In April, the Red Roses held on in a tight fixture against France at Allianz Stadium to win a fourth consecutive Grand Slam and a seventh straight Women’s Six Nations title.
Since John Mitchell took over as head coach, his side has maintained a perfect record as they target winning the World Cup on home soil this summer. In the most recent Six Nations campaign, they won every game, scoring 40 tries, almost double the amount that France scored, who finished in second.
It’s easy to see from the results why the Red Roses are favourites to win the World Cup for the first time in eleven years. But rugby is a complex sport, and whilst emotion is often so crucial, coaches in the modern game also rely heavily on statistics and data to inform them about how their team is performing and where they can improve.
What can we learn from the statistics from the previous two Six Nations tournaments about what makes this Red Roses side so dominant and where they might need to improve if they look to win the World Cup?
Attack
Scoring 40 tries in a single tournament over just five games is an incredible achievement. But just how do the Red Roses do it?
In order to score tries, you need to be able to get through defences, and the Red Roses are head and shoulders above the other teams in the competition in that regard.
According to the Sage Insights available on the Six Nations website, England carried the ball 674 times in this year’s Six Nations tournament, the third most of any team. However, with a total of 58 line breaks, they average a line break every 12 carries. Their average metres made per carry was also 4.5, which is almost double the average that Scotland made across the tournament.
The physicality and athleticism of the players to be able to dominate teams in the contact area and get over the gain line is crucial to them being able to score tries and win games. Abby Dow topped the tournament for the most line breaks with 12, but England also had three more players in the top 10 across the tournament.
In round two of the tournament, England had their highest points tally, putting 67 points and 11 tries past a struggling Welsh side, making 14 line breaks and beating 30 defenders to just 11 for Wales.
Speaking after the game, England attack coach Lou Meadows told Ruck, “Ultimately, defensive teams, and the defensive coaches of those teams, don’t know how to stop us. They’re literally sat there going, ‘I do not know what’s coming’.
“That’s what would make us the best team in the world and should win a World Cup final. Ultimately, we’re using the Six Nations to grow not only as a team in terms of our tactical and our own game, but also the individual skill sets of the players and then the combinations to get that.”
England also topped the tournament for line breaks last year under Mitchell. However, there has been a clear tactical change from last year’s tournament to this year, and that’s in the offloads. In 2024, England were second for offloads made with 63 across the tournament. This year, that number dropped by half to just 30, now the 4th joint lowest.
It’s clear that Mitchell and Meadows have made a tactical evolution to now hold onto the ball and take it into contact rather than risking a turnover and offloading.
Defence
Many defence coaches will often tell you that the best form of attack is defence. And whilst the Red Roses have, of course, a group of players that are absolutely electric with the ball in hand, they are also blessed with some of the hardest-working and physically dominant players as well.
In the 2025 Six Nations, England made 729 tackles, the second lowest of the tournament; however, this is to be expected given they dominated the possession statistics in every game with an average of 56% possession.
Despite the relatively low tackle count, England missed just 69 of their tackles across the tournament, topping the completion rate at 91.35%. In comparison, Italy missed the most tackles, missing 150 of their 794 for a completion rate of 84.11%.
However, 33 of England’s total 69 missed tackles for the tournament came in their final game, the grand slam decider match against France, where they won the game by just a single point and were clearly tested significantly.
Following that game, John Mitchell was disappointed by his side’s defensive performance, telling Talking Rugby Union: “I wasn’t happy with the defence and I thought they got through us too easily through the middle.
“That’s probably the thing I’ll unpack. We weren’t winning the first collision, and then we weren’t getting the second in, but then the edge stuff in the second half, I certainly didn’t see that coming.”
Topping England’s tackle count and making the 7th most in the tournament was their talismanic leader Zoe Aldcroft, who made 70 tackles in the five games.
Mitchell appointed Aldcroft as the new Red Roses captain ahead of the tournament, replacing Marlie Packer. Speaking on her appointment, Mitchell told the BBC: “I love a person who is consistent with their actions. Zoe’s an athlete and a person who takes great pride in being consistent in her actions.” That consistency is clear to see and was backed up by Aldcroft’s defensive performances across the tournament.
An interesting insight into England’s defensive patterns can also be seen in the statistics around competing at the breakdown. England had the lowest amount of breakdown steals in the 2025 tournament, with just 12.
It’s not for a lack of talent with England having one of the most competitive back-rows in the world, but rather once again a tactical decision from Mitchell to keep players on their feet and making tackles rather than competing at the breakdown and leaving gaps in the defensive line as can be seen by the high tackle completion percentage.
Where do they struggle?
But not every team can be completely perfect, and whilst this Red Roses side may be one of the best international rugby sides the game has ever seen, there’s always room for improvement.
If World Cups of the past have taught us anything, it’s that taking points when they’re on offer at any opportunity is vital, especially from the boot.
Whether it’s Jonny Wilkinson in 2003, Emily Scarratt in 2014 or Handre Pollard in 2019, goal kicking is vital to winning close games.
Unfortunately for this current Red Roses side, goal kicking is not a strength of theirs and potentially could be an area that they need to work on if they hope to win the World Cup.
In the 2025 Six Nations, the Red Roses’ goal-kicking percentage was only the fourth best in the tournament at a worrying 69.23%. This is an improvement from 2024 when it was at 56.82%; however, it still isn’t at the calibre that Mitchell would be hoping for.
But with the team already in pre-season camp in preparation for August’s tournament, there is plenty of opportunity to make improvements before the big dance.
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