E-mail Article Print-Friendly Version Contact Us

Preview: Women`s Six Nations, Round Three

Friday 22nd February 2008

Taste of Success: Are England heading for a third straight Grand Slam?

The big game of the Women's Six Nations weekend will see France Women play host to their English counterparts in what could well be a Grand Slam decider.

Elsewhere Wales play host to Italy, who come to Cardiff on the back of a drubbing in the last round, and Ireland will host Scotland.

Ireland Women v Scotland Women, Friday February 22, St Marys RFC, 18:00 GMT

Scotland Women have made two changes ahead of their clash with Ireland Women at St Marys RFC on Friday.

In come Cara D'Silva and Louise Moffat for Tanya Griffiths and Sonia Cull respectively. D'Silva will start on the left wing, whilst Moffat comes into the back row.

Head coach Lee Adamson is looking to put the defeat to Wales behind his team and move on to the challenge ahead.

"We learned a lot from our last performance and have worked hard on the areas where we weren't as good as we'd like to have been," he said.

Adamson feels that his side's preparation has been encouraging and will now be looking for his charges to transfer that into a winning performance.

"We had an excellent weekend, the weather was brilliant. If we perform at the top end of our abilities then I'm confident we'll get the result we're looking for," he added.

"It'll be a difficult game, Ireland play an expansive style and will be looking to get the ball out wide. We'll have to overcome that and make sure we focus on our style of rugby."

For the third game in a row Ireland Women's coach John O'Sullivan has named the same starting XV, as well as keeping the bench the same from the defeat in France.

O'Sullivan is confident that his chosen team can do the job against Scotland this Friday in Dublin.

"The team remains the same against Scotland on the back of two good performances and we are looking for further improvement against this weekend," said O'Sullivan.

"Undoubtedly competition for places is high and the decision to keep the team the same was not an easy one as several players, when introduced in both our previous games, have performed really well and are keeping the pressure on the starting fifteen."

The Teams:

Ireland Women: 15 Sarahjane Belton (c), 14 Lynne Cantwell, 13 Patrique Kelly, 12 Shannon Houston, 11 Grace Davitt, 10 Joanne O'Sullivan, 9 Tania Rosser, 8 Orla Brennan, 7 Sinead Ryan, 6 Eimear O'Sullivan, 5 Germaine Healy, 4 Caroline Mahon, 3 Marie Barrett, 2 Jess Limbert, 1 Fiona Coghlan.
Replacements: 16 Gillian Bourke, 17 Yvonne Nolan, 18 Kate O'Loughlin, 19 Louise Austin, 20 Louise Beamish, 21 Niamh Briggs, 22 Amy Davis.

Scotland Women: 15 Lynsey Douglas, 14 Hazel Bielinski, 13 Veronica Fitzpatrick, 12 Suzi Newton, 11 Cara D'Silva, 10 Louise Dalgleish, 9 Sarah Gill, 8 Lynne Reid, 7 Louise Moffat, 6 Lana Blyth, 5 Lindsay Wheeler, 4 Jilly McCord (c), 3 Beth Dickens, 2 Sarah-Louise Walker, 1 Heather Lockhart.
Replacements: 16 Joan Hutchison, 17 Mary Lafaika, 18 Alex Pratt, 19 Keri Holdsworth, 20 Laura Steven, 21 Tanya Griffith, 22 Julie Sanaghan.

Referee: Sabine Darrieux (France)
Touch judges: John Carvill (Ireland), Peter Dennehy (Ireland)

France Women v England Women, Saturday February 23, Bergerac, 15:00 GMT

England Women's head coach Gary Street has named a strong squad for his sides trip to Bergerac, where they take on France Women in a potential Championship decider.

With England and France the only two unbeaten sides after two rounds it looks like the winner of this game will go on to take the Grand Slam, and in England's case it will be a historic third consecutive Slam.

Katy Storie, Joanna McGilchrist and Katy McLean all return to the starting line-up while Emma Layland, returning from England A action, and Karen Jones start on the bench.

Otherwise England are unchanged from their emphatic win over Italy Women in the last round, although Street is not taking anything for granted against what will be a strong French side.

"This is a very strong 22 for what is going to be a tough game against France," England Head Coach Gary Street said.

"France have named their strongest starting XV for the game and, as we are playing away from home, we realise this is going to be a very challenging fixture.

