Women’s 6 Nations Team Captains
It will be a campaign brimming with sub-plots. New talent will emerge, reputations will need to be restored and everyone will need to put on a show as the 15-a-side game fights for attention in an Olympic year.
With the gaps between teams ever decreasing, this year’s Women’s 6 Nations is expected to be the most open we have seen.
Defending champions Ireland will fight to retain their title, although France and England will severely test their grit.
Last season the Red Roses faltered, with the world champions finishing 4th, and the combination of retirements and a number of their players focusing on the Sevens for Rio 2016 means they will have much to prove.
But it is not only England who must adjust and discover new talent, because most nations have withdrawn their Sevens players to focus on this summer’s Olympics.
Amid such uncertainty, who will prevail?
England:
Head Coach: Scott Bemand
Captain: Sarah Hunter (No 8), Bristol
Player to Watch: Hannah Gallagher (flanker), Saracens
2015 Placing: 4th
2016 Prediction: 2nd
The world champions failed to live up to their billing in 2015 as 4th place was their worst 6 Nations performance. The squad should have settled under new head coach Scott Bemand and expectation will be for them to return as title contenders.
Captain’s view: “Obviously 4th is not where we set our standards, especially on the back of 2014 and winning the World Cup. We feel comfortable that we can push on as a team and improve our performance,” says Hunter.
France:
Head Coach: Jean-Michel Gonzalez
Captain: Gaelle Mignot (hooker), Montpellier
Player to watch: Elodie Poublan (wing), Montpellier
2015 Placing: 3rd
2016 Prediction: Champions
France slipped up in 2015 away against Italy and it cost them the title. This is meant as no disrespect to the Italians but it was a match the French should have won and it’s a result that probably still gives them nightmares. The fixtures have fallen kindly for them this year and they will be loathe to make the same mistake again.
Captain’s view: “The climate in our group is one of determination,” says Mignot. “The desire to work is tremendous. Our objective is to take it game by game, but overall we want to do better than last year.”
Ireland:
Head Coach: Tom Tierney
Captain: Niamh Briggs (full-back), Munster / UL Bohs
Player to watch: Sophie Spence (lock / loose forward), Leinster / Old Belvedere
2015 Placing: Champions
2016 Prediction: 3rd
With away matches in France and England, the fixture list doesn’t work in Ireland’s favour, but if they can find form away from home the title is theirs for the keeping.
Captain’s view: “It’s an enviable position to be in, every team wants to be reigning Champions,” says Briggs. “How we react to that pressure is a massive thing for us. There’s a huge amount of new faces in the squad and we’re really looking forward to it.”
Italy:
Head Coach: Andrea Di Giandomenico
Captain: Sara Barattin (scrumhalf), Rugby Casale
Player to watch: Elisa Pillotti (lock), Rugby Parabiago Ssd Srl
2015 Placing: 3rd
2016 Prediction: 5th
The added ingredient to this year’s tournament is that Wales, Italy and Scotland have yet to qualify for the 2017 World Cup. The highest finisher will make it to Ireland next year. It’s do or die.
Italy’s 3rd-place finish last season flattered the squad, so this campaign will be about proving that last year was no fluke. Italy are here to break into the top 3 once again – and to break Welsh and Scottish hearts.
Captain’s view: “Lets hope we can do it again,” says Barattin. “For us, Wales and Scotland there is no hiding that the main objective is to qualify for the World Cup.”
Scotland:
Head Coach: Shade Munro
Captain: Lisa Martin (flyhalf), Murrayfield Wanderers
Player to watch: Rhona Lloyd (wing), Murrayfield Wanderers / Edinburgh University
2015 Placing: 6th
2016 Prediction: 6th
It is no secret that Scottish women’s rugby has been in the doldrums for the past 6 years. However, there’s light at the end of the tunnel as new coach Shade Munro led the side to a confidence-boosting victory away to Spain in November. While a top-3 finish will probably be some seasons away, the Scots will be gunning for their 1st 6 Nations win since 2010.
