2021 Women's Six Nations Championship

2021 Women's Six Nations Championship
Date3–24 April 2021
Countries England
 France
 Ireland
 Italy
 Scotland
 Wales
Tournament statistics
Champions England (17th title)
Matches played9
Top point scorer(s)England Emily Scarratt (39)
Top try scorer(s)France Caroline Boujard (5)
Player of the tournamentEngland Poppy Cleall[1]
Official websiteOfficial website
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The 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was the 20th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. The 2021 tournament was given a change of format from its traditional eight week round-robin format to a four-week format consisting of two pools of three teams with a final, inspired by the format of the Autumn Nations Cup, which replaced the 2020 Autumn Internationals. The tournament was held from 3 to 24 April 2021.

As not all teams played each other, the Grand Slam and Triple Crown were not contested.

Background and format

Traditionally, the Women's Six Nations Championship is run concurrently with the men's tournament. However, in January 2021, the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[2] which caused travel and time restrictions issues due to qualification of the 2021 Rugby World Cup needing to be completed before the tournament starts in September.[3] Most of the players have jobs outside of rugby, and some players are key workers. This, combined with national lockdowns and the need for COVID-19 testing, made it more difficult to schedule the matches during the pandemic.[4][5]

On 3 February, it was announced that the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship would take place between 3 and 25 April, in a condensed format.[6][7] The six teams were split into two pools of three teams. Each team played the other two teams in their pool, with one match at home and one away.[6][7] Each team had one bye weekend.[7] The winners of each pool met each other in the final, as did the two second and third-placed teams.[6] The team in Pool A hosted regardless of who performed better in their pool, and the winner of the play-off between the two first-ranked sides won the tournament.[6] The format is similar to the 2020 men's Autumn Nations Cup.[7][8] Provisional fixture lists were also announced on 3 February,[6] and the venues and kick-off times were announced on 23 March.[9]

Pool stage

Pool A

Position Nation Matches Points Tries Bonus
points 		Table
points
Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Diff For Against T BP L BP
1  England 2 2 0 0 119 13 +106 17 1 2 0 10
2  Italy 2 1 0 1 44 87 –43 7 11 1 0 5
3  Scotland 2 0 0 2 30 93 –63 3 15 0 0 0

Fixtures

Test: 1401 3 April 2021 (1 BP) England  52–10  Scotland Castle Park, Doncaster  
15:00 BST (UTC+01:00) Try: Packer 9' c
Riley 16' m
Davies 27' c
B. Cleall 35' c
Breach 37' c
Rowland 43' c
P. Cleall 70' m
Penalty try 77'
Con: Scarratt (5/6) 9', 27', 35', 38', 44' 		Report Try: Smith 54' c
Con: Nelson (1/1) 55'
Pen: Nelson (1/1) 23' 		Referee: Aurélie Groizeleau (France)
Test: 1403 10 April 2021 Italy  3–67  England (1 BP) Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma  
15:00 CET (UTC+01:00) Pen: Sillari (1/1) 35' Report Try: Scarratt 23' c
Fleetwood 30' c
Dow (2) 55' c, 61' c
Millar-Mills 58' c
Rowland 60' c
B. Cleall 70' c
MacDonald 79' c
Davies 80' +3 m
Con: Scarratt (8/9) 24', 32', 56', 58', 61', 63', 71', 80'
Pen: Rowland (1/1) 37'
Scarratt (1/1) 47' 		Referee: Aurélie Groizeleau (France)
Test: 1405 17 April 2021 Scotland  20–41  Italy (1 BP) Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow  
17:00 BST (UTC+01:00) Try: Skeldon 23' c
Wassell 73' c
Con: Nelson (2/2) 24', 74'
Pen: Nelson (2/2) 40', 46' 		Report Try: Rigoni (2) 7' c, 68' m
Furlan (3) 10' m, 59' m, 79' c
Arrighetti 40' +1 c
Ostuni Minuzzi 42' m
Con: Sillari (3/7) 8', 40' +2, 80' 		Referee: Nikki O'Donnell (England)

Pool B

Position Nation Matches Points Tries Bonus
points 		Table
points
Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Diff For Against T BP L BP
1  France 2 2 0 0 109 15 +94 16 2 2 0 10
2  Ireland 2 1 0 1 60 56 +4 9 8 1 0 5
3  Wales 2 0 0 2 0 98 –98 0 15 0 0 0

