W6N Brain Dump, Round 3: My Honest Take On Attending A Red Roses Game
I headed to Bristol to watch Wales face England, here's what I experienced...
I actually did one of these last week but totally f*cked up the publishing settings, so you can find a link to that one here (It’s quite good, recommend you read it).
In this week’s Women’s Six Nations 2026 Brain Dump, I cover:
My experience at Ashton Gate
Why I think England sell so many tickets
Analysing the game
Why I’m worried about Scotland
Why I loved France vs Ireland
I also include links to several pieces of related content that I think my readers might enjoy, I hope that you do!
Huw Is A Karen
“Hello, Bristol? Yes, I’d like to speak to the manager, please.”
My experience at Ashton Gate during the World Cup was bad, but this experience at the Six Nations was worse. Parking anywhere near Ashton Gate stadium is a nightmare, and a cock-up on the booking front from me meant we arrived just 15 minutes before kick-off. Even so, the sub-par stewarding at the stadium meant it was not until 20 minutes into the game that we were sat in our seats.
The first issue was that fans were not marshalled through the turnstiles efficiently. People were allowed to enter the stands through any entrance, but that was not effectively communicated. This led to long and stagnant queues at a several gates. On top of that, even though there were four turnstiles per gate, the queues snaking round corners meant people could not see that. Therefore, they were queueing in single file as if there were only one turnstile. No steward did anything to rectify this.
This podcast has LOTS of women’s rugby chat all the way through it, give it a watch!
Once into the ground, there was further chaos as stewards did not direct fans to the correct seats. We were directed to the wrong seats by the same steward twice, before a different steward directed us to the correct seats, only for us to find someone else was sat in them. Several people around us recounted similar tales.
I will offer some mitigation that perhaps some of the crowd at Women’s Six Nations rugby matches are not used to attending big sporting events, meaning user error will have been a big factor in the chaos. There were also several large groups (one we met contained 14 adults and children) which I can easily imagine are stressful and difficult to navigate around a stadium as claustrophobic as Ashton Gate.
However, I have never had such a difficult time at any other rugby game, including ones in France where over 60,000 fans attended. I shall not be returning to Bristol.
A Grand Day Out
We did still manage to have a good time, despite the seating issues. Crowds at women’s rugby matches are enthusiastic, friendly, and full of positive energy. The rugby itself is entertaining, too. To make things even better, the weather was fantastic – for my readers abroad, nothing makes the Brits giddier than a sunny Saturday afternoon. We bloody love it.
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I am still wrestling with whether or not the record crowds at Six Nations games are sustainable. Part of me still thinks it’s a bubble that will eventually burst, but part of me thinks I might be looking at it all wrong. Rather than comparing the games to, say, a men’s club match, perhaps I should instead be comparing them to a West End show or a music concert.
No one ever says that a band’s set list is too predictable or that knowing that Mufasa dies put them off going to see the Lion King. Maybe women’s rugby really is pure entertainment, a truly stress-free day out (unless it’s at Ashton Gate). Throw in the counterculture element of women’s rugby, which means a large proportion of the people there genuinely feel like they are part of a movement, and you can see why the tickets sell.
Reviewing The Game
Watching the Red Roses in person is definitely better than watching them on TV. Firstly, you don’t have to put up with the fawning commentary on the BBC (the Men’s commentary on ITV does this as well, it puts off a lot of fans and I regularly get messages from friends saying they watch matches on mute for this reason) and secondly you get to see more of what the whole team is doing. The players on the pitch appear to be telepathic at times, as if they are one brain with 15 sets of eyes. Not only that, they have the skills to execute the right option almost every time.
This is what I always try and tell people who are dismissive of women’s rugby: Yes, the women may not be as big and strong as the men, but in terms of skills – catch, pass, kick, scrum, lineout, identification of space, line break conversion – there are international men’s teams who are far worse than the Red Roses. On the ball, they might make less than five skill errors per game. It’s phenomenal to watch. Take this grubber kick in the second half that yields a 50:22 - how many times in a weekend do you see a men’s team pull this off? Ridiculous.
As for Wales, conceding 10 tries is not a success and we must be careful not to celebrate what was still a heavy loss. I do think our defence is much improved, but to hyper-praise the defence when we conceded 60 points is silly.
