England have announced their U18 Girls team to play Wales tomorrow. It's a 27-player team and I think it's a 70 minute match so presumably they plan to rotate everyone in at some point in the match. www.englandrugby.com/follow/news-...

Sam Larner is back and brings tips of what to look out for in the upcoming Women's Six Nations, plus some tips on using data in your grassroots team. www.coachcarecreate.com/p/what-the-s...

For 2026, the traditional WXV 1, 2, and 3 tiers have been replaced. Here is what you need to know about the new structure for the September and October windows:

With three rounds left to play, qualification for the PWR semi-finals is a real dogfight. Gloucester-Hartpury and Saracens have secured places but five teams are chasing the other two spots. In trying to predict the outcome, I've mentally divided the teams into three groups...

Great analysis of the recently announced Black Ferns squad for the Pacific Four event. Breakdown of where new caps have been selected from as well as where non-involved players are. Worth a read!

A nice review of our the Black Ferns’ addition to the PWR and Trailfinders Women. I’m sorry to see Maia Roos and Tanya Kalounivale head home after this week but glad that Alana Borland and Georgia Ponsonby will still be here (although Georgia is playing in PAC4)

There's an experimental look to the Wallaroos team due to play Fiji on Friday, with six uncapped players in the 23. Fiji performed pretty well at the RWC and if their current team can match that level Australia could find themselves in trouble. www.rugby.com.au/news/wallaro...

Nice to read positive comments from the NZ players about the experience of mplaying in the PWR. Slightly amazing that NZR seem so casual about the possibility of losing players as good as Rule, Ponsonby and Borland. Also surprising that those players seem rather ambivalent about missing out.

The Women's Rugby Europe Championship goes live this weekend and here are a few players to follow Ready for another thrilling season? www.rugbyeurope.eu/news/one-s-t...

Good looking team. I don't think she has had any game time for Quins this season(*) but it's great to see Manuqolo Komaitai in there at 8. (* To be fair, with Wafer, Mikaele Tu'u, Svoboda et al it's one of the harder back rows in the world to break into)

Update of my PWR rankings charts using the World Rugby formula. We see: - the remarkable ascent of Sale - the nearly as dramatic decline of Quins - the No. 4 to 8 teams incredibly closely clustered - Leicester at an all-time low - Exeter rewarded for not having lost to any of the teams below them

www.monitor.co.ug/uganda/sport... Looking ahead, Koyokoyo acknowledges that women’s rugby has made strides locally but genuine growth will only come through better structures, stronger support systems and greater visibility. My English captured in this Daily Monitor Sport piece by Fred Mwambu.

This is a mostly complete list of the most attended women's rugby international games of all times: That North American record is great, but it does land 47th...

By the way, here's the tie-break rules if teams end the season on equal points in the PWR. www.thepwr.com/pwr-structur...

Details of the England U21 squad which will be doing opposed training against Canada U21. This may be normal but the forwards seem very light of PWR experience. The backs much more experienced I think. www.englandrugby.com/follow/news-...

Some thoughts on the Black Ferns' PAC4 squad: - no 7s stars included - Ruahei Demant (Bristol), Tanya Kalounivale and Maia Roos (Trailfinders), and Liana Mikaele-Tu’u (Quins) set to leave their PWR clubs. Georgia Ponsonby also in PAC4 but presumably returns after. www.allblacks.com/news/black-f...

Saracens now guaranteed a home semi-final I think. Below them, five teams are still chasing two SF places: - Exeter not yet mathematically safe but would only need two league points from their last two matches to qualify - Of the other four teams, Quins very marginal favourites to qualify for me.

Black Ferns Head Coach Whitney Hansen has named her first 30-player squad for the April Pacific Four Series (PAC4) in the USA and Australia. www.allblacks.com/news/black-f...

Harlequins Women v Trailfinders - referee absolutely killing Quins with "tackler not rolling away" calls when every single time it has been Trailfinders players trapping the tackler in the ruck.

It’s do or die for Quins Women and Trailfinders this evening. It’s not impossible for the loser to reach the semi-finals but it is going to be exceptionally hard. Quins are missing some important players and Trailfinders’ team looks stronger on paper. However they were really disappointing v Exeter

I found the Jegou written decision on the 6N media page: media.sixnationsrugby.com/wp-content/u... It goes into a *lot* of detail. Firstly, I was impressed at the number of lawyers (4) in Team Jegou. The lead solicitor had clearly done his homework. Also Jerome Garces in support. Lucky Oscar.

A very strong squad as you'd expect. Congratulations to the younger players called up - well deserved. I do wonder what it takes to get Maisy Allen back in the England squad. She's currently 4th in the PWR for tries scored, 6th for carries and 1st by for tackles made www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

The next generation of English and Welsh women's rugby talent on display in the final of the ACE U18s - Hartpury College vs Worthing. www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw73...

