On the way to the feat? The French women’s rugby team faces England on Saturday April 29 at 2 p.m. in London, in the legendary Twickenham stadium. This “crunch”, scheduled for the last day of the Six Nations, will decide the outcome of the Tournament, which the two teams are still in a position to win. France, victorious over Wales, is second in the standings, one point behind the English. Les Bleues will try, in an enclosure where more than 53,000 people are expected, to win their first Grand Slam since 2018 against the “Red Roses”, quadruple defending champions. Follow our live broadcast of this meeting from 2 p.m. on France 2 and on france.tv.
Four changes in the tricolor composition. Pauline Bourdon, scrum half, and Manaé Feleu, second line, absent during the victory against Wales, are returning to the XV of France which will face the English. Rose Bernadou, pillar, takes the place of Assia Khalfaoui. Finally, Axelle Berthoumieu, third line and absent from the match sheet in Grenoble, relegates Romane Ménager to the bench. The complete composition of the XV of France: Boulard – Banet, M. Ménager, Vernier, Llorens – (o) Trémoulière, (m) Bourdon – Hermet, Escudero, Berthoumieu – Forlani (cap.), Feleu – Bernadou, Sochat, Brosseau.
England as a whole. England will be well led by their emblematic third line and captain, Marlie Packer, who was injured the previous weekend against Ireland. The rest of the team is very classic. Only novelty: the first tenure in this Tournament of the Helena Rowland center. The complete composition of the XV of England: Kildunne – Dow, Rowland, Heard, MacDonald – (o) Aitchison, (m) L. Packer – M. Packer (cap.), Matthews, Kabeya – Beckett, Aldcroft – Bern, Davies, Botterman.
Ending the black series. The France team has not beaten the England team for 11 games. The last tricolor success during a “crunch” dates back to March 10, 2018, the year when the Blue won their last Grand Slam. This black series does not scare David Ortiz, co-selector with Gaëlle Mignot: “This series is not ours, we’ve been writing our story for a month. We’re going to focus on the idea of growing as a team and setting up our game. What happened before, that’s part of the past.”
