2021 Women's Six Nations Championship

The 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship will be the 20th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. This year's tournament was given a change of format from its traditional eight week round-robin format to a four-week format consisting of two pools of three teams with a final, inspired by the format of the Autumn Nations Cup, which replaced the 2020 Autumn Internationals. The Championship will be held between 3 and 25 April 2021.

2021 Women's Six Nations Championship
Date3 – 25 April 2021
Countries England
 France
 Ireland
 Italy
 Scotland
 Wales
Tournament statistics
Matches played9
Official websiteOfficial website
← 2020 (Previous)

As a result of the teams not all playing each other, the Grand Slam and Triple Crown will not be contested.

Background and format

Traditionally, the Women's Six Nations Championship is run concurrently with the men's tournament. However, in January 2021, the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic,[1] which caused travel and time restrictions issues due to qualification of the 2021 Rugby World Cup needing to be completed before the tournament starts in September.[2] Most of the players have jobs outside of rugby, and some players are key workers. This, combined with national lockdowns and the need for COVID-19 testing, made it more difficult to schedule the matches during the pandemic.[3][4]

On 3 February, it was announced that the 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship would take place between 3 and 25 April, in a condensed format.[5][6] The six teams will be split into two pools of three teams. Each team will play the other two teams in their pool, with one match at home and one away.[5][6] Each team will have a "bye" weekend.[6] The winners of each pool will meet each other in the final, as will the two second and third-placed teams.[5] The team in Pool A will host regardless of who performed better in their pool, and the winner of the play-off between the two first-ranked sides will win the tournament.[5] The format is similar to the 2020 men's Autumn Nations Cup.[6][7] Provisional fixture lists were also announced on 3 February,[5] though the venues and kick-off times for the championship have not yet been announced.[8]

Pool Stage

Source for fixtures:[5]

Pool A
Position Nation Matches Points Tries Bonus
points		 Table
points
Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Diff T BP L BP
1 England 00000000000
2 Italy 00000000000
3 Scotland 00000000000

Fixtures
Test: 1388/1389 3/4 April 2021 England  v  Scotland  
GMT (UTC+00:00)


Test: 1390/1391 10/11 April 2021 Italy  v  England  
CET (UTC+01:00)


Test: 1392/1393 17/18 April 2021 Scotland  v  Italy  
GMT (UTC+00:00)


Pool B
Position Nation Matches Points Tries Bonus
points		 Table
points
Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Diff T BP L BP
1 France 00000000000
2 Ireland 00000000000
3 Wales 00000000000

Fixtures
Test: 1388/1389 3/4 April 2021 France  v  Wales  
CET (UTC+01:00)


Test: 1390/1391 10/11 April 2021 Wales  v  Ireland  
GMT (UTC+00:00)


Test: 1392/1393 17/18 April 2021 Ireland  v  France  
GMT (UTC+00:00)

Finals

5th/6th place
Test: 1394 24/25 April 2021 Third Pool A v Third Pool B  


3rd/4th place
Test: 1395 24/25 April 2021 Runner-up Pool A v Runner-up Pool B  


1st/2nd place
Test: 1396 24/25 April 2021 Winner Pool A v Winner Pool B  


References
  1. "Women's Six Nations: Tournament to start in 'spring or summer'". BBC Sport. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  2. "Women's Six Nations: Matches may permanently move away from men's event". BBC Sport. 27 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  3. "Six Nations: Women's and Under 20s tournaments postponed until 'later this spring or early summer'". Sky Sports. 13 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  4. "Women's Six Nations set to be postponed until at least April due to coronavirus crisis". The Daily Telegraph. 11 January 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  5. "Women's Six Nations 2021: Reduced-format tournament will be played in April". BBC Sport. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  6. "New format for 2021 Women's Six Nations". Rugby World. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  7. "2021 Women's Six Nations reschedule". sixnationsrugby.com. Paul Eddison. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
  8. "Women's Six Nations set for condensed format in April". The Irish Times. 3 February 2021. Retrieved 3 February 2021.
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