Captain Sarah Hunter made first appearance in over a yearMiddleton: ‘We have players who are really explosive’On an afternoon when a female jockey made history at Aintree,
England moved a few more lengths clear in the two-horse race that is the Women’s Six Nations. The team in the white colours took a long time to get into their stride before beating
Italy 67-3 in Parma and are on course to meet
France on Saturday week in a play-off for the 2021 championship.
Not that England’s head coach, Simon Middleton, sees things as clear-cut, especially with France, a nation with particular problems in this pandemic, having to travel to
Dublin this weekend to meet an
Irish side that kicked off their campaign with a convincing 45-0 win in Wales on Saturday evening. “Ireland against France should be a great game as
Ireland have a new-found confidence. You can’t bank on an England‑France meeting,” he said.