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Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Red Roses triumph again but cannot afford another World Cup wobble
The England captain Zoe Aldcroft lifts the Women's Six Nations trophy at Twickenham. The blindside flanker was outstanding against France and throughout the tournament, but the team lost momentum in the second half of the grand slam decider against Les Bleues. The England captain Zoe Aldcroft lifts the Women's Six Nations trophy at Twickenham. The blindside flanker was outstanding against France and throughout the tournament, but the team lost momentum in the second half of the grand slam decider against Les Bleues. Photograph:There are two contrasting schools of thought after England's grand-slam clinching win against France on Saturday. According to John Mitchell, the Red Roses' head coach, his side's nervy 43-42 victory was ideal preparation for the World Cup this year. Alternatively, as the former England hooker Brian Moore succinctly put it during post-match TV analysis: 'If they were playing New Zealand, would they have got away with that?' Between them Mitchell and Moore know plenty about World Cup disappointment. The former was head coach of the All Blacks side beaten in the semi-finals of the 2003 men's tournament in Australia. Moore was part of the England team edged out by the Wallabies in the final in 1991. They have spent enough time in top-level rugby to know how abruptly best-laid plans can be foiled and that wanting something badly guarantees you zilch. Advertisement Related: Mitchell puts pressure on New Zealand and maintains England's World Cup focus What we do know is that the narrative surrounding the Red Roses shifted slightly over the weekend. This is still transparently a very good team. Seven successive Six Nations titles do not happen by accident. The ledger shows one defeat in their past 56 games. But utterly impregnable? A sure thing? Not on Saturday's evidence. Yes, they still won. Yes, the cowboy hats were fun. Yes, the outstanding Zoe Aldcroft and Alex Matthews dragged them through in the end. But for anyone who was in New Zealand for the last World Cup in 2022 there were uncomfortable echoes of their fateful final defeat against the Black Ferns. England are supposed to have moved on from that crushing disappointment but, if so, they still have a way to go. The experienced Mitchell was hired specifically to ensure this 'So near and yet so far' pattern does not repeat itself. Team and coach are developing a bond and, once again, they have been blowing the other home nations away. At first glance you could make the case that, in terms of serious foreboding, there is nothing major to see here. Advertisement That view, though, does not necessarily take account of the two 'p' words that still hover over this high-achieving squad. Pressure and psychology – the ability to harness the latter to cope with the former – are the Red Roses' biggest enemies, arguably more so than any of their opponents. And when their rivals re-watch Saturday's game they may just conclude that, far from being a procession, this year's World Cup may yet offer opportunity. Because beyond the second-half failure to deal with France's direct ball-carrying and shut down the threats out wide is something more fundamental. Let's call it the Rory McIlroy paradox. One minute you're smashing it miles down the middle of the fairway and looking a million dollars. The next you're freezing mentally and duffing it into the creek. When things start going wrong, wresting back control can be easier said than done. McIlroy won the Masters, but only after a playoff having been four shots ahead with nine holes to play. He admitted he had come into the tournament with years of baggage which, at times, had been savagely difficult to deal with. This Red Roses squad are not massively dissimilar. Enough of them were in New Zealand – or watching on TV – to know what sheer gnawing horror feels like. Imagine they had been playing in a World Cup final at the weekend and, as Moore observed, given New Zealand as many chances as they gave France? The visitors were in quixotic mood themselves, but next time they face England they will do so with less trepidation, having scored six tries and sensed their opponents' rising panic. Advertisement The glib response is that Ellie Kildunne will hopefully be fit next time and England, who at one stage were 31-7 up, will be neither as static nor as average as they were at times in the second half. Equally, though, a degree of self doubt will now be harder to ignore. What if the biggest obstacle to the Red Roses is, ultimately, not New Zealand or France or Canada, but themselves? And what if the uneasy truth is that, under proper pressure, they remain as mortal as anybody else? Which brings to mind another World Cup, this time the men's version in 2003. Then, as now, England were strong favourites. In their last game of that year's Six Nations they went to Dublin and tore Ireland apart 42-6. That summer they flew south and beat New Zealand and Australia in successive weeks. They could not have been better placed heading into the tournament. And what happened? They did bag the swag but, not unlike McIlroy, only after extra time. In the euphoria everyone glossed over the unthinkable alternative. As Sir Clive Woodward admitted a couple of years ago, defeat would have stalked him for life. 