{"id":967538,"date":"2026-05-17T23:21:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:21:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/967538\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T23:21:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T23:21:14","slug":"bears-stars-fire-red-roses-to-six-nations-grand-slam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/967538\/","title":{"rendered":"Bears stars fire Red Roses to Six Nations Grand Slam"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sarah Bern was on the scoresheet as the Red Roses stormed to a commanding Grand Slam and their eighth successive Guinness Women\u2019s Six Nations title.<\/p>\n

John Mitchell\u2019s world champions defeated Les Bleues 43-28 in Bordeaux, with Delaney Burns and Demelza Short both playing their part in another dominant performance.<\/p>\n

Tries from Sarah Bern, Amy Cokayne and two each from Jess Breach and Ellie Kildunne, as well as 11 points from the boot of Zoe Harrison, secured the title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ill-discipline in the opening 10 minutes saw France dominate territory and possession, with the Red Roses holding out and mounting their own attack.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"BORDEAUX, FRANCE \u2013 MAY 17: Sarah Bern of England scores her team\u2019s first try during the Women\u2019s Guinness Six Nations 2026 match between France and England at Stade Atlantique on May 17, 2026 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

However, the ball was stripped in the 22 and Lea Murie broke for the hosts and found support on her shoulder to allow Pauline Bourdon Sansus to score the opening try, before Carla Arbez converted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With a quarter of the game played, the Red Roses hit back. A stray lineout from the hosts handed possession to England in their own 22 and they identified space on the win, with Claudia Moloney-MacDonald eating up metres before being brought down.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Red Roses recycled and some powerful carries by the forwards eventually sent Bern crashing over, with Harrison slotting the conversion to level the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neither side was able to retain the ball during the following five minutes, and it was a loose ball that led to England\u2019s second, as captain Megan Jones\u2019 well-controlled hack ahead was regathered by Kildunne to go over for a converted try.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With five minutes left of the half, the Red Roses capitalised on France\u2019s ill-discipline to win a lineout inside the hosts\u2019 22. With the most accurate lineout in the 2026 Six Nations, the Red Roses won the ball and launched a first-phase attack that found Breach in the corner, and she finished well under pressure.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harrison converted with a sublime kick from the touchline to make it 7-21 as half-time closed in. Despite the clock running down, the Red Roses demonstrated their title credentials by taking a quick lineout and working the ball from right to left into the hands of Kildunne for her second.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Harrison was unable to add the extras, but John Mitchell\u2019s team went into the break with a 19-point lead in their hunt for their 17th Six Nations title.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"BORDEAUX, FRANCE \u2013 MAY 17: Delaney Burns of England is tackled by Siobhan Soqeta and Mathilde Lazarko of France during the Women\u2019s Guinness Six Nations 2026 match between France and England at Stade Atlantique on May 17, 2026 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by David Rogers\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

A Harrison penalty extended England\u2019s lead, but France emerged for the second half with intent, knowing that a big performance was required to claim a first title since 2018, and again dominated possession and territory, before Anais Grando was sent over for a converted try with 55 minutes on the clock.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The try reignited the vocal home crowd and Les Bleues responded by upping the tempo, going close through a series of dominant carries, before the ever-dangerous Bourdon Sansus darted over from a scrum deep in the England 22. Arbez then converted to cut the gap to eight points with 20 minutes remaining.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Red Roses responded almost immediately with a brilliantly worked try, as some excellent handling releasing Breach for her second try and Harrison converting again from the touchline to make it 21-36.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"BORDEAUX, FRANCE \u2013 MAY 17: Sarah Bern of England scores her team\u2019s first try during the Women\u2019s Guinness Six Nations 2026 match between France and England at Stade Atlantique on May 17, 2026 in Bordeaux, France. (Photo by Steve Bardens \u2013 RFU\/The RFU Collection via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

With 10 minutes remaining of a breathless second half, France\u2019s replacement scrum-half Alexandra Chambon was shown a yellow card for a high tackle. The numerical advantage started to tell as France conceded consecutive penalties and the Red Roses kicked to the corner as they looked to seal victory.\u00a0<\/p>\n

From the lineout, Marlie Packer peeled down the blindside and found Cokayne, who went over untouched to celebrate jubilantly, before Harrison again demonstrated her impressive accuracy from the tee. France would have the last say with a try from Rose Bernadou converted by Lina Queyroi, but it was too little too late and the Red Roses sealed the Six Nations title with the 43-28 win.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The win sees the Red Roses lift the trophy to accompany their World Cup victory in September 2025 and extends their winning run to 38 matches.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The players will next be in action in Round 17 of Premiership Women\u2019s Rugby on 29-31 May, while the Red Roses\u2019 next fixture is against Australia in WXV Global Series on 12 September.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sarah Bern was on the scoresheet as the Red Roses stormed to a commanding Grand Slam and their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":967539,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8818],"tags":[381,21571,748,393,4884,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-967538","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bristol","8":"tag-bristol","9":"tag-bristol-bears","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116592488453089058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=967538"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/967538\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/967539"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=967538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=967538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=967538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}