England play Tetris to build pyramid towards extending global dominance

England won their eighth straight Women’s Six Nations, demonstrating they could succeed while stretching the squad to its limits. The plan involved blooding new talent, but the tournament was heavily affected by retirements, pregnancy, and an unexpected volume of injuries. Key players such as Hannah Botterman, Alex Matthews, and Morwenna Talling missed all or large parts of the competition, while others like Sadia Kabeya and Maddie Feaunati missed some games. The coaching staff adjusted lineups repeatedly, including using players such as fourth-choice loosehead prop Liz Crake and varying lock pairings. Ellie Kildunne described the Six Nations as the start of something new, emphasizing standards, ambition, and the need to keep pushing after past successes.

"The world champions won their eighth straight Six Nations and proved they can succeed even when they have to stretch their squad to the maximum. Blooding new talent was always the plan for the head coach, John Mitchell, but not in the manner it happened. The team knew they would be without some of the pillars of their side because of retirement or pregnancy but the sheer volume of injuries is not something they could have foreseen."

"Stars such as Hannah Botterman, Alex Matthews and Morwenna Talling were ruled out for either all or large chunks of the tournament with others like Sadia Kabeya and Maddie Feaunati missing the odd game. That led to the coaching staff having to play Tetris to plug holes in the team. England's fourth-choice loosehead prop Liz Crake was on the bench for the decider and there were various different starting lock pairings among the upheaval."

"This is why this Six Nations does not feel like a sequel to the World Cup for the star full-back Ellie Kildunne. There has been a lot of change, the 26-year-old said. This feels like the start of something new. We want to be a team that wins back-to-back World Cups as well. You can't really rest on all of the successes that have happened before because every time you play you go back to zero. We have got to keep on seeing it like that."

"We weren't perfect throughout this Six Nations but we still won it. I see that as excitement, as a group we have standards. When you are at the top you are always wanting more, wanting to be better and I think that is what makes us so brilliant. We will never be comfortable with winning however many grand slams or winning World Cups. We always want more. We always want better. We will keep pushing this team to heights that it has never been before."

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