'I don't think I'd have turned out a very nice person. I think there would have been a bitterness I would have massively struggled to get rid of.' This time around, for a multitude of reasons, expectations will be even higher. Never mind the outcome, the Red Roses will be expected to take women's rugby to the masses and inspire the nation in addition to focusing on the main prize. They have it in them to do it all but the potential distractions will be huge. Advertisement Which is why the theory that Saturday's narrow escape will enhance their chances of claiming the holy grail is only half the story. Their main rivals may be galvanised and a few inner demons have been reactivated. Suddenly the World Cup feels less of a carefree carnival and more like a tense tightrope walk. Because when everything is on the line, England still have a propensity to wobble. Never mind the cowboy hats, it's the top two inches underneath that will really matter. Calendar problems As expected, the Sale v Saracens Premiership game on Friday was a rousing ding-dong, with the Sharks putting in an intense shift to establish themselves as perhaps the biggest threat to Bath for the Premiership title. Gloucester were excellent, too, at home to an abysmal Exeter for whom the end of the season cannot come swiftly enough. Leicester won well again and an injury to Marcus Smith added further to Quins' problems. And yet just when the possibility exists to talk up the Premiership run-in everything now has to be put on hold again for the Champions Cup semi-finals. By the time the domestic season is finally done it will be mid-June and it will have taken almost nine months to decide the winner of a 10-team league. Advertisement Ben Youngs was right to criticise the staccato nature of the Premiership fixture list and the start of next season is not ideal either. As things stand the plan is to kick off the new Premiership campaign on a Thursday night heading into the same weekend in late September as the women's World Cup final and the Ryder Cup. The priority these days is to minimise clashes with men's international fixtures, but, once again, it does not always feel as if English club rugby is giving itself the best chance to shine. One to watch Did you see that rarest of stats? All four Irish provinces were beaten in the same round of the United Rugby Championship for the first time (in the tournament's various guises) since 2015, with Munster losing to Cardiff and Leinster going down 35-22 to Scarlets. It may well be a different story this weekend when Leinster host Northampton in the Champions Cup semi-finals, but Saints will arrive suitably encouraged by their own upbeat weekend performance at home to Bristol. It will still go down as one of the all-time knockout upsets should Northampton win in Dublin, but if they can get some attacking momentum they have the capacity to raise a few more Irish eyebrows. Memory lane John Mitchell was in charge of the All Blacks when they crashed out of the 2003 Rugby World Cup in a semi-final against Eddie Jones's Australia. 'It was as hard-fought a win as the Wallabies can have eked out over the All Blacks in a long time,' wrote the Guardian's Kevin Mitchell, 'and coach John Mitchell struggled for words afterwards to describe the nature and scale of the defeat … 'Our execution was poor,' Mitchell said, 'and we didn't deserve victory.' The Australia captain George Gregan said: 'Eddie spoke mainly about playing hard through fatigue. And we did. It was a tremendous effort by all the guys.' Still want more? John Mitchell said the one-point win against France at Twickenham was ideal preparation for the Rugby World Cup, writes Sarah Rendell. Advertisement Leicester significantly boosted their playoff chances with a dominant win against Harlequins at Welford Road. Michael Aylwin witnessed the action. Premiership beatings do not come much heavier than Gloucester's 13-try annihilation of Exeter. Robert Kitson reports. 'I'm not the best chef, but I've been working on my skills.' Asher Opoku-Fordjour, the promising Sale and England prop, talks to Rob. Subscribe To subscribe to the Breakdown, just visit this page and follow the instructions. And sign up for The Recap, the best of our sports writing from the past seven days.
