bench. In came Madoussou Fall, who partnered Manaé Feleu in the second row, and Gaëlle Hermet, who joined Escudero and Ménager in the back row to complete the forwards.
In the backs, Chloé Jacquet was also given a place among the substitutes as Nassira Konde came in to partner Gabrielle Vernier in the midfield, whilst Anne-Cécile Ciofani was originally also set to start on the bench as Marine Ménager replaced her. However, a late injury for winger Joanna Grisez meant that Ciofani kept her place in the back line.
For England, head coach John Mitchell has tended to make few changes to his squad between matches in order to ensure that partnerships build up in different areas of the field, and that was the case again as he only named one alteration to the side that started last weekend’s dominant win against Ireland at Twickenham Stadium. Hooker Lark Atkin-Davies had picked up an injury and so Amy Cokayne came back in to replace her, with the latter missing the previous game through suspension.
England’s game plan
As well as the continuity in squad selections, another thing that has been prominent in England’s performances under Mitchell has been a clear and cohesive game plans suited to each opponent that they have come up against, and that was once again the case here as they turned up in Bordeaux with everyone on the same page with regards to how they were going to compete for a sixth consecutive title.
One of the key aspects of their tactics in this match was their desire to kick where they could, with fly-half Holly Aitchison constantly looking to test France aerially and winning territory for her side as the hosts struggled to gather her kicks cleanly. On this occasion, it led to France knocking the ball forwards inside their own half, meaning that England had gained several metres without needing to work too hard for them.
It was a risky strategy for England to have, given that Aitchison has not had the most consistent of tournaments with her boot, both in open play and from the tee, and there were some kicks in this match that didn’t find their intended targets and led to France having chances to apply pressure of their own. However, it did work on the whole and it was one of the reasons that the visitors largely stayed in the ascendency as the game went on.
This is not to say though that England’s game plan was only to kick into space, because there were also a significant number of carries being made too as they looked to find multiple ways of breaking down the French defensive line.
However, there were a few noticeable features in this aspect of their play, with one being that the only players involved in taking the ball into contact were the forwards, with loosehead Hannah Botterman in possession here. Meanwhile, the backs tended to stay a little further back, as is happening in this situation.
Whether this split was intentional or not is unclear, but it certainly had a positive effect on England’s play and was one of the reasons that they looked so dangerous whenever they did get on the front foot, with their heavier players creating gaps and the quicker, more nimble players then using their agility to exploit them and to take the ball behind the line. Again, it shows the unity and coherent nature of their performance, and this therefore has to be factored into the equation when looking at why the visitors were the ones who took the win.
England’s errors
This is not to say that England were flawless though, with them balancing out many of their positive moments with plenty of mistakes and things that they will need to work on ahead of their next outing.
One of the biggest issues was their lack of discipline at times, especially in the second half when they were clearly fighting for every inch of space that they could and were looking to ensure that France were rarely able to create many promising moments of their own.
However, they did so with a number of penalties being conceded and for trivial offences like going off their feet at the breakdown and tackling players off the ball, which risked potential yellow cards and is needless at any stage of the game. In this case, they started out well as centre Megan Jones made a strong tackle on opposite number Konde, driving her backwards and forcing France to recycle the ball, but they then undid all of that good work as both captain Marlie Packer and replacement hooker Connie Powell powered over and lost their footing, meaning that France had a free opportunity to kick for touch and to force England back towards their own try line.
It was not the only time when the visitors handed their hosts chances to put pressure on them through penalties being conceded, and they do need to look at this as they could have easily lost players to the sin bin on another day.
There were some technical errors that also became apparent at times, particularly when they were defending, with a number of France’s tries coming through England not positioning themselves correctly and so leaving space open that their opponents could use to their advantage. Here, the home side have looked to take the ball deep into England’s 22m area and have managed to get within range of the try line, and England now have to ensure that they cover all potential threats in order to repel any attempt to break through them.
