Calladine bursting with pride at teammates' efforts despite France loss
England captain Lucy Calladine was bursting with pride with her teammates' efforts despite falling to a 52-39 loss against France in their final match of the 2025 Six Nations Women's Summer Series.
France ran in eight scores during the gripping encounter in Caerphilly, but England gave as good as they got and scored six tries of their own through Amelia MacDougall, Grace Clifford, Lucie Sams, Calladine, Sophie McQueen and Zara Green.
The result also represented a marked improvement from 12 months ago in Italy when France downed the U20 Red Roses 72-21.
And Calladine, who plays domestically for Loughborough Lightning in Premiership Women's Rugby, said the nature of her team's performance made it feel like they'd won.
'I'm so proud,' she said. 'That scoreline is the closest it's ever been [against France] during the whole four years I've been involved. I'm so proud of the girls. They all worked so incredibly hard and it's a win in our eyes.'
England beat Scotland 31-17 in their opening Women's Summer Series game before coming from 15-0 down at half-time against Italy to win 36-20 in their second. It means they finished alongside Ireland who also won two of their matches.
Calladine explained she'd enjoyed being able to lead her team during the competition in Wales and hinted there is more to come from her side.
'This team makes it incredibly easy for me to be captain,' she continued.
'They're all so kind, so caring and they work incredibly hard for each other. Honestly, I couldn't ask for more from a team. What they do makes it so easy for me. We had a great two wins and obviously this [result] doesn't reflect how good we are as a team.'
This has been the second incarnation of the Women's Summer Series, a tournament designed to give U20s players the opportunity to play more competitive rugby to help with their development.
Calladine was grateful that her and her contemporaries had been given a platform to show what they could do.
'[This tournament is] massive, especially with the World Cup coming up,' she added. 'It just shows you how cool the talent is coming forward. It's important to play these games, especially against the likes of France, because it just makes us a better team, and it makes for exciting rugby.
'More people are coming every year to watch. I've been doing it for three or four years now and the crowds have just got bigger and bigger. We always talk about how can we leave the shirt in the best place and I think we've done that today, so I'm really happy.'
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Brand new for the 2025/26 season 🤩 Introducing defensive contribution points 🛡️#FPL — Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 18, 2025 Abdul: I am not a big fan of the points for defensive contributions. There is only an extra two points on offer per game and player, so it's not overpowered and won't cause a huge shift in the viable player pool. However, the reason I love FPL is due to its simplicity and this change is leading towards taking that out of the game. I am not totally against it though, and I'm willing to see how it goes this season. Also, there is already at least one controversy per gameweek as to what counts as an assist according to the game's rules, which can cause frustrating changes to points scored. Advertisement It feels like this is going to cause similar issues in terms of what constitutes as a block, clearance, tackle etc. It's fun watching your FPL players and cheering them to score or assist. I am not sure I want to be sitting there counting how many tackles or interceptions they have made. Holly: Without the context of player prices, it's hard to categorically say how the new defensive contribution points will impact team construction. If player prices stay widely similar to the past, then I don't think it will have a big impact in terms of team construction, but it will give certain players more utility. Traditionally, we've always targeted attacking full-backs in FPL but centre-backs will now carry more appeal. We've also tried to avoid defenders from newly promoted teams or against tough opposition, but both of these situations invite pressure on defences which could allow centre-backs to rack up CBIT actions more frequently. We may also choose a fifth midfielder differently, with holding midfield players also rewarded in this system. Abdul: I think it will impact our defence a lot more than the attack. The likes of James Tarkowski and other similar cheaper centre-backs will become more popular. Choosing players who play 90 minutes will be even more important now, with full-backs getting subbed off much more often than centre-backs. They also generally make more blocks, interceptions and tackles, although there definitely will be some full-backs who will breach the threshold regularly but that will become more apparent once the season kicks off. For the attack, I reckon it only really makes a difference to our fifth or possibly fourth midfielder. We are still going to pick the likes of Mohamed Salah, Cole Palmer and Bukayo Saka etc. However, when it comes to the cheaper mids at £5.0m and below, defensive contributions will become a lot more important. Advertisement Holly: My thoughts immediately went to attack-minded forwards and midfielders who press for their team and get involved in defensive actions too, with Manchester United's Bruno Fernandes immediately on my radar. I think he could be set for a deeper role this season, especially with the expected arrival of Bryan Mbeumo in the summer transfer window to follow that of Matheus Cunha. I'll also be keeping a close eye on the prices of Arsenal's Declan Rice and Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez, who are no strangers to attacking returns and have some set-piece involvement, while also providing plenty of defensive contributions. Backing assets who play 90 minutes regularly could be an important consideration. When it comes to defenders, centre-backs from defences who typically don't have plenty of possession fit the bill — we know that Everton's Tarkowski was the top performer in this metric last season. There may also be merit to picking central defenders from those sides who keep consistent clean sheets, like Liverpool's Virgil van Dijk and Arsenal's Gabriel. Abdul: The official FPL X page put out a graphic showing the defenders and midfielders who would have picked up the most points from the defensive contributions last season. Tarkowski, Jan Bednarek and Dean Huijsen (all centre-backs) led the way, so the Everton man is definitely on my radar. David Moyes' team are a solid defensive side and will pick up a fair few clean sheets. Tarkowski is nailed to start, plays 90 minutes and has a bit of goal threat too. James Tarkowski tops the charts 📊 No defender would have picked up as many defensive contribution points as the Everton defender if they were available in FPL last season 🔵#FPL — Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 18, 2025 Moses Caicedo would have picked up the most defensive contribution points among midfielders, followed by Elliot Andersen and Joao Gomes. Moises Caicedo would have picked up the most defensive contribution points among midfielders last season 👊 With the new defensive contributions points coming in 2025/26, will any of these players be in your squad? 👀#FPL — Fantasy Premier League (@OfficialFPL) July 18, 2025 Caicedo picked up an extra 42 points, which is quite significant, so his price is something I will be keeping an eye on. Also, defensive midfielders like Rice, Rodri, Bruno Guimaraes and Fernandez might be interesting, too. They all have a fair bit of attacking threat. Manchester United's Fernandes could be the one who benefits the most from this. We all know he's one of the most nailed players in the league and on penalties, but he's also really involved and played deep quite a lot last season. Overall though, a fair bit of research is still needed pre-season to try and find those gems before the pack.