Fixtures

Test: 1402 3 April 2021 (1 BP) France  53–0  Wales Stade de la Rabine, Vannes  
20:00 CET (UTC+01:00) Try: Boujard (3) 3' c, 6' c, 15' c
Sochat 35' c
Gros (2) 53' m, 62' c
Boulard 78' m
Touyé 80' +4 m
Con: Bourdon (5/8) 4', 7', 16', 36', 63'
Pen: Bourdon (1/1) 31' 		Report Referee: Nikki O'Donnell (England)
Test: 1404 10 April 2021 Wales  0–45  Ireland (1 BP) Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff  
18:00 BST (UTC+01:00) Report Try: Considine (2) 3' m, 18' c
Parsons (2) 10' c, 15' m
Naoupu 28' c
Wall 72' c
Tyrrell 80' +1 c
Con: Tyrrell (5/7) 12', 19', 28', 74', 80' +2 		Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
Test: 1406 17 April 2021 Ireland  15–56  France (1 BP) Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin  
14:15 IST (UTC+01:00) Try: Moloney 27' m
Hooban 74' c
Con: Flood (1/1) 75'
Pen: Tyrrell (1/1) 6' 		Report Try: Boujard (2) 14' c, 47' m
Boulard 19' c
Penalty try 22'
N'Diaye 34' c
Banet (2) 39' c, 72' m
R. Ménager 57' m
Con: Drouin (4/7) 15', 20', 35', 40'
Pen: Drouin (2/2) 31', 66' 		Referee: Sara Cox (England)

Finals

5th/6th place

Test: 1407 24 April 2021 Scotland  27–20  Wales Scotstoun Stadium, Glasgow  
17:00 BST (UTC+01:00) Try: Gaffney 5' m
Kennedy 29' c
Belisle 35' m
Gallagher 54' c
Con: Nelson (2/4) 30', 55'
Pen: Nelson (1/1) 70' 		Report Try: Neumann 42' c
C. Lewis 80' +3 c
Con: Wilkins (2/2) 43', 80' +4
Pen: Wilkins (2/3) 21', 26' 		Referee: Clara Munarini (Italy)

3rd/4th place

Test: 1408 24 April 2021 Ireland  25–5  Italy Donnybrook Stadium, Dublin[10]  
12:00 CET (UTC+01:00) Try: Wall 9' m
Murphy Crowe (2) 44' c, 80' +1 m
Moloney 52' m
Con: Flood (1/4) 45' 		Report Try: Bettoni 69' m Referee: Sara Cox (England)

1st/2nd place

Test: 1409 24 April 2021 England  10–6  France Twickenham Stoop, London  
14:00 BST (UTC+01:00) Try: P. Cleall 39' c
Con: Scarratt (1/1) 40'
Pen: Scarratt (1/3) 79' 		Report Pen: Drouin (2/4) 45', 72' Referee: Hollie Davidson (Scotland)

Final classification

Position Nation
1st  England
2nd  France
3rd  Ireland
4th  Italy
5th  Scotland
6th  Wales


Statistics

References

  1. ^ "Poppy Cleall crowned 2021 Women's Player of the Championship". Six Nations Rugby. 29 April 2021. Retrieved 29 April 2021.
  2. ^ "Women's Six Nations: Tournament to start in 'spring or summer'". BBC Sport. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. ^ "Women's Six Nations: Matches may permanently move away from men's event". BBC Sport. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  4. ^ "Six Nations: Women's and Under 20s tournaments postponed until 'later this spring or early summer'". Sky Sports. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  5. ^ "Women's Six Nations set to be postponed until at least April due to coronavirus crisis". The Daily Telegraph. 11 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Women's Six Nations 2021: Reduced-format tournament will be played in April". BBC Sport. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  7. ^ a b c d "New format for 2021 Women's Six Nations". Rugby World. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  8. ^ "2021 Women's Six Nations reschedule". sixnationsrugby.com. Paul Eddison. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  9. ^ "Women's Six Nations set for condensed format in April". The Irish Times. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  10. ^ "Italy v Ireland moved to Dublin". Six Nations. 21 April 2021. Retrieved 21 April 2021.