Game Analysis - Women's Six Nations 2021

2021 Six Nations - Women's

COMMENTARY: WALES WIN THE TITLE

The 2021 Six Nations will be remembered for many reasons, including games being played with no fans, the COVID-19 outbreak in the French camp and a plethora of red cards. When the Championship was about to start there was no pre-determined expectation of the sort of game that was lying ahead. The perception of the game during the Autumn Nations Cup was negative and there were no indications that the game was changing its shape.

England, having lost only two of their last 13 matches against Six Nations opponents, suggested that they were the most likely challenger for this year’s competition. Last year, Wales finished in fifth place, their only win being against Italy. In November, they lost against England and Ireland, so at the start of this year’s Six Nations they had lost their last six matches against the Home Nations and France while scoring only nine tries in six matches. Wales’ form had been far from satisfactory, however their fortunes changed, and they were crowned champions in 2021.

The 2021 Six Nations was a complete reversal of the 2020 Championship with Wales climbing from fifth to first while England fell from first to fifth.

England’s problems started in their opening match against Scotland. By the 60th minute, England had made just 34 passes and a total of 23 kicks. In addition, England were penalised 11 times in the first 30 minutes of the game. This was a precursor of what was to come with penalty counts against of eight to one against France and 10 to two against Ireland. They became the most penalised team in the tournament, conceding an average of 15 penalties per game while being awarded 10. 

England, within their matches:

• had less possession than any other team.
• the ball in play did not exceed 50 per cent.
• they kicked the most.
• they mauled the most.
• their scrums ended in penalties on 54 per cent of occasions.

Wales had fewer problems with discipline and in fact benefitted from their opponent’s lack of discipline, in their first two matches when their opponents both received a red card. The major highlight of Wales’ performances was their ability to score tries. They scored more tries and points than all the other teams and it was the most they have ever scored in a Six Nations.

This scoring prowess can be emphasised if all matches played by each team against Italy are removed. The adjusted table shows that England and Ireland scored an average of 1.5 tries a game, which was less than half the 3.3 scored by Wales – with the average tries per match going down from 5.7 tries per game to 4.6.

Wales, within their matches:

• averaged 3.3 tries per game.
• had the highest try-scoring rate.
• the ball in play exceeded 50 per cent in all but one of their matches.
• released the ball from scrum on over 90 per cent of occasions.
• released the ball from lineout more than they mauled.
• their forwards passed the most.

Italy joined the Six Nations in 2000 and have struggled with success and this year was no different. Despite showing recent success at under-18 and under-20 level, this has not yet manifested itself in the Six Nations. Again, in this year’s tournament, they lost all their matches, conceding an average of 48 points per game.

However, it is important to note that Georgia, the strongest team in the Rugby Europe Championship, have a similar problem when faced with tier one opponents. They have never beaten a tier one team, albeit they have played few such matches. Their most recent matches were in the 2020 Autumn Nations Cup where they played three tier one countries, losing all three matches while scoring a total of one try and one penalty goal but conceding 10 tries.

SCORING MARGINS

As a tournament, one of the major factors that contributed to the positive reaction by rugby followers was the closeness of many of the matches and the tightness of winning margins.

When Italy’s results are isolated, of the remaining 10 matches, eight had margins of five points or less. Each of the five countries had at least one a match with a winning margin of three or less points.

Such a closeness in results is hardly surprising when the number of tries conceded by each team are compared. The number conceded by all five teams was all but identical, as seen in the following table:

DISCIPLINE

Penalties had a significant impact in several of this year’s matches, especially those played by England.

England were penalised more than their opponents in all five matches. This was in sharp contrast to the Autumn Nations Cup where they were the least penalised team – conceding just nine penalties per game while being awarded 14. Ireland, on the other hand, continued their tradition of being the least penalised team. Over the last five years Ireland have consistently been awarded between 30-50 per cent more penalties than their opponents. In no game were Ireland penalised more than the opposition.

World Rugby had announced new measures, reflecting the global game’s continued head injury prevention commitment. The Head Contact Process was introduced to help match officials determine the appropriate sanction when there was player contact with the head and neck.

In the event, a total number of five red cards were issued.  This total of five in one Championship was exceptional when compared with the history of the Six Nations, which had seen only eight issued in its previous 20-years.  An historical rate of one red card for every 38 matches had been replaced by one in every three.

Of the five red cards, three were against the tackler, one against the tackled player and one was for eye contact. The following table details the time of the offence, and consequent scores and outcomes. It shows that on three occasions (all within the last 17 minutes of play) the carded team won the game, on two occasions it lost.

SCRUM

Consistently, over recent years, scrummaging for penalties is a regular feature.

In the 2021 Six Nations, one third (33 per cent) of all scrums ended in a penalty or free kick.

A breakdown of scrums in this year’s tournament, however, showed that this average figure hid some unusual, if not exceptional extremes.

While more than 50 per cent of scrums that England participated in ended in a penalty, in the case of Wales it was 15 per cent – an unusually low figure. With France’s percentage being 23 per cent, one possible assumption could be that the two teams that headed the table were more concerned with possession than penalties.

This behaviour created inconsistencies between matches. For example, in round one, 67 per cent of scrums in the first two matches ended in a penalty, while the ball came out only three times in 17 scrums. Whereas in the third match (Wales v Ireland), it came out 10 times in 10 scrums with not a single penalty awarded.

This pattern was repeated throughout the tournament. There were four matches which together produced a total of three penalties in 48 scrums – a penalty rate of four per cent. Of the five teams, Wales participated in three while Scotland and England participated in none.