Wales and Scotland produced drama at the Principality Stadium while England and Ireland drew a record crowd as the tournament began at major venues

Sporting theatre reached Shakespearean heights at the Principality Stadium on Saturday as Wales and Scotland produced the best match of the opening Women’s Six Nations weekend. Welsh hearts broke seven minutes past the full 80 as Scotland managed to get a comeback win over the line. The fixture had sensational tries and late drama, and played out on BBC Two. The only thing missing was the type of crowd that such a thriller deserved.

Wales hosted the game at the national stadium, the only one taking place there during this year’s tournament, watched by 10,569 supporters. The number is a record for a fixture between the two teams in Wales but if it had been held next door at Cardiff Arms Park, which has an official capacity of just over 12,000, or at Cardiff City Stadium, which holds about 33,000 and is hosting Wales men v Fiji in July, the atmosphere would have translated better to the players as well as to those watching at home.

• England 33-12 Ireland

• Victory marred by injuries to Talling and Hunt

The Women’s Six Nations is still searching for a giantkiller, with the ever-dominant England not needing a consistent performance to overcome one of their main challengers in Ireland. So if people in Edinburgh see glasses of water shaking, trees being shoved to the floor and massive footprints on the ground next week, do not be alarmed, it’s just the Red Roses coming to town. Still, Ireland showed they had narrowed the gap as they cut the Red Roses’ winning margin to 21 points from 44 in last year’s tournament.

The overwhelming presence of the world champions will be diminished in round two at Murrayfield, as Morwenna Talling and Natasha Hunt were dealt long-term injuries. The exact prognosis has not yet been confirmed but the England head coach, John Mitchell, said he expected them to be ruled out for the rest of the tournament. The loss of Hunt is a blow but that of Talling is more significant, with four locks now missing because of injury or pregnancy.

Women’s Six Nations updates; kick-off 2.25pm BST
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Cliodhna Moloney-MacDonald leads out the players on her own as she makes her 50th appearance for Ireland.

The rest of the cast follows shortly after before the anthems get underway.

New team, new start and new learning. The freshness of the new girls has brought an enormous amount of energy.

I think our preparation has served us well. I think we are unfinished, we want to play a style of rugby that will bring us to the top again.

Despite a raft of absences, world champions have such depth they will begin the 2026 tournament as firm favourites

If there isn’t a conspiracy theory out there about England having a factory that churns out world-class players then there should be. The Red Roses squad will be without eight Rugby World Cup winners because of injury, pregnancies and retirements for the Women’s Six Nations but they are still overwhelming favourites for a grand slam.

For others, a squad so depleted would throw their campaign into chaos, but not for England. Abby Dow has retired? The brilliant Claudia Moloney-MacDonald can be brought in. The captain, Zoe Stratford, is pregnant? The World Rugby player of the year nominee Meg Jones steps up to take the armband. The seemingly endless conveyor belt of generational stars at England’s disposal is why they have been able to dominate the world stage for the past few years. That and bringing in full-time contracts before anyone else.

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World champions England will be favourites to repeat last year’s grand slam but France and Ireland will eye an upset

Coach John Mitchell Captain Meg Jones Last year’s finish Grand slam champions

• Jones was vice-captain in Red Roses’ World Cup triumph

• Centre to lead team in Six Nations opener against Ireland

Meg Jones has been chosen to lead England’s world champions in 2026 after the regular Red Roses captain, Zoe Stratford, announced her pregnancy on Wednesday.

Jones, who was vice-captain when England beat Canada to lift the World Cup last September, will take over from Stratford for the upcoming Women’s Six Nations. England kick off their campaign against Ireland on 11 April at Twickenham when a tournament-record crowd of more than 60,000 will be in the stands.

The champions France lead with five players but every side is represented in pick from a tournament to savour

15. Thomas Ramos France
Plays like the lovechild of Mike Brown and Thomas Castaignède with Jonny Wilkinson levels of marksmanship thrown in. There was never any doubt he would nail that decisive final winning penalty in Paris, just as he did against England in Lyon two years ago. The 30-year-old is the first player to be the top points-scorer in four successive championships and now tops France’s all-time list.