"France at home are always at their strongest and taking into consideration the Six Nations title has been shared between France and England since 2000 this could well be a crunch game for us.

"From what we have seen of France so far this season they have been experimenting a lot with their side, playing nine new caps in their win against Scotland, but I am sure they will be at their best against us.

"For us, we have made a really pleasing start to the championship, but we are our biggest critics and we still want to improve and we will need to do that playing away to France."

France coach Roland Puig has named the same squad that recorded victory against Ireland last time around, although he is yet to settle on his starting XV due to a few late fitness tests.

The Teams:

France Women: (from) Caroline Ladagnous, Céline Allainmat, Sandrine Argicole, Séverine Collombat, Marie Bourret, Estelle Sartini (c), Jennifer Troncy, Delphine Plantet, Jeanne Laurence, Célia Rigout, Marie Charlotte Hebel, Mélanie Gauffinet, Céline Barthhelemy, Laetitia Salles, Angeline Mahuas, Nadège Labbey, Mayalen Aghigar, Cyrielle Bouisset, Isabel Camatta, Anaïs Lagougine, Aurélie Bailon, Lucille Godiveau.

England Women: 15 Charlotte Barras, 14 Michaela Staniford, 13 Claire Allan, 12 Rachael Burford, 11 Danielle Waterman, 10 Katy McLean, 9 Amy Turner, 8 Catherine Spencer (c), 7 Margaret Alphonsi, 6 Sarah Hunter, 5 Joanna McGilchrist, 4 Tamara Taylor, 3 Katy Storie, 2 Amy Garnett, 1 Rochelle Clark.
Replacements: 16 Emma Layland, 17 Sophie Hemming, 18 Sarah Beale, 19 Karen Jones, 20 Alice Richardson, 21 Katherine Merchant, 22 Victoria Massarella.

Wales Women v Italy Women, Sunday February 24, Taffs Well RFC, 13:00 GMT

Wales Women head coach Jason Lewis has made brought in new two new faces and made three positional changes to the side that beat Scotland 23-6 for the Six Nations clash with Italy on Sunday.

Louise Horgan has been replaced in the front row by her sister Claire who starts at tighthead with Jenny Davies moving to loosehead.

Jenny Doyle replaces Nicola Evans in the back row, with Doyle starting on the blindside and Catrina Nicholas moving to open side flanker.

Behind the scrum, outside half Naomi Thomas and outside centre Rachel Poolman switch positions. And on the bench Jamie Kift returns from a knee injury for her first involvement of the season.

"As a squad we are now back on track for our Six Nations' objectives but that comes with added pressure to maintain the momentum we generated in the win over Scotland," Lewis said.

"We are looking forward to the game against Italy and we hope to build on our previous success. If we produce a composed, controlled performance, and continue to improve, we should have the beating of Italy.

"Another win would give us some much needed confidence for the away trip to Ireland. The Irish are a much improved side this year and there is little doubt that they will provide formidable opposition at home in Dublin."

Italy have named the same 22 players who went down to England in the last round but will delay announcing their starting line-up until the day of the game.

The Teams:

Wales Women: 15 Non Evans, 14 Louise Rickard, 13 Naomi Thomas, 12 Clare Flowers, 11 Hayley Baxter, 10 Rachel Poolman, 9 Amy Day, 8 Mel Berry (c), 7 Catrina Nicholas, 6 Jenny Doyle, 5 Claire Donovan, 4 Gemma Hallett, 3 Claire Horgan, 2 Rhian Bowden, 1 Jenny Davies.
Replacements: 16 Louise Horgan, 17 Ruth Evans, 18 Rachel Taylor, 19 Jamie Kift, 20 Nicola Evans, 21 Michaela Reed, 22 Laura Prosser.

Italy Women: (from) Michela Tondinelli, Federica Carlet, Silvia Pizzati, Paola Zangirolami (c), Anna Mariani, Veronica Schiavon, Valentina Schiavon, Silvia Gaudino, Giuliana Campanella, Sara Pettinelli, Lara Fabbri, Martina Barbini, Flavia Severin, Elisa Cucchiella, Cristina Sanfilippo, Veronica Ceradini, Greta Petese, Alessandra Mestriner, Daniela Gini, Licia Stefan, Elisa Facchini, Samatha Pagli.

Referee: Brian MacNeice (Ireland)