France need to find something special to prevent another England Women's Grand Slam

LONDON, May 14 : When France edged England by a point in Grenoble to win the 2018 Women's Six Nations title nobody could have possibly imagined that, eight years later, that would remain the Red Roses' last defeat in a competition they have utterly dominated since.

On Sunday, Europe's top two meet again in Bordeaux with a Grand Slam on the line after both won their first four games, but it will require something extra special for the French to repeat their victory of 2018 and prevent England chalking up an eighth successive title.

England are on a world record 37-match unbeaten run going back to the 2022 Women's Rugby World Cup final defeat by New Zealand, and that came after a 30-match run and so remains the only blip in 68 games spanning seven years.

Even that painful memory was partially eradicated last September when they beat Canada to win the World Cup and underlined their status as one of the most dominant sides in any major team sport.

In the Six Nations they have won 34 games in a row since that Grenoble stumble and the only reason every title was not a Grand Slam was that the 2021 format was changed because of Covid - though they still won all their matches.

Since their first, tentative steps into professionalism in 2018, England have raced away from the rest of the world in just about every aspect of the game.

The depth of the Premiership Women's Rugby has meant that this season they seamlessly dealt with losing a swathe of their World Cup squad to injury, retirement and pregnancy, continuing to swat away all comers with barely a stumble.

They have averaged a remarkable 60 points and nine tries per game in hammering Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Italy but, ever the perfectionist, coach John Mitchell is far from