14. Kyle Steyn Scotland
When Scotland and Glasgow play well, the influential Steyn is one of the main reasons why. His interception try from Antoine Dupont’s deflected pass against France at Murrayfield, his second score of the game, neatly summed up his game awareness and pace. His ability to beat defenders and compete strongly in the air also set him apart, although the impressive Rob Baloucoune deserves a mention.

• ‘He is the right man, they should support him’

• England finished fifth in the Six Nations

Eddie Jones believes the Rugby Football Union should not replace Steve Borthwick as England head coach before the World Cup in Australia next year. England went into the Six Nations on a run of 11 wins and extended that to 12 in the opening game against Wales.

They then lost four matches – the first time England had been beaten in four games in a Six Nations campaign – including a first defeat by Italy in any competition, to finish fifth in the table.

From the brilliance of Bielle-Biarrey to Carré’s jaw-dropping try, our highs and lows from a sensational championship

Player of the tournament Impossible to look past Louis Bielle-Biarrey who, among assorted records, has become the first player to score a try in every Six Nations game in successive seasons. But Italy’s Tommaso Menoncello and Ireland’s Stuart McCloskey also deserve a podium place.

France’s dramatic triumph was proof that Test rugby played at full throttle ranks among the most compelling spectacles

L’Équipe’s front page headline summed it up perfectly. “So Crazy” did not just reflect Saturday night’s dizzying blur of a game in the Stade de France but pretty much the entire 2026 men’s Six Nations championship. Wales beat Italy who defeated Scotland who beat France who beat Ireland who beat England who, you’ve guessed it, beat Wales. Rugby, eh?

And maybe that is the single biggest takeaway from the most extraordinary Six Nations of them all. Never mind the players and the coaches, spare a thought for all those distractedly pouring orange juice on their cereal as they vainly try to rationalise six weeks of madness. The world’s oldest championship still manages to refresh parts others cannot reach.

Despite a huge upswing in performance against France, the head coach still has a case to answer for what went wrong in the Six Nations

Did England play like that because of Steve Borthwick or in spite of him? For all that the Rugby Football Union will deep dive, look under the bonnet, get into the weeds – pick your own favourite bit of corporate speak – it is the fundamental question that Bill Sweeney and his review panel must ask in the coming weeks. Did Borthwick liberate his players against France, or did they take matters into their own hands?

As usual, the panel will include input from Sweeney and Conor O’Shea as well as those from outside the building who insist on anonymity. It is said that despite the huge upswing in performance in defeat against France, the RFU is still determined to establish what went wrong during this Six Nations. That is a positive sign because when the dust settles, this still goes down as their worst-ever championship. The noises coming from the RFU suggest that they will not be blinded by the razzle-dazzle in Paris, that Borthwick still has a case to answer.

Steve Borthwick was under immense pressure but the character shown by his team against France offers hope of better times ahead

Just as Steve Borthwick was reaching for his coat, he finally has something to hang his hat on. The ledger records an agonising defeat but a performance brimming with positives, carried out with a swagger that must signpost the way forward if this is to be the turning point in Borthwick’s tenure. Moments of naivety, too, plenty of mistakes and a maddening feeling that leaves you questioning why they do not always play like this.

Around half an hour before kick-off of this bonkers Six Nations finale, as part of an equally mind-boggling, gloriously French, pre-match show, there was a moment when two white horses cantered down the middle of the pitch, hitched up on their hind legs before galloping away in different directions down the touchline to take up residence behind each goal. The two horsemen facing each other down. It was then that you sensed something might be in the air.

• England can build on 48-46 loss in Paris, he believes

• Head coach calls some key officiating calls ‘debatable’

Steve Borthwick says the pain of England’s last-gasp defeat to France can drive them on to better times despite their unsuccessful Six Nations campaign. Borthwick’s side finished second bottom of this year’s table but came agonisingly close to dashing French title hopes before losing 48-46 in one of the all-time great championship fixtures.