Captain’s view: “It’s fantastic having a full-time head coach to solely work with the women,” says Martin. “There’s a lot more confidence in the squad, we never really had much belief before. We are turning the corner.”
Wales:
Head Coach: Rhys Edwards
Captain: Rachel Taylor (lock / loose forward), Bristol / Dragons
Player to watch: Hannah Jones (centre), Penybanc / Scarlets
2015 Placing: 5th
2016 Prediction: 4th
After beating World Champions England on the opening day of the 2014 tournament, Wales could only muster 1 other victory in 2015 as they faltered under increasing pressure. Unsurprisingly, the squad are keen to avoid the same fate again and the Welsh need to finish higher than Scotland and Italy to secure qualification for the 2017 World Cup.
Captain’s view: “It’s massively important (World Cup qualification), you can’t shy away from it,” said Taylor. “The pressure might be off some other countries in the 6 Nations but for us qualification is the bare minimum we want from this tournament.”
bbc
Not sure when I last saw SA dish up so much rubbish as in this innings. We really are struggling for decent bowlers
AG NO! Amla out to a rubbish ball, dragged it on from outside off stump. Needed to stay there and take advantage of this inexperienced England attack, instead that wicket will boost Willey’s confidence no end!
Eish having computer problems tried 3 times to do an article on Wales team against Ireland but lost all 3 while trying to publish and also lost a comment I tried to post with the team
@ Just For Kicks:
Hi JFK must have been pretty poor to concede 399 was surprised to wake and see score was 380 something.
@ Bullscot:
I cant remember amla leading us in a big run chase in recent years.
This chase will be heavily reliant on what qdk and faf can do or even a bahardien cameo… Ab will need support or he will just crumble under pressure as well.
We are really struggling without graeme smith.
We deserve to be smashed though considering how we bowled.
Duminy probably looking forward to the next odi series vs Zim.
@ MacroPolo:
#5 Hi Macro looks like AB is in a bit of a rut at the moment hope he gets his form back soon as he is such a good player when he is in form.
Pity about the rain but it was always a big score to chase which we probably wouldn’t quite have got to anyway.
So Duminy keeps out Miller and ‘long hop’ de Lange is there instead of young 20 year old Rabada is that correct?And the selectors say Rabada needs a rest after playing what…3 out of 4 test matches and we don’t play another test until August 2016???Real smart arses we have in CSA…
And the matter of mr Duckworth/Lewis,I can understand it coming into play when the 2nd team resumes batting after a rain delay.So why is it used before the rain delay as no play will be possible after the rain delay anyway?Surely both teams totals at the same stage of the game when play gets stopped should be taken into account?Better still in test cricket rain or wash-outs results in a draw so why don’t they have that in the shorter format or must they just have a winner/loser situation? Batting first almost always benefits the team batting first doesn’t it???
Anyway congrats to England, but we gave you 50 runs too much in the end with some very poor bowling.350 we could’ve gotten I reckon and Quinton,the way he played,could’ve even get to 200 I bet.
9 @ provincefan:
Hi provincefan, have been one of the people advocating the Duminy plays as think he is such a quality batsman and his part time spinners have done well but going on his performances against England I must admit that I was probably wrong, maybe he is past his best.
Scotland team to face England to be officially announced at 14.30 South African time. Have seen what is claimed to be the starting team and it probably is but will wait for the official announcement.
