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Is this England side the most dominant sporting team to have existed? That is the question many are now asking after watching the Red Roses demolish Scotland 84-7 in the Women’s Six Nations, despite having a thoroughly depleted squad, to extend their winning run to 35 games across all competitions.
There will be some who will argue the Chicago Bulls of the 1990s, who won six NBA titles in the decade, or Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, who won four Premier League titles in a row, or the New York Yankees with their run of trophies in the late 1990s take the mantle. But it is difficult to disagree with John Mitchell who said pre-tournament the team are building a dynasty after already building a legacy with their World Cup win last year.
The era in which this title would be bestowed is the four years that have followed the 2022 World Cup final, the last game the team lost. England were dominant before that but not becoming world champions stalled their chance to claim greatest of all-time status. The Red Roses returned to dominance after that fateful day at Eden Park and added the World Cup crown in 2025.
England have broken their own world record for consecutive rugby games won with the streak starting at the 2023 Six Nations. They have won those 35 matches with an aggregate score of 1,759-409, scoring an average of 50.2 points and conceding an average of 11.7. For 25 of those games Mitchell has been in charge, having officially taken the post of head coach for the 2024 Six Nations, and since then he and this team have won two Six Nations titles, two WXV trophies and the World Cup.
If they do not lose a game for the rest of this Six Nations, they will become the first England team to win the tournament after being named world champions. In the circumstances many would find it hard to argue against the proposition Maddie Feaunati, the player of the match against Scotland, said: “I’m not the one to say. It’s a massive achievement [to win so many games in a row]. We are building a legacy and we are just trying to keep building on that.”
The game against Scotland was one of the most complete performances for England under Mitchell, definitely for one away from home. Others that have eclipsed it came in that World Cup final last year and also their demolition of Ireland at the 2024 Six Nations.
But for England’s 2014 World Cup-winning captain, Katy Daley-McLean, it was the best England have played, full stop. She told the BBC: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen them as accomplished as that performance was. They dominated from minute one to minute 80.”
England put on the performance while missing 13 players of their World Cup-winning squad . Two retirements, four pregnancies and seven injuries? No problem. Their depth seems never-ending and the scary element of this team is that no one involved in the England camp believes they have hit their peak yet. Mitchell said: “We won’t give up on the style of football we are evolving. We are nowhere near where we need to be, we are still an unfinished rugby team in many ways.”
Maud Muir, who won her 50th cap against Scotland, added: “We are the hardest people on ourselves so we always want to be getting better. We know that we have been successful but that doesn’t matter. We have to perform each week and we are going to try and keep doing that for the rest of the tournament and beyond.”
So how does such a dominant team such as the Red Roses actually get better? Well, nailing their set piece would be one element. That area of their game is usually up to scratch but at Murrayfield, particularly in the first half, it was not fully functioning.
Another will be for their attack to continue to leave their opponents scratching their heads. England were unpredictable on Saturday, which is part of the reason they had such joy on the scoreboard. The captain, Meg Jones, said of the attack: “The idea is to not know your next move isn’t it. I think we want to be adaptable, we want to show variety and Scazzy [Emily Scarratt, the new attack and backs coach] is delivering that on all fronts. She wants the best out of us, we have such a talented group, such amazing individuals, but it is how you click together. Sometimes it doesn’t, it’s just the nature of it, but it is how you respond and I think we do that fantastically.”
England’s reign of delight or terror – depending on your point of view – is expected to last for years to come. This golden generation are a relatively young bunch. Muir is 24, Ellie Kildunne is 26, Zoe Harrison is 28 and the team are fostering new talent, with the teenagers Demelza Short and Haineala Lutui.
Canada and New Zealand will get their chance to test England later this year at the transformed WXV tournament but for now the Red Roses set their eyes on Wales this Saturday. So to circle back again, is this England side the most dominant sporting team ever? Draw your own conclusions, but the evidence is increasingly stacking up in the Red Roses’ favour.
