27-04-2025
Jeopardy at last: Red Roses reality check is best thing for them
The best thing that could have happened to the Red Roses was the fact that seconds from the finish in their grand-slam decider at Twickenham, stomachs tensed, pulses raced and we watched the riveting denouement through our fingers wondering if they really could blow it.
The 43-42 win was the best thing that could have happened to England for a number of reasons but primarily because this team are ranked No1 and have left the rest of the world — New Zealand apart — so far in their slipstream that the World Cup, later this summer, had just looked like being an armchair ride to the final.
The fact that France nearly pinched victory on Saturday doesn't change the overall premise, though. The bigger picture is that England's next date at Twickenham should be for that final on September 27, and not only are they favourites to become champions but lifting the trophy is the only satisfactory outcome.
The runners-up medals they collected behind New Zealand in 2017 and again three years ago now weigh too heavily and no doubt that weight will grow the further we progress through September, but that's just going to have to be the deal.
They are in the same territory as the All Blacks were at their home men's World Cup in 2011: all those years of dominance yet the major trophy always eluding them. We thought that sport's eternal bridesmaid was Katherine Grainger, the Olympic rower, who grew sick of the sight of silver until she reached gold medal fulfilment at London 2012, yet that is where the Red Roses are, except they are even more dominant.
We turned up for their grand-slam game on Saturday too much in expectation. It was barely a recognised subplot that, actually, France were on for a Six Nations grand slam too. But then Jo Grisez was streaking down the left with two minutes to go and England's flaky defence was never going to stop her. With another excellent conversion that followed, France were one point behind and it was brilliant.
It is too simplistic to claim that the World Cup this summer could be the launchpad for women's rugby in England. It is simplistic because women's rugby has been well launched anyway. However, there are plans, marketing and investment, and a whole lot of hope built into the idea that this summer could do for women's rugby what England's triumph in the 2022 Euros did for women's football.
There certainly feels like an appetite for it. Actually, the 37,573 crowd on Saturday was a marginal disappointment. Nevertheless, there was a completely joyful festival atmosphere that felt similar to other women's sports events. More kids, more families, less beer.
Come to Twickenham for a men's international and the West Car Park is like a giant pub, with Guinness tents and champagne enclosures and pints being pulled at record pace. On Saturday, that same car park had been transformed into a fairground with dodgems and rides and cuddly toy prizes. Plus girls, loads of girls, chucking rugby balls around. That may not prove much beyond the fact this is rugby being really relished, but in a very different way, and that there is a genuine appetite for it.
To keep people hungry, though, you want twists and turns and knife-edge finishes such as this one against France. The concern for the summer is that the Red Roses' coronation is just too damn straightforward, that their tournament doesn't maximise its days in the sun because it's just not so interesting when the sun's shining all the time.
This is not the fault of the Red Roses themselves. Yes, they've got numbers and resources beyond any of their competitors, but well done to them for making the most of them. However, when you've only lost one match in 56 — and that was the World Cup final — and when you've won six successive Six Nations and you're coming to claim the seventh with a points difference against your previous four opponents of 213-29, then no matter your levels of excellence, your offering to the fans doesn't have much of the ingredient that is crucial for a sporting event: not knowing who is going to win.
Jeopardy is the lifeblood of sport. Thank you to France for making that point, for injecting some uncertainty.
Let's not kid ourselves here. There is no pretending that the World Cup has suddenly been transformed by Grisez and co and is going to be a remotely tense affair for England fans before the semi-finals. However, France left Twickenham ruing an opportunity that they won't want to miss next time and Canada will have seen this and grown in the belief that England are not untouchable.
The Kiwi's Black Ferns, meanwhile, need no such encouragement. Portia Woodman-Wickliffe, the Women's World Cup's record tryscorer, is coming out of retirement, a player designed to destroy a defence as poor on the edges as England's was against France.
All this brings jeopardy at least to the semi-finals. Instantly, this becomes a better World Cup.
Some recognition must go here to the challenges faced by the Red Roses. Yes, they've got all that weight of expectation, but that's the nature of being favourites: just deal with it.
Yet it becomes more complicated in such a lop-sided sport. If so many games are so one-sided, then where do you get your edge? How do you rate your levels of excellence if the bar elsewhere is comparatively low? England's task is to self-assess continually and to insist on the highest standards. The challenge, always, is to know what heights are attainable.
And if your opposition aren't challenging you, then your weaknesses will be less exposed, the work required less clear and you've forgotten how it feels to have your backs against the wall. That is another reason why this France game was so good for England: not only did it bring a reality check but it left the team with a whole shopping list of areas to improve upon.
For now, though, that's another grand slam in the bag. As expected. Expectation hasn't dropped for the World Cup. But it has just got a lot more interesting.