@ provincefan:
Regarding Duckworth/Lewis you raise some interesting points. With limited overs cricket being played a fair bit where there is knockout cricket I guess there has to be a winner, short of having numerous spare days for replays. Once 20 overs have been bowled then it is a game and heard the radio commentators referring to D/L score quite often, even before we got to 20 overs they were saying where we would need to be by 20 overs, think we were about 24 runs short by the time we got there. They were speculating that AB may have been trying to push to keep up with D/L and this influenced his choice of shots when we was out.
provincefan wrote:
Why did de Kock not get man of the match? He got more runs at a quicker rate than Buttler and was not out. Was it because England won the match, it is not de Kock’s fault SA didn’t. He would probably have gone on to score many more if it didn’t rain so wonder how many more runs he would have had to score to get man of the match if SA didn’t win. Maybe Buttler was always going to get it with England winning?
Amazing stuff ambidextrous spinner for Sri Lanka in the u19 World Cup, Kamindu Mendis :
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/35482072
13 @ Bullscot:
de Kock did get MOTM.
Hi Bullscot,how you mate?I’m fine thanks.
Yeah they’ll almost always give the Man of the Match gong to a player from the winning team I reckon,and that’s just the way it is sadly although I think QdK played a much better innings than what scary eyes Butler did.Pity that not much was being said about de Kock’s knock in some of the English tabloid newspapers this morning,they pretty much focused more on the “onslaught” of Butler,who ironically could only score 20 runs in the warm-up game vs South Africa A the other day.Mind you won’t blame them.Still I don’t want to sound like sourgrapes,but I bet had we played a guy that can deliver the odd out-swingers here and there last night,then who knows what might have happened.Ryan Maclaren by the way,a bowler that can get those out-swingers in and takes a wicket here and there,has somehow fallen out of favour with the selectors it seems and maybe they could’ve given him a chance since they in the business of ‘gambling’ with out-of-form players for a while now i.e. JP Duminy.
On the DL thingy,then we always get screwed by it regardless of the situation.I still don’t know how they’d figured that we lost by 39 runs when we had 5 wickets in hand and a set batsman on 138.A team can score 100 runs in 10 overs in a situation just like that,but NO somehow they think we were never going to be capable of doing that at all.
Amla is a good batsman,but he is wasted playing as an opener so I’d shift him down the order maybe batting at 3 or 4.He is terrible when it comes to us having to chase and there is something wrong in his footwork aswell it seems.AB is a quick starter and likes to play his shots really early,so whether he had one eye on the run rate when he got out or whether he’s still in a “sticky situation” from the test series,I don’t really know what’s bothering him at the minute.JP Duminy just explodes when under pressure and it keeps happening in what…nearly 8 years now.Faf did his part,so I’ll lay off him for now 😁.
We’ll see if the Proteas can sort things out in PE I hope…
15 @ Scrumdown:
Hi Scrumdown thanks for that, am sure when I looked at the scoreboard online last night not long after the game they listed Butler as the man of the match, maybe just an error on their part, it sure didn’t make sense to me.
16 @ provincefan:
Great thanks mate, good its going well your side. Why do you think Maclaren, Miller and Ingram have fallen out of favour? Have also being wondering what has happened to Kleinveldt, a while back thought he did well in some internationals and then was just dropped. Also where are the Petersons – Alviro and Robin?
16 @ provincefan:
Sorry for all the short replies am keeping them short because have lost quite a few, think it could be internet connection problem our provider has had all sorts of problems with terrible weather.
16 @ provincefan:
Jokes aside, Buttler is a good quick scorer who on his day can come off with a great knock, not a bad option as a ‘keeper/batsman.
So you read the Tabloids
Heard the radio commentators praising de Kock and coming from one of them who I think is arrogant and normally over critical it was high praise indeed.
AB is too good a player to not have in but maybe he needs to go have a knock at lower level to get back to his best again, when Faf was dropped for the last test did he go back and play domestic cricket if so it seems to have helped him?
England team to face Scotland, Judas looks to be applying the Ark principle – by twos- starting with two flyhalfs and two blindside flankers.
