Every year, the same question keeps coming back. Can the France women’s rugby team finally pull off the impossible against England? That is the question haunting minds as this World Cup semi-final approaches. A fixture with a whiff of gunpowder about it. And above all, one that never smiles on France, every time so close and so far against the Red Roses.
In the last Six Nations, France spent a long time being swamped. But late in the game they came within touching distance of a sensational upset, losing by just one point (43-42). A few months out from a World Cup, the players of the Mignot-Ortiz duo were raising a breeze of hope. Yet just before the World Cup, in the only warm-up match for the tournament in Mont-de-Marsan, Marine Ménager and her team-mates were walked all over by those same England players (6-40). The worry began to grow.
No pressure
As expected, the two sides meet again in the last four for a place in the final. No surprise there. A very different match, with a different objective and a different atmosphere. But still with that imbalance between one professional side, structured and armed to win at home, and another, sometimes scrappy, always turning up but always missing that little something. The numbers are dizzying: England have been unbeaten for 31 matches, since a defeat in the 2022 World Cup final against New Zealand. Unbeatable.
“You cannot know how a match will go before you have played it“, begins former France international Lenaïg Corson, now a pundit for RMC Sport, speaking to Ruck Zone. The former lock knows all the same just how steep the challenge is. “It is also hard to have hope knowing that your opponent destroys everything in its path and is hugely determined to be world champion. We are still a team under construction and above all we are inconsistent in our performances“, judges the Paimpol native.
“Playing a semi-final in England against them is going to be huge. It is every team’s dream to beat them. It will take a lot of courage, a lot of fight, and we will also have to dare, to let go and find the french flair again” Lenaïg Corson
While the Red Roses were crushing Scotland (40-8), France were spinning their wheels and came within a whisker of disaster against a modest Ireland. Hardly reassuring, before facing the best in the world. Lenaïg Corson sees reasons for satisfaction all the same. “We had a monstrous defence and our scrum was very impactful. If we defend well, if we stick together and stay connected, if we stop them playing after contact and defend the mauls well, it can be done. We will also have to be disciplined“, advises the RMC pundit.
Another point matters: the pressure. It will certainly be on the shoulders of the host nation. “Everybody expects us to lose“, smiles Corson. She concludes: “Playing a semi-final in England against them is going to be huge. It is every team’s dream to beat them. It will take a lot of courage, a lot of fight, and we will also have to dare, to let go and find the french flair again“. Reasons for satisfaction, then… but also a sad piece of news that came through on Friday afternoon. The X-factor Joanna Grisez, a wrecker of defences, is out after feeling discomfort in a leg. A hammer blow. And an absence that adds to those of Berthoumieu, Manae Feleu and Queyroi. The squad will have to be even tighter and more united.
If France fall again, the English myth will only be strengthened. But if they break the invincibility, if they pull off the almost impossible, it will not just be a place in the final. French women’s rugby is waiting for its founding moment. Perhaps it will come this Saturday?
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