The question before the Women’s Six Nations was whether anyone could break England’s stranglehold on world rugby. Two games in, and the Red Roses simply haven’t missed a beat.
That’s despite injuries and pregnancies ushering in a period of transition not seen for a decade. But the Red Roses’ strength in depth appears limitless.
With World Cup‑winning captain Zoe Stratford (née Aldcroft) leading a lengthy list of absentees, England were rusty in their round‑one opener against Ireland, yet still had plenty in reserve to overcome that challenge.
The world champions, again without 10 players for their round‑two visit to Murrayfield, cleared that hurdle by running in 12 tries on their way to a record 84-7 victory over Scotland – and a 35th consecutive Test win.
On Saturday, England face Wales at Ashton Gate in Bristol for round three, and ahead of that contest two players spoke to media at vastly different stages of their Test careers: 28-year-old World Cup-winning prop Sarah Bern (81 caps), and 19-year-old back-row Demelza Short who made her Test debut last weekend in Edinburgh.
Red Roses captain Meg Jones discusses the inspirational video that showed three Red Roses participating in the Six Nations camp while pregnant
“We’ve had a real mix around,” Bern said. “We’ve obviously got some amazing pregnancies in the squad, so that’s opened up doors for the likes of Demelza and younger people coming through. We then had a couple of injuries again, so it’s been very fast changing.
“But a lot of it is: ‘Here’s your license to go attack, thrive, be yourself and be brave and show what you can do.’ That’s how we attack it.
“No matter if you’re a youngster coming through or you’ve been around the block a few times as a Red Rose, you have incredibly high standards.
Bern has scored a brace of tries in both fixtures so far vs Ireland at Twickenham and Scotland at Murrayfield
“We always get asked: ‘Do you ever get bored winning?’ And actually, I don’t think if you ask any of the girls yet, that we’ve put a performance out that we’re super proud of.
“That’s what we want to look at every week: How can we develop our game? How can we grow it? How can we push to have the best everything, the best attack, the best defence? That might seem like an unattainable task but that’s in the Red Roses’ DNA, to keep striving and pushing the barriers of what we can actually do.
“The messaging from all of us is that rugby doesn’t care what you did last week. It doesn’t care if you won a World Cup. It’s how you show up on the day.
“Part of the challenge as well is helping those young players like Demelza and there’s been a couple of others getting used to the environment, to get up to speed as quickly as possible.”
Despite a sticky championship start vs Ireland, England secured victory and then scored 84 points vs Scotland
Indeed the sheer level of change and unavailable players for England has forced them to build even greater depth to their ranks.
It’s a scenario that has worked out swimmingly so far.
“We’re ambitious, we’re brave,” Bern added. “We want to push those barriers. I think we recognise that, yes, we won a World Cup and it was great but we definitely could have made improvements in our attack, and now this is the opportunity to do that.
“A couple of injuries have definitely sped players’ progression up and we are all under the understanding that we all have to function. We all have to fire in the same ways and that requires a lot of hard work off of the pitch.
Jones speaks about the Red Roses culture and head coach John Mitchell’s impact on it
“There’s been a lot of conversations, leaders making sure people know their detail because then when you get onto that rugby pitch in the training session, you have to know it or it’s going to be pretty tough for you. Every player in here has helped each other out.
“This is the opportunity. Also, it makes it way more exciting. We want people to come to the stadium. If they see the same thing every week, that’s not going to be fun for them so we want to be entertaining.
“We want to show that all of our Red Roses have amazing abilities to carry, fend, play an exciting style of rugby, and we want to showcase that to the world.
“We just need to continue to push that, show our personalities, and show that women’s rugby is a fantastic game to watch. It’s different from the men’s. Each of them have a selling point, but they’re both just as entertaining.”
England’s Sadia Kabeya and Marlie Packer speak about whether they can become the first England team to back up a World Cup with Six Nations triumph
Short: I was playing college rugby a year ago – I don’t think I’ll ever really take in what’s happened!
For Short, in the space of 12 months she has gone from playing for England’s U18 side at the Six Nations festival at Wellington College in 70-minute matches, to a fully-fledged Red Rose lining out alongside recent World Cup winners.
“I don’t think I’ll ever actually really take in what’s happened. I don’t think I think it’s real yet. It’s crazy. It’s been a whirlwind for me.
“It hasn’t really sunk in yet, but it’s getting a bit more normal as the weeks go by, but not as normal.
Short has gone from playing U18s rugby to a full Red Roses international in the space of a year
“I’m not really sure entirely when I realised this could happen, because obviously I only played U18s last year.
“Just at the back of that and being selected for U20 camps I thought maybe it could go somewhere, but not obviously this season, maybe in the next one.
“Then getting the call-up for the Red Roses so soon, I thought I might be able to make my debut in this campaign and then managed to do it, so it’s pretty crazy.”
England’s 2026 Women’s Six Nations fixtures
- England 33-12 Ireland (April 11) – Allianz Stadium, Twickenham
- Scotland 7-84 England (April 18) – Murrayfield, Edinburgh
- vs Wales (Saturday April 25) – Ashton Gate, Bristol (2.15pm)
- vs Italy (Saturday May 9) – Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma (3pm)
- vs France (Sunday May 17) – Stade Atlantique, Bordeaux (5.45pm)