Has anyone got sight of the Jegou disciplinary written decision? All previous ones are accessible but I can't get at Jegou's. Which is a shame, as the penalty was bizarrely light and I'm very interested to know what facts the DC was relying on. www.sixnationsrugby.com/en/discipline

Good to read Matt is in a better place open.substack.com/pub/pwrpoint...

Gotchu

Is @womensrugbyshow.bsky.social still in business? Sadly missed here at any rate. So anyway some team sheets for this weekend’s PWR matches. I don’t love Quins’ decision to bring Tuima into the centres and push Peña to the wing. Gives them another kicking option but takes pace out of the midfield.

Fascinating duel underway between Loughborough Lightning and Quins. Loughborough doing a lot of running and passing, and getting a lot of joy finding disconnects around the Quins centres. However with much passing and rucks comes the danger of turning the ball over. Quins much more pragmatic.

Ok these forecasts are intriguing. My PWR tracker using the World Rugby rankings system would make the Saracens/Glospury match 50/50. Barely a rizla paper between them. The rankings system does have some significant weaknesses but my gut feel would be 50/50. If I had to call a winner it would be GH

One of the season's highlights, for me, has been Meryl Smith not only back playing, but playing really well.

In 2020, USA Rugby chose not to implement World Rugby’s ban on transgender women, prioritizing inclusion and safety in the community game. So, what changed? In this segment, Bill Goren (CEO, USA Rugby) shares with Corinne Joye Votaw to explain the critical pressures that led to the policy shift.

It was a good weekend for Trailfinders, with Exeter, Quins and Loughborough all losing. In principle, Trailfinders hold their fate in their own hands - win all the remaining matches and they make the playoffs. However their run-in is very tough so Exeter and Quins remain favourites for top 4 spots.

Some clips from last weekend’s match between Harlequins Women and Saracens. First the Apps try: - quick ruck ball by Campbell - very quick hands in midfield - great run and pass by Senft - superb finish by Apps

Switching to cricket - the auction for the Women's Hundred is ongoing and there are some quite insane valuations that teams have made. A few that pop out: Deepti Sharma for £27.5k and Alana King for £37.5k (vs Dani Gibson for £190k). Players not available all season? www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricke...

Iran's Women's football team recently made the news when they failed to sing the national anthem before their match against South Korea. Now they've been knocked out of the tournament and are due to fly home, apparently five players have gone into hiding in Australia. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Well the Red Roses are going to have to be REALLY good this year if Bill Sweeney is to get his win bonus.

England, thank you very much for your stay at the top table of rugby. We will always remember the 12 wins in a row, the Pom Squad 🙏🏾 and saying you’re in the 27 RWC final. But welcome back to the vibes and unserious table of Tier 1 rugby with your old friend Scotland, Argentina, Australia and Italy

Let history record that I was the only pundit with the vision to ask this question in The wake of Scotland's opening day loss to Italy,

Antoine Dupont needs to get some coaching off Zoe Harrison for this passing behind the try line thing.

THE ballsiest try for Saracens Women just now. Passing the ball long in their own in-goal to set Jess Breach free for a coast-coast try

Thriller ongoing between Glasgow Women and Edinburgh. Scores level with a minute to go.

Helluva try there by Sabrina Poulin

World Rugby this week published the findings of their recent State of the Game conference, dissecting the game's laws and how to grow it. To do the same, we welcomed in rugby analyst, author and finger breaker @samlstandsup.bsky.social to have a chat... youtu.be/KiUiiKwwiWU

The professional era of women’s rugby is officially here and the data is finally catching up. 🏉 📈

🚨 UPDATE 🚨 FRAvIRE is now available #GuinnessM6N #sixnations #Rugby

This is excellent by Sam

I think no surprise that France have overperformed, given their WR was dragged down by weakened teams. More surprising is just how badly England have underperformed.

One for the Rugby nerds (like me!) - AFTER 9 GAMES - what metrics give you a better chance of WINNING a #SixNations game. - 22m Points per entry & Tackle % success seem to be the leaders in the 9 games so far.

Well it looks like I picked a good weekend to miss all the live sport! However I just saw this from the Saracens Women v Exeter match - a bit of magic from Poppy Cleall:

Tom Curry must have beef with every Tier 1 Nation (I mean this in a good way) Whatever went on with Felipe Contepomi in the Argentina game Blanking Carlo Tizzano at the dentist & smashing Tom Lynagh in the air Starting ahead of Van der Flier & Jac Morgan in 2025 & Hamish Watson in 2021