I thought this article was very good. Amongst other things looking at how France fronted up against England: - won on both territory and possession - physical dominance - poor return per 22 entry (vs England deadly) - set piece problems - defensive gaps (& impact of missing players)

This fancy pants graph kinda makes my point about Wales & France quite neatly whilst results were the same the underlying numbers have taken a big step up, but we forgot just how far behind they were to begin with + the rest have all moved on too

Wait what? Three huge departures in the form of Stratford, Heard and Beckett. The end of a dynasty for Gloucester-Hartpury?

Great stats thread here!

Loads of good stuff here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

I've been looking at England Women's kicking game in the W6N because why not. So I've attempted to record the various kicks (kicks-in-play, restarts and penalty kicks to touch) in each match. And there has been a lot of variation with rather different kicking tactics each round.

The pathway problem looming for Red Roses France may have lost at senior level but their youth system poses a genuine threat to England’s rugby reign www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/...

Women’s 6N Lions team of the tournament. 1 Perry ☘️ 2 CMM☘️ 3 Muir🌹 4 Burton🌹 5 Ives Campion🌹 6 Feaunati🌹 7 King☘️ 8 Wafer☘️ 9 Packer🌹 10 Harrison🌹 11 CMM🌹 12 Higgins☘️ 13 Jones🌹 14 Breach🌹 15 Kildunne🌹 A few Scots & Welsh close but hard to deny results. Feaunati probably my player of the tournament.

Elite stat here ❤️

My grades for the W6N teams this year: England - 🅰️ - coped with all the disruption, blooded several new players, and won reasonably comfortably in the end. Can't ask for much more. France - 🅱️ - yes, a new coach, new style of play and several new players. But missed a huge opportunity to win...

Conversion kick success in the M6N and W6N this year. In the W6N, Italy and Wales particularly poor. Italy Men also very mediocre. The kicker with the most conversions at 100% success rate is Dan Edwards. The kicker with the best success rate with over 10 conversions taken is Zoe Harrison (94%).

England have more coaches, more support staff, more pro players, a bigger player pool coming through, but they also do the work. This win doesn’t happen without mental determination and hard graft all year in prep and during the match. Incredible squad culture. Other unions still playing catch up.

Salute to Brian Moore, who is retiring from commentary. One of my favourites both on the pitch and behind the mic.

Oh France 💔 Once again, so near but so far. England had the rub of the green with the ref decisions, but just the better team on balance. Back division excellent, a huge game from Mack Carson, forwards behind France on physicality but superbly resilient.

Wow. Ireland excellent, Scotland unfortunately pretty poor. Fantastic atmosphere.

Wrote a few thoughts about Scotland v France over on @scottishrugbyblog.co.uk and definitely found some positives but may have ended up on a bit of a downer www.scottishrugbyblog.co.uk/2026/05/2026...

I've held my tongue long enough. What in the actual fuck are we doing to rugby. We celebrate these massive scorelines as if it's good for the game. More tries doesn't equal good rugby. Every game is a shootout, it's bollocks. Bring back a 12-8 slog. Old man yells at cloud, but christ -Sav

Some interesting comments here, for example on how structured the English game is (and how English players might struggle to react to changing pictures on field).

In the W6N this year England have used a different kicking strategy in each match so far: - R1 vs Ireland (Aitchison at 10) a real kick-fest with high volume of kicks in play and wide variety of kick types. - R2 vs Scotland (Harrison) “give the ball to Zoe to welly as far downfield as possible” ..

WR hasn't released stats yet. So what I did was take the Hong Kong 7s finals from 2025 and 2026. Both had Australia v New Zealand and featured many of the same players. The biggest difference was in ball retention. In fact in 2026 there were fewer tries but cleaner retention over all making it ->

The reason why is because it could be even better. This isn’t a gimmick. While I agree it creates a problem for grassroots rugby where both men and women often need to share balls - the reality is the intro into 7s has made stats go up. I can also see performance improvements in my players.

The genius of Squidge. Come for the rugby analysis, stay for the twentieth century French cinema analysis.

The final match of the 2026 Rugby Asia Women's Championship ended in very tense fashion. Hong Kong, down 12 points with just a few minutes to go in teeming rain, scored a try but missed the conversion... www.youtube.com/watch?v=Buhv...

Some further player comments on the Size 4.5 ball. Nolli Waterman and Shaunagh Brown in favour of the trial: www.rugbypass.com/news/wxv-glo...

France U21 Women vs the clock at the moment. Physically superior to the English, winning a lot of rucks, and great ball handling. Only a dodgy set piece holding them back.

Millions of women are being forced off the sports field by bladder leaks, research from TENA has revealed, with the average age for quitting sport altogether now just 37 years old… seven in 10 women have given up sport before the age of 40 because of the issue. 4theloveofsport.co.uk/2026/05/08/a...