Watching them in person, you see a lot more of the bad decisions they make; they run sideways way too often and they are very bad at recognising if they have a numerical advantage or disadvantage when running the ball. Even some of the less experienced rugby fans I was with remarked upon that.
Meanwhile, Wales remain the most kicking team in the Six Nations, but those kicks are not yielding good results – I’m going to have to make a whole video on this topic, it is driving me up the wall.
However, I will not hide my delight at how Wales finished the game. No team other than France have ever registered a four-try bonus point against England before, for it to be Wales who changed that is as surprising as it is fantastic. In 2025, we were a team that would quit. When things were going bad, the smart money was on us getting worse. Now, in 2026, we have scored two tries in the final 10 minutes away to England – it’s massive for us.
I cheered Seren Lockwood’s try as if we had won the game. I also need to praise Keira Bevan, whose excellent, sniping performance silenced my questions about her form. Same for Bethan Lewis, who I thought might be coming to the end at test level - being wrong is lovely, sometimes. I hope the players watch the game back and remember what they did right, we will need it against Ireland.
Scotland, Is Everything Ok?
Blimey, Italy have turned up, haven’t they? It feels like this happens every Six Nations – they get rolled over pretty easily in the first couple of games, then suddenly spring into life a absolutely batter one of Ireland, Scotland or Wales. Maybe that comes down to lack preparation time and cohesion, meaning it takes them couple of weeks to get going, I don’t know.
No player better sums up Italy’s ability to turn it on from nowhere than winger Alysaa D’Inca, who always posts at least one game per tournament where her stats are off the charts. Interestingly, both her and opposite number Shona Campbell were the top tacklers for their teams on the day, showing just how much of the game was played in the wide channels.
Scotland, though… it’s bad. I’ve said it for every round so far, but their physicality is basically non-existent. They are bottom of the charts for dominant carries, dominant tackles, post contact metres and a myriad of other physicality stats. It is really starting to look like Evie Gallagher, Lisa Thompson and Emma Orr were the only things holding this side together and without them, everything is falling apart.
It’s only three games in, but I’m still yet to be sold on their new coach, Sione Fukofuka. I was not impressed by his USA side last year. There were multiple times where I would watch them and notice big issues with how they were setting up ahead of plays – and I’m literally some guy off the internet, imagine what professional rugby people would have seen. I’ll give him till the end of the Six Nations before making up my mind, but right now I’m wondering how on earth Wales lost to this team.
France Are Building Something
Firstly, France vs Ireland was great. It was a proper test match, fantastically competitive for the majority of it, with both teams having chances to show their best. Also, as someone who watches the French TOP 14 every week, something about the whole TV production of the game thrilled me. Seeing a Women’s Six Nations match being played under the lights, in a right-sized stadium, with proper cameras and camera angles… it just felt amazing to me.
Onto the match: People always say of France ‘they need to be more consistent’. Well, they have just played three games in a row that were almost exactly the same: a tight first half with a few too many penalties, before their superior skills and athleticism allows them to pull clear. They didn’t break the 30-point barrier against Ireland, but they nearly did. At what point does correlation become causation?
On an individual basis, many of France’s players still top several of the ball in hand stats. My current favourite is Madoussou Fall Raclot, who is top for dominant carries, post contact metres (by a lot) and tackle success. Carla Arbez is also playing brilliantly; I think she is clearly the most exciting attacking fly-half in the tournament. Huge credit must also go to Teani Feleu in the centres. I thought France would struggle without Vernier, only for Feleu to make me look like a complete mug and play like a prime Manu Tuilagi.
However, the thing currently setting France aside from the rest is their defence. In three games, they have conceded three tries. AKA, they have nil’d their opposition in 50% of the halves of rugby played so far. Remember, England conceded four tries in one match against Wales. The biggest reason for that superb defence is their phenomenal physicality – they are top for both dominant carries (by a lot) and dominant tackles.
From an Ireland point of view, I’m afraid to say they were simply beaten by the better team. Yes, there were a couple of iffy refereeing calls and yes, a matter of inches different and they are 21-7 up at half time. However, I do not buy into any talk of the Irish being lucky. Ultimately, the French went out and won the second half 19-0. Ireland have come a long way in the last few years, and had moments of brilliance in this game, but France still have more top class players.
If you enjoy French rugby and want to learn more about it, you might well enjoy the above podcast. In it, I deep dive the finances of the men’s TOP 14 league and reveal which clubs made huge financial losses last season…