Is it time for change in the Women’s Six Nations?

The victory for John Mitchell’s side was enough for them to win their seventh Grand Slam in a row.

The contest had the necessary finale, but it also managed to remain formulaic.

With the Grand Slam in hand, France and England entered the final round for the fourth time in a row.

The winner may live up to the hype, with three of those four games coming in within a score, but the gap between the rest of the teams is still significant.

Other than the Red Roses or Les Bleues, there hasn’t been a tournament winner since Ireland won it ten years ago.

In the final round of the tournament, England and France were guaranteed to face off in 2022 due to a change in the fixture list.

This contrasts to France’s men’s Six Nations, which takes place every year on a different fixture schedule.

By preventing the likely title decider, the goal was to maintain Grand Slam interest.

The final games between Ireland, Scotland, Italy, and Wales, which they are competing for spots, have been successful, and they are also getting more interesting.

However, the competitiveness of their games against the top two is becoming more and more troubling.

France, the last nation to defeat England in the Six Nations in 2018, has had a smaller advantage than that of the other teams, but they have still won in each of their previous four championships.

England used 34 players this campaign, but they only managed 33 tries before the Grand Slam decider, which was consistently rotated.

England awarded 28 full-time professional contracts in 2019 and that level of investment left the other countries behind, contributing to the quality gap.

Wales began distributing contracts at the beginning of 2022, followed by Ireland in August of that year, and Scotland made their professional plans public at the end of that year.

Italy announced that 22 professional contracts had been awarded to their players before the 2023 Six Nations.

Scotland’s victory over Ireland on Saturday marked the end of their campaign. Italy won the matchup in France, showing signs of improvement, and came out on top.

Wales experienced a series of losses under new head coach Sean Lynn’s Wooden Spoon, but the Welsh Rugby Union (WRU) announced a major change to its top women’s teams to increase the pipeline and breadth of talent.

Scotland head coach Bryan Easson responded to a question on the BBC’s Rugby Union Weekly, “It will take time, but I sincerely believe someone else will eventually win it.”

His team suffered severe defeats against England and France, both of whom have much larger player pools as a result of domestic league investment, with the Premiership Women’s Rugby League growing in strength.

Easson remarked, “The gap will get bigger.” However, it will take a little longer than everyone anticipates in terms of professionalism.

Former England fly-half Katy Daley-McLean, who lost titles to France and Ireland while playing in her youth, supported the idea, with the 2014 World Cup winner arguing that the competition must be “brave” in trying something new.

The RFU would “take any proposals into consideration,” according to Alex Teasdale, the women’s game director for the Rugby Football Union, to BBC2.

She said, “I think Six Nations as a tournament that spans men’s and women’s history is very special and has that kind of history background.

It would likely take a lot to alter that, they say. However, look, it’s a women’s game, and we want to play the game’s best and remain agile.

Due to Covid restrictions, the proposed idea would have a format similar to the 2021 Six Nations, which was spit into two pools.

The top-ranked team would play both home and away games against teams in the second and third places, with the second pool’s structure being followed by the third-to-sixth-place team.

The top team in pool one will face the second team in their group to claim the Six Nations title, followed by play-offs.

For a place in the top group of the following year, the team that placed third in pool one would face the team that placed third in pool two, and the team that placed third will face off against the team that finished third.

On a triple-header finals day, all those games would take place at the same location, which is rotated around a different country every year.

Former Wales captain Philippa Tuttiett stated on BBC Radio 5 Live that “being the women’s version of the Six Nations means you don’t have to do it the same as the men.”

“I have to agree that the changes are logical, but I don’t like them.”