The Guardian
17-04-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
France's Sakina Karchaoui: ‘If everyone brings their own little madness, it will make us win'
Sakina Karchaoui is one of the most popular players in the France team. Perhaps the most popular. But when she joins us at 9am at Clairefontaine, the national centre of French football, Les Bleues' No 7 appears quite shy. Wearing a blue tracksuit emblazoned with the French rooster, she smiles for the first time when Kenza Dali teases her: 'Interview for the Guardian … in English please, Saki!' Spring has finally sprung in the French capital and for the native of Salon-de-Provence, in southern France, the prospect of training in the sunshine is another reason to smile. 'We are almost ready for the Euros,' Karchaoui says as she looks at the training ground below. 'We work a lot tactically with the coach, we work technically, physically, all aspects of football. I think we can win many things together; we've got so much talent. And if everyone brings their own little madness, their own experience and their own qualities to the group, that's what will make us win.' Les Bleues face a difficult assignment at July's tournament in a group with England, the Netherlands and Wales. The team are led by Laurent Bonadei, the former assistant to Hervé Renard, who stepped down after an unsuccessful Olympic Games on home soil that brought elimination in the quarter-finals against Brazil. Bonadei was the continuity choice and was welcomed by Karchaoui, one of the dressing room leaders: 'He knows what happened, what he has to work on … his human side is so important, especially in a group and even more during competitions. He impresses me. I feel that he is everywhere. When there are [club] matches, he is there. Even if it's just less important matches, he is always there. He is always present, he knows what's going on. And having a coach like that, it changes [things]. He is really invested in all that.' Karchaoui was trained as a winger but the Paris Saint-Germain player became one of the French league's best full-backs and is now an undisputed starter in France's midfield. 'During Hervé Renard's era, he told me that I was a top left-back but he wanted me to play at the heart of the game,' the former Montpellier player says. 'He was so sure of that, I played my first match [there] in Newcastle, against England. We won 2-1. I had a great match, as a midfielder, against one of the best teams in the world … so I thought maybe he was right.' Karchaoui, who defines herself as 'a creator', now plays in midfield too for PSG. 'The coaches don't talk to me about the left-back position any more. As a full-back, I had a skill set so wide that I think I wasn't happy with this position any more. I wasn't happy just to stay in my area on the pitch. When you get to a stage where you go from playing as a left-back to a midfielder, it means that you already have an intelligent game. When you play in the midfield, you play even more intelligently.' To match the level of 'players who have been trained their entire careers as midfielders', she watches a lot of videos. 'I try to always add something new to my game,' she says. Her role model? Luka Modric. Although she cites a man as a reference for her position, she is an example herself for the next generation. Karchaoui embraces her role-model status, aware that two of her younger France squad-mates view her in that light: 'I remember one day, when with PSG we were playing against Paris FC, Melween N'Dongala [the Paris FC right-back] didn't dare to talk to me at the end of the match, as she was too overawed. I also know that Lou Bogaert [the Paris FC left-back] watches videos of my games to progress.' She is proud, after growing up without a female role model and being a fan of Samir Nasri and Robin van Persie, to be an idol for kids, whether girls or boys: 'I succeeded where I would never have thought,' she says. 'It shows the success of women's football.' Karchaoui describes herself as 'very discreet', even more so when it comes to protecting the 'cocoon' of her personal life, but when she is asked about her Moroccan roots, her face lights up. She has never been more expressive at press conferences than before France faced Morocco in the last 16 at the 2023 World Cup. 'I have a 100% Moroccan education and I'm not ashamed to say it,' says a player who grew up in the low-income housing projects of Miramas, less than 10 miles from Salon-de-Provence. 'I think it's wonderful in the French national team because you have other people who have their origins, who have a different education, but in the end there are the same values that bring us together.' It is a defence of multiculturalism in France, where the far right is rising and attempting to divide. 'If you don't see it with the right eyes, and you don't see that we have a country where we are lucky to have so many cultures, so many different origins, so many differences, and that's what makes everyone bring their own thing, I find it a bit stupid,' Karchaoui says. Last year, she extended her contract with PSG until 2028, despite offers from 'big European clubs, even from the United States or Saudi Arabia'. Karchaoui wanted to set an example and 'be a spokeswoman' to help a 'stagnating' French league grow. The top division has become professional but that will probably not tie her there for the rest of her career. 'I signed for PSG but it doesn't mean anything,' she says. 'I do everything for this club at the moment. I give my all. But it doesn't mean I won't go somewhere else later.' Speaking of a next destination, she has a precise idea: 'I really love the English championship. Why not play there one day? I almost signed there twice, and in France we say things always come in threes, so we don't know.' She has discussed the Women's Super League with her English PSG teammate Mary Earps. 'Her dream was to play in France, and now she's there. Maybe we can swap roles. I'm 29 years old, I'm in top form. I've never felt so good physically, mentally, in everything. As a woman too. And I know that I haven't done everything I would like to do yet.' If you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email This is an extract from our free weekly email, Moving the Goalposts. To get the full edition, visit this page and follow the instructions. Moving the Goalposts is back in to its twice-weekly format, delivered to your inboxes every Tuesday and Thursday.
