England Women look to continue Six Nations winning ways against France

 by Julia Hutton

England Women’s Head Coach Geoff Richards has stuck with his winning formula by naming an unchanged starting XV for this Saturday’s crucial Six Nations clash against France at Bondoufle in Paris, kick-off 4pm GMT.

The only change to the 22-women squad, who have beaten Wales 38-15, Spain 86-3 and Scotland 22-5, is the promotion of Thirsk centre Shauna Vetch to the bench. After some impressive performances for England A, she replaces Wasps’ Shelley Rae.

Richards said: “The team performed well against Scotland and getting team cohesion is important so I could see no need to make any changes to the starting line-up. I have got to put faith in the players who have done the job so far and I have no worries in doing that. As for Shauna, she has performed very well for the A’s, scoring a couple of tries in their last match against the Nomads so she deserves the call-up.”

With both England and France boasting clean sheets so far in this season’s Six Nations championship Saturday’s clash is set up to be a winner takes all scenario.

photo by Steve Mitchell     

For England however, victory would be extra sweet as Les Bleus have denied them the Six Nations Grand Slam title for the last two years with last-gasp wins. In 2004 England lost 13-12 in France and last year they fell to a crucial 10-13 defeat at Imber Court                                                                   

Richards added: “You never count your chickens but there is a lot riding on the outcome of this game. We have lost our last two Six Nations encounters against France, albeit narrowly, so this is going to be a massive game. France are a very mobile side and their captain is an exceptional goal-kicker. They can also boast a very good backrow and some fast and talented backs but we know we can match them in every area and if we do that and play to our full potential then I know we can win.”

England: 1 Rochelle Clark (Henley), 2 Selena Rudge (Wasps), 3 Vanessa Gray (Wasps), 4 Jennifer Sutton (Richmond), 5 Rachel Vickers (Richmond), 6 Georgia Stevens (Clifton), 7 Margaret Alphonsi (Saracens), 8 Catherine Spencer (Folkestone) 9 Joanne Yapp (Worcester) captain 10 Karen Andrew (Saracens) 11 Danielle Waterman (Henley) 12 Kim Oliver (Clifton) 13 Michaela Staniford (Henley) 14 Nicola Crawford (Worcester) 15 Susan Day (Wasps)

Replacements: 16 Amy Garnett (Saracens) 17 Vanessa Huxford (Wasps) 18 Tamara Taylor (Thirsk Sharks) 19 Helen Clayton (Saracens) 20 Shauna Vetch (Thirsk) 21 Charlotte Barras (Lichfield) 22 Vicky Massarella (Saracens)

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