Borthwick, who said he still believed he was “the right man to lead the team forward”, could not hide his disappointment after Thomas Ramos secured a last-gasp home victory with the final kick of an extraordinary game. “I’m really disappointed for the players and supporters … it was so close to being a special day,” he said.

• France 48-46 England

• Late penalty denies Ireland the championship

This has been a stunningly unpredictable Six Nations and no one saw this remarkable final reel coming. While France may have clinched the trophy for the second successive year England came within seconds of spoiling their pulsating last night party in a see-sawing game for the ages. In the end the hosts needed a last-gasp penalty from Thomas Ramos to secure the trophy, dashing rising Irish hopes of a sensational title heist.

It will go down among the most extraordinary chapters in the 120-year history of this fixture, ultimately securing back-to-back titles for France for the first time since 2007. They were particularly indebted to the brilliant Louis Bielle-Biarrey who surpassed himself by scoring four tries, condemning England to four losses in the same championship season for the first time in 50 years.

Slips at key moments proved costly with Andy Farrell’s team able to easily maintain a stranglehold on this fixture

There were some Ireland fans who even said they would not begrudge Scotland victory, the triple crown, and, potentially, a first Six Nations title. There was a sense Gregor Townsend’s side had earned their day in the sun, somehow, especially after the glorious fourth-round triumph against France. And this Ireland team have certainly had their share of vitamin D against Scotland.

Ireland’s players, it soon became clear, did not see it that way. They were visibly keen to remind Scotland that no one is owed anything in elite sport. This was meant to be a transitional season for them, but the quality of this performance penned a depressingly familiar script from a Scottish perspective.

France claimed the Six Nations with last gasp Thomas Ramos penalty

We’re underway

Officials tonight.

• Ireland 43-21 Scotland

• Andy Farrell’s side run in six tries in dominant display

In sporting vernacular Scotland have long looked on Dublin as a “hard place to go”. Roughly an hour’s flight time from Edinburgh, they get to stay in a decent hotel, play in a relatively modern stadium with good facilities, against modestly resourced opponents, and in conditions they could never describe as alien. Despite this comforting familiarity, ever since Dan Parks nailed a touchline penalty at Croke Park in 2010 to scuttle Ireland’s triple crown voyage the Scots have associated this fixture with trying to solve a Rubik’s Cube wearing oven gloves.

On it goes. Faced with the losing run in the fixture hitting a dozen, Scotland did their best to change the narrative. There was no consolation prize in this triple crown decider, but perhaps a sliver of satisfaction at having played a huge part in an enthralling game of rugby where the outcome revealed itself only with 12 minutes left.

• Wales 31-17 Italy

• Steve Tandy’s side end 15-game losing run in competition

So that’s what it was like. Wales win a Six Nations match in Cardiff for the first time in more than four years. A crowd of 70,000 fairly ripped the roof off. And they did it with virtually every play of the game. Most of those gave some cause or other for a cheer – and, boy, did the locals respond.

How familiar an experience, and yet how not, a ghostly echo of times past. Wales’s mission now is to put flesh on the spirit, to do it again as a matter of course. And then there were the guys in blue. Darlings of the Six Nations Italy may be (there are quite a few of those these days), but they could not make anything work. This was a throwback to times past for them as well, forlorn and blown away by a country imbued with the culture of rugby. How retro.

Six Nations updates from Dublin; kick-off 2.10pm GMT
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Flower of Scotland is sung by some focused-looking, blue-shirted players. It gets a generous round of applause in the stands. Amhrán na bhFiann is followed by Ireland’s Call – belted out by the lads in green. Applause again. Nicely done. Kick-off is next!

Simon McMahon has emailed. “Hi Alex. You’re dead right,” he says. “For both these teams, the permutations are irrelevant unless/until they win.