BBC News
11-04-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Women's Six Nations: France v Wales match preview, coverage & key stats
Women's Six Nations: France v WalesVenue: Stade Amedee-Domenech, Brive Date: Saturday, 12 April Kick-off: 12:45 BSTCoverage: Watch on BBC One Wales, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport Online, listen on BBC Radio Wales, BBC Radio Cymru and BBC Sounds Overview Wales travel to Brive looking to repeat the heroics of 2016, when they defeated Grand Slam-chasing France. Les Bleues are once again unbeaten so far in the championship, overcoming a gritty Ireland in the opening round before storming past in contrast, are a team in transition, with new head coach Sean Lynn clearly needing time to get his systems in did show promise in the narrow loss to Scotland before a sobering defeat to reigning champions England, with the defence a particular have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with France's pack, but it is the host's dynamic backline which could set the two sides apart at Stade statistics do not favour Wales either, they have not beaten France since the aforementioned victory at The Gnoll, with Saturday's hosts winning all eight meetings scorelines also suggest Wales could be in for a difficult afternoon, with France winning by an average margin of 30 points in all of their home matches against year France ran out 40-0 winners at Cardiff Arms Park on their way to setting up a Grand Slam decider which they lost against is hard to see the tournament panning out any different this year, but will this finally be the tournament where Les Bleues ditch their bridesmaid tag and claim a long-awaited seventh title? Not if Wales can help it. Team news France's coaches Gaelle Mignot and David Ortiz must have been happy with what they saw in La Rochelle as they have made just the one change to their starting experineced Emilie Boulard returns to the wing in place of Melisande Llorens Vigneras who drops out of the matchday made a notable impact in the comeback win against Ireland, with 73rd-minute introduction helping France score three late Assa Khalfaoui is named on the bench, while back-rower Romane Menager re-joins the squad after a stint with France Wales have only made minor changes, with Lynn continuing to show faith in his ankle injury to Lleucu George forces a change at fly-half, with Kayleigh Powell moving in from the centre to cover her usual Keight is drafted in to partner the skipper Hannah Jones and could provide some much needed physicality in the France, Wales have opted for a six-two split on the bench, which makes room for a fit again Natalia John, while Sian Jones is preferred to Meg Davies as the replacement scrum-half Ffion Davies is no longer available after announcing that she was leaving the Welsh Rugby Union with immediate effect after learning her contract would not be renewed this year's tournament top tackler Alex Callender remains a big miss through injury, although could return next week for Ireland, while Alisha Butchers has been declared "not medically fit". View from the camp Wales head coach Sean Lynn: We took a lot of learnings from the England game. I realised that England took us out of our comfort zone and I need to start taking these girls out of their comfort zones in training. The intensity last week was some of the best we've trained know France is going to be a hostile environment and we will enjoy that experience. The performance is what I'm going after, having that intensity and putting France under pressure. Everything is about making sure we're improving each game that we're playing and we're looking to build within this captain Hannah Jones: Week by week, we're just trying to make little improvements in certain got nothing to lose and everything to gain [against France], we're probably the underdogs going into this game. It will be nice to play under a French crowd, I quite like the hostile environment, it's fun to play, but the focus is on us and the rugby will come. If we start like the first 10 minutes we played against England, the French crowd will turn and we'll have that support, and obviously we'll have our travellers coming from Wales. Match stats FranceAt home, France have not lost to any team other than England since 2003, a run of 42 straight have made more offloads (22) than any other team after two rounds of action and have moved the ball wide less often than any other side – just 4% of their plays have gone Bourgeois has scored 32 points, more than double any other player so far in the championship. She has landed 11 of her 12 goal kicks, contributing 27 points from the have lost eight of their last Six Nations 10 games, with their only wins coming against Italy (2023 and 2024).Wales have the lowest gainline success rate (57%) and the lowest tackle evasion rate (11%) in the championship so Abbie Fleming has won more jackal turnovers (three) than any other player in the championship to date. Team mates Gwenllian Pyrs and Jasmine Joyce-Butchers are two of just nine players to have won two jackals so far. Line-ups France: Morgane Bourgeois; Kelly Arbey, Marine Menager (co-capt), Montserrat Amedee, Emilie Boulard; Carla Arbez, Pauline Bourdon-Sansus; Yllana Brosseau, Manon Bigot, Rose Bernadou, Manae Feleu (co-capt), Madouddou Fall-Raclot, Charlotte Escudero, Seraphine Okemba, Teani Elisa Riffonneau, Ambre Mwayembe, Assia Khalfaoui, Kiara Zago, Axelle Berthoumieu, Lea Champon, Oceane Bordes, Lina Jasmine Joyce; Lisa Neumann, Hannah Jones (capt), Courtney Keight, Carys Cox; Kayleigh Powell, Keira Bevan; Gwenllian Pyrs, Carys Phillips, Jenni Scoble, Abbie Fleming, Gwen Crabb, Kate Williams, Bethan Lewis, Georgia Kelsey Jones, Maisie Davies, Donna Rose, Natalia John, Alaw Pyrs, Bryonie King, Sian Jones, Nel Metcalfe.