England: England: Mike Brown, Anthony Watson, Jonathan Joseph, Owen Farrell, Jack Nowell, George Ford, Danny Care; Joe Marler, Dylan Hartley (captain), Dan Cole, Joe Launchbury, George Kruis, Chris Robshaw, James Haskell and Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: Jamie George, Mako Vunipola, Paul Hill, Courtney Lawes, Jack Clifford, Ben Youngs, Alex Goode and Ollie Devoto.
Scotland team to face England in the Calcutta Cup, 6 Nations:
Vern Cotter has gone for a trio of opensiders in his squad – John Barclay, John Hardie starting and Blair Cowen on the bench which means no place for Josh Strauss who was out injured (concussion) for at least the last month and only came back last weekend as a sub for just over half an hour for Glasgow Warriors.
Scotland : Stuart Hogg, Sean Maitland, Mark Bennett, Matt Scott, Tommy Seymour, Finn Russell, Greig Laidlaw (capt); Al Dickinson, Ross Ford, WP Nel, Richie Gray, Jonny Gray, John Barclay, John Hardie, David Denton.
Replacements: Stuart McInally, Gordon Reid, Zander Fagerson, Tim Swinson, Blair Cowan, Sam Hidalgo-Clyne, Duncan Weir, Duncan Taylor.
22 @ Bullscot:
What a strange team!
Also think he has missed a trick by not picking Itoje.
The youngster plays a very mobile, almost Southern Hemisphere type of game.
As strong as England are at their core strengths, they need to play a more expansive game if they want to compete long term with the big 3 from the south.
Picking a pair of blind side flanks and traditional English, Oak tree type locks won’t accomplish that, and in my not too humble opinion, neither will picking an at best above average stand off at centre.
Ah well, I guess that is why Jones has an office at Twickenham and I have on in Kempton Park!
I believe I remember that england team was without the seven(s) players last yaer
they should highly improve this year
France team is pretty oldfashioned
with 80meters rolling maul
but we have some good backs
a very commited team anyway
with almost a million TV watchers during the world cup
and almost 800K for last year victory in the tournament
twice as much as the men U20
interesting to see that big french club like stade toulousain or SF paris have now a woman team
(last year for both stade, a merger with a team in the suburb for stade toulousain and from scratch for paris)
Michael Schumacher has died.
https://twitter.com/Sky_news12?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
24@ Bullscot
That’s a very talented looking Scotland side,equal almost to the won that the Five Nations title back in 1999.
Excellent pack in prop WP Nel and 2nd row with Jonny Gray.I suspect the Poms will come hard at you upfront to try and dominate,but you’ve got a tackling machine in Hardie and an very efficient ball-carrier in Denton at 8.
The backline looks good too…Hogg,Bennett,Maitland and Seymour that likes to run with the ball in hand.
Scotland will need to be vigilant at the set-pieces and watch out for England wanting to hit them with a few high bombers/up-and-unders…
PS In other news…”Sevens ref apologizes to Blitzboks”
by Brenden Nel 04 February 2016,Supersport…
You apologize for something if you knew you had done wrong!!!!So he admits he ROBBED the Blitzbokke,just wonder if WR would now have the balls to investigate the fraudster,see how far this goes and maintain the ethos of the sport???
Klomp skelms hierdie skeidsregters…die enigste ordentlike Kiwi ou wat ek miskien sal prys gee is Glen Jackson,maar only JUST.Die ANZAC alliance is ook lekker windgat wanneer hulle rond draf met daai fluitjie net soos hulle spannetjies of late.
27 @ BrumbiesBoy:
Hi BrumbiesBoy that is sad news, RIP Michael Shumacher
@ BrumbiesBoy:
@ Bullscot:
Schumies death has not been confirmed. Seems like his former boss at Ferrari, Luca di Montezemolo just said that Michael’s health “is not good”, and now the rumours start.
Also, the story of the 7’s ref’ apologising to the Neil Powell has been flatly denied by World Rugby.
When have you ever seen a NZ ref’ apologise for anything? Wishful thinking methinks.
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