Women’s Six Nations 2026: Can England’s defense put winning streak at risk?

England started the campaign with 12-point defeats against Ireland at the Allianz Stadium and seven against Scotland at Murrayfield.

Their defense was hard to beat until head coach John Mitchell, who had already won four World Cups due to pregnancy, let injuries mount.

Thirty players feature – five of whom earned their first caps.

A shortage of locks has seen 19-year-old Hainala Lutui, normally a back row at club side Loughborough Lightning, step into the second row, while flanker Abi Burton, who was capped last year, also moves out of position.

Nine of the forwards who played in the World Cup final were unavailable for Parma against Italy.

“We’re going through a lot of changes and the players are still learning and growing,” Mitchell said Saturday.

“I’m trying to explain to young players how important it is (learning new positions), and they’re just growing up. They don’t realize how important it is at this point in their career.”

Individual roles within the defensive system take time to learn and mistakes result in England averaging 4.8 points per game and 0.8 more tries than last year’s campaign. Including the epic 43-42 Grand Slam decider.

Ahead of England’s toughest match against their title rivals, missed tackles have risen to 3.45 per game, with just 5.5 tackles per game dominated this campaign, down from 12.4 last year.

The improvement of other teams in the championship also played a role.

“We probably conceded more points than we wanted to,” Burton said.

“We just need to tighten up the little holes we had against Italy.

“We know that France is going to come at us in any way, shape and form.

“Naturally when there is change, some places will have more knowledge than others, so it’s about bringing everyone up to speed.”