Whither England (Women)?

England Women’s 24-12 win over France at the weekend, which secured a Grand Slam, their 23rd victory in a row and a fourth successive Women’s Six Nations title, means that they are red hot favourites for the World Cup later this year.

The Red Roses do look in great shape, but there is no room whatsoever for complacency.

The pack does look pretty awesome, dominant at scrum time and with a scarily efficient driving line out. But behind the scrum the backs have sometimes lacked a little fluency – especially against France – and, like their male counterparts, could do with someone to provide a bit more midfield thrust at times.

There have also been periods in games where the English team appear to switch off and go flat – understandable, perhaps, when racking up big points totals, but not a great habit to get into.

One thing is for sure, England will not have it all their own way at the World Cup.

Current champions and hosts, New Zealand, for instance, will have a lot to say about who wins the trophy – the Black Ferns having revamped their coaching set up to include, amongst others, former All Blacks coaches Wayne Smith, Graham Henry and Mike Cron.

And France, as they showed at the weekend, can be very dangerous opponents – with a little bit more composure they could and should have pushed England closer than the scoreline suggests. With time to prepare for the World Cup who knows how good they could be?

Still, the Red Roses are favourites and rightly so. After all, they sit on 23 straight victories – one short of setting a new record. I certainly wouldn’t bet against them.

Total Flanker – the older I get, the better I was