England Women U21 team v France has been announced. Once again the Backs look good (albeit will be tested to the extreme by a brilliant French back line) but the Forwards look underpowered. “Success” I think would be keeping the margin of defeat under 30 points. www.englandrugby.com/follow/news-...

Aussie rules match planned to take place between Australia and Ireland, in June or July this year. I gather there are around 40 Irish players in AFLW at the moment so I guess they could field a strong team from those players alone. www.afl.com.au/aflw/news/14...

Ash Marsters and Sidney Taylor both reported to have signed up with NRLW teams. Marsters a longtime and multi-talented Wallaroos stalwart; Taylor just newly capped by Australia and looking extremely promising. The absence of both in this year's WXV matches will hurt Australia.

There’s a wide range of nationalities represented in India’s RPL Women’s squads. Including 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Abbie Brown, 🇿🇦 Zintle Mpupha, 🇺🇸 Nia Toliver, 🇫🇯 Ana Naimasi and 🇧🇷 Isadora Lopes.

I'm worried about the proposed takeover of Exeter Rugby. Black Knight seem to have done a good job at Bournemouth but they'll require to make a profit from Exeter. Prem rugby isn't famously profitable and I fear the Women's team may be a cost-saving target. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/articl...

Jess Breach and Ellie KIldunne on the size 4.5 ball: youtu.be/wAqTgstEfq8?... In short - - don't agree with the new ball being imposed on WXV without the player's having had the chance to try the ball and voice opinions - fear it will diminish how the Women's game is perceived

I see that Teagan Levi has signed up for a season of NRLW in Australia. Apparently with Rugby Australia’s consent, and without leaving her Sevens contract. I can see some positives for RA here - they get to save some money and might attract some League fans over to Union ax a result.

Because of this, we launched a worldwide independent survey to capture a broader snapshot of the rugby community. Our results reveal a massive disconnect between the governing body & those who actually play & support the game. Survey: bit.ly/ballsize Results: bit.ly/balltrialres...

"It's the worst decision that someone has ever made" "I've not kicked any less than a size five since I was the age of 14.” One of the best kickers in the world, no gender qualification required.

I put it off long enough, here are some thoughts on Scotland's disappointing performance against Italy over on @scottishrugbyblog.co.uk www.scottishrugbyblog.co.uk/2026/05/2026...

Squads have been announced for this year's Super Rugby W in Australia. www.rugby.com.au/news/new-fac... The Drua feature 18 Fijiana players from last year's RWC and 22 from the recent Oceania Championship, so they're probably the team to beat. Waratahs look strong once again too.

Highlights of the first NRLW State Of Origin match today: youtu.be/oVBfsfanVig?...

Sad news - Bruce Perkins of 4TheLoveOfSport has died. I always found his articles well-informed and stimulating. He did a huge amount to try to promote Women’s rugby. 4theloveofsport.co.uk/2026/04/29/b...

India's Rugby Premier League will apparently include four women's teams this year. Player auction due to take place on 30 April while the league will be held in June. www.newindianexpress.com/sport/other/...

Many congratulations to the Cambridge Women rugby team for winning the NC 2 Midlands South league, completing the season unbeaten! They'll move up to NC 1 next season. The star player this season was centre Kate Willis, scorer of much of the team's points this year.

Intersting article on how the style of play - especially kicking - has evolved in the W6N over the years. www.bbc.co.uk/sport/rugby-...

Squads for this year 🇳🇿 #SRAupiki have been released and I finally had time to review them. 118 players (Chiefs will announce 2 more), with 33 debuts. 1st thing that I see is that Chiefs Manawa are doing a Leicester:

Another excellent rugby history piece. (Also an impressive library of books!)

I think the list of potential impacts of using the size 4.5 ball (read as supposed benefits?) is interesting. - Fewer knock-ons? Yes, stats from the 2025 6N showed a higher rate of handling errors in W6N than in M6N. There may be lots of reasons for this, but it's worth investigating. ...

I see that Rugby Union has been scientifically proven to be the greatest football code. I think that should end all debate for good now. youtu.be/6v6dRzou6vs?... (Action starts at around 13m50s. Harry Wilson, Ash Marsters, Desi Miller and Joseph Suaali starting for Team Rugby Union)

Hong Kong set to host WXV Global Series Challenger in 2026 www.world.rugby/wxv/news/104...

I just watched France U21 Women vs Wales and as the kids say, lol. Lmao even. A strong-looking Wales team featuring Alaw Pyrs, Gwen Hopkins, Sian Jones and a host of CC players was swatted aside 76-5 by a French team that was stronger, faster and just much more skilled.

Interesting news: WXV Challenger series (Spain, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Fiji, Samoa, and Brazil) will be played at Hong Kong this September! Also confirmed that Hong Kong will host Tonga in the Nations Cup www.scmp.com/sport/rugby/...