The 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was the 20th series of the

Women's Six Nations Championship The Women's Six Nations Championship, known as the TikTok Women's Six Nations for sponsorship purposes, is an international rugby union competition contested between six European women's national teams. It started in the 1995–96 season as the ...

, an annual

women's rugby union Women's rugby union is a full contact team sport based on running with the ball in hand. The same laws are used in men's rugby union with the same sized pitch and same equipment. Rugby was originally a men's sport, and women's rugby has become p ...

competition between

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

and

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the Wales–England border, east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the ...

. The 2021 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 The Autumn Nations Cup was a rugby union competition held in November and December 2020 in place of the usual Autumn internationals series typically held in the same period each year, as many teams were avoiding extended travel due to the COVID- ...

, which replaced the 2020 Autumn Internationals. The tournament was held from 3 to 24 April 2021. As not all teams played each other, the

Grand Slam Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

and

Triple Crown Triple Crown may refer to: Sports Horse racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing (United States) ** Triple Crown Trophy ** Triple Crown Productions * Canadian Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing * Trip ...

were not contested