SCOTLAND
2023 RECAP: Women’s Six Nations – 4th / WXV2 – Champions / WORLD RANKING: 8th (74.37)
Scotland Women ended their 21-year wait for a major trophy last Autumn, as they narrowly secured the top spot to win WXV2. After three bonus point wins against South Africa, the United States and Japan, Scotland sat on par with Italy at the top of the tree. The tournament was ultimately decided by a marginal points difference, with Scotland taking the top spot with +55, narrowly edging over Italy’s +53.
Scotland head coach Bryan Easson and captain Rachel Malcolm were next up for the press conference, and laid out their plans for a successful campaign in the 2024 Women’s Six Nations. Malcolm discussed the importance of getting her hands on a trophy in South Africa last year, and the momentum that her side can carry into the upcoming Championship.
RACHEL MALCOLM: “I think the last couple of years in particular, we’ve known that we’ve been building something pretty special. But it’s been tough, because not always like you say, we were picking up losing borders, points for fun, week after week and became a bit of a talent for us. And I think that kind of coming up just short became a habit. But we knew that the ingredients were there, we just weren’t getting all of them together at the same time. WXV was a bit of a turn of turning of the tides in the sense of, at no point did we falter in that month that we were in South Africa, whether that be on the pitch or off the pitch. Which is probably the first time in a tournament, we’ve managed to do that.
“I think, we know what the ingredients are now and we kind of know how to put them together. And I’m not saying there won’t be hurdles along the way that we have to face, But I think having come up against them and jumped over them now and proved to ourselves we can do it, I think that’s going to be massive for us moving forward. And I think, you know, it’s easily the best month in my life and just in terms of the culture that we’ve got within the group at the minute, it is such a fun place to be. And that also breeds performances on the pitch. so I think like we’ve come back in and it’s like we’ve never been away. We’ve obviously all been apart for quite a long time but it’s literally just like a family getting back together.”
BRYAN EASSON: “As Rachel said, last year was really quite tough Six Nations wise. But I think it was between eight and 10 players senior players out, including the sevens players. We’ve got them back as well. We’ve got some senior players back and some youngsters, but we’ve won six on the bounce for the first time since 2001, which for us is huge. To get the crowds that Rachel was talking about as well.
“So to keep those performances where, some of our attack has been good, some of defence been excellent. Our line-out has been great. So it’s consolidating that and really pushing on. If you look at the Six Nations, it is probably the toughest of the two years, if you think we have got England and France at home and then Wales, Italy, Ireland away, it’s tough for us. But the confidence that we have, and the performances we’ve been putting in would beat that, so the challenge is, can we just keep pushing that performance on?”
FRANCE
2023 RECAP: Women’s Six Nations – 2nd / WXV1 – 5th / WORLD RANKING: 3rd (87.89)
Rounding off our run-down of the 2024 Women’s Six Nations sides, France have a clear mission in their quest to re-gain their crown; beat England. Les Bleus last won the Six Nations title in 2018, and have been routinely unsuccessful in their plights since then, to overthrow England at the top of the table. France were a hair’s width away last year, having narrowed down a 33-0 half-time lead to lose by just five points at Twickenham.
Along with England, France have already qualified for the 2025 Women’s Rugby World Cup, but were overall frustrated by their inaugural WXV1 campaign. Despite ending the Black Ferns’ 16-test winning streak in the opening match, Les Bleus suffered upset defeats to Australia and Canada, and will be searching for a return to winning form in the upcoming Six Nations. France Women captain Manae Felu and head coach Gaelle Mignot spoke at the launch event, about the mission objective of triumph against the Red Roses.
MANAE FELEU: “England are a really big team. They are one of the best teams but I think last year, we showed that we weren’t really far from that. In our second half, I think we showed that we can rival them, we can take them on. And I think this year, we really want to show the same face that we showed in that second half during the game.”
“I don’t think there’s much chasing to do I think it’s more of a focus on ourselves. We need to be to work more on our strengths because we are really different teams with different strengths and weaknesses. And for the past years, I think England have been better than us in working on their strengths. And we need to be on with our strengths as well in this tournament.”
GAELLE MIGNOT: (via translator) “The WXV has been really important for us to build the team and say that the team has really stepped up since that WXV Tournament. And we’re developing and we got together in January for some training. And we see that the game is really improving. And we have a team that’s highly motivated. Team members are giving their best and they’re ready to put their boots on and put the boot in.”