However, the issue is that full-back Ellie Kildunne, who was one of the stars of the tournament, has drifted too far inside the pitch and is now around the breakdown, with her looking to prevent France from attacking around the fringes, and yet lock Zoe Aldcroft is in the same area and is looking to do the same thing.
Therefore, Kildunne’s focus needed to be on Ciofani here, who is nearest to the ball, and not doing so means that winger Jess Breach is left in a 2-v-1 situation against her and Marine Ménager. As a result, when the ball is sent towards the wide attacking duo, Kildunne is unable to react in time and Breach is forced to commit to Ciofani, which leaves Ménager with an easy route through to score the try.
France deserve a lot of credit for the way that they fashioned this opportunity, with it coming after a sustained period of possession in which they had looked really dangerous, but England will know that they could have defended better here. Therefore, this is another thing that they will need to look at as they continue to develop under Mitchell and his coaching staff.
France’s mixed game
It has been mentioned already in the analysis that France made a lot of errors and that they were their own worst enemies at times, but that did not completely define their performance, with there also being a lot to like about their play and plenty for them to be positive about.
From the early stages, it was evident that they too had arrived in Bordeaux with a clear idea of how they wanted to play in this game, and their tactics were not that dissimilar to England’s in that they also recognised that breaking their opponents down would only come through multiphase situations and being patient when they had the ball.
As a result, moments like this were common once they did settle into the match, with them making plenty of drives forward and looking to get over the gain line, always looking to bring more English players towards the breakdown with each push forward. By doing so, they knew that the cover out wide would eventually become too sparse and that there would then be a chance for them to break through and to get their rewards.
In this case, their plan worked to perfection as they made a series of runs up the pitch before recycling the ball and have now created enough space to allow Vernier to make a run through. This has been noticed by scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus, and she sets up her teammate as a result to score France’s first try of the match.
It wasn’t only in attack that their play had this organised appearance to it though, because there was also a lot to admire whenever they didn’t have the ball. Their high pressing tactics were particularly effective and created numerous problems for England to deal with, and they led to several turnovers being won and the home side slowing down the visitors’ advances a number of times. In this case, Escudero has got her hands on the ball quickly once England centre Tatyana Heard had been tackled, securing possession for her side and relieving the pressure that they had been under up until this point.
Escudero is not a player who will have attracted many headlines post-match, but she was one of France’s stars on the day and played a key role in her side getting back into the game once they had conceded two tries early on. She has been central to so much of what her side have done well throughout the tournament, and moments like this really highlighted how critical she has been to their fast-paced brand of rugby.
However, despite all of this, there is no escaping the fact that France lost this match and that it came through their own undoing, with their mistakes proving to be just too numerous and meaning that they never really controlled the game as they would have liked to. This particular error was one that proved to be especially costly for them both psychologically and in terms of the scoreline, with England kicking the ball forwards and full-back Émilie Boulard gathering it before opting to run forward with it rather than clearing her lines.
As a result, she invited England to close her down and Breach managed to tackle her early on here, which led to her attempting to offload the ball to Vernier but handing it directly to Jones instead, allowing the centre to break forward and to score a try. It was a huge error and the fact that it came directly after France had got themselves back into the game through Vernier meant that it put them back to square one in many ways, and this was therefore instrumental in them ending up on the losing side of the scoreboard.
Conclusion
In conclusion, this tactical analysis has looked in detail at the 2024 Women’s Six Nations match between France and England, highlighting the areas where the home side went wrong, as well as the positives in their play, and the tactics that helped the visitors to successfully lift the trophy once again.
It was not a game that will live long in the memory for those who witnessed it, with there being patches of good play here and there and some end-to-end action nearer the end of the match as things became more open. However, the vast majority of the clash was scrappy and saw both sides make plenty of errors, meaning that it was quite stop-start at times and neither team was really able to get into their full flow.
Nevertheless, it was England who managed to get the job done on the day and they for that reason deserved the title when all is said and done. For France, they will have to pick themselves up quickly ahead of their coming matches and will have to try again next year.