Women’s Six Nations: Round Four Preview

England are back at Twickenham for this weekends game against Scotland where they are likely to take another step towards lifting yet another title.

England have played five times at Twickenham and won all five. For the record those games were against France (2001), Ireland (2004), Scotland (2005), Italy (2007) and New Zealand (2009). While playing there will always be a huge honour for the side, it is no longer a novelty and their approach this weekend will be the same as any other weekend.

With victory over France in the previous round, Englands belief and confidence will be right up there and I cant see this being a close game though unquestionably the Scots will be fired up for this match.

Scotland are showing steady signs of improvement this year, and the score line against Ireland probably wasnt reflective of the match itself. Nonetheless they are in the infancy of their development as a team and they arent ready yet to threaten England anyway significantly.

This might well be the tightest game in this round. Wales come into the match looking to make up for their loss to Italy in their last outing so they will be fired up to make up for it and get back on track.

Kris de Scossa tested his strength in depth in the last round as he made some changes to the team who had beaten Scotland, and in a Six Nations after a World Cup that is surely allowed even if it results in a few losses.

He is likely to pick his strongest side available to him this weekend though as he hosts an Irish side who have been in bright form this Six Nations.

Two victories and a narrow loss to France has been Irelands lot this season so far a pretty good record for a side who know that a win this weekend would keep their hopes of a first ever Triple Crown alive.

With senior players like Lynne Cantwell and Joy Neville in excellent form, then Ireland are slight favourites to edge this though it would be unwise to underestimate Wales on home turf where they are always strong.

It is to Italys immense credit that they managed to go into last weekends game with any confidence at all given the 11 try drubbing they received in England the week before.

In front of a good crowd once again, they managed to turn Wales over for the second year in a row and there will be few fans who wont be pleased for this plucky team.

France were dogged against England last week without ever really looking like they were going to win. They have some outstanding players but struggled with the basics at times, with some of their handling errors just poor and their passing was all too often off target. When they get those basics right consistently though they look unstoppable and coming into this game off a defeat, they should be far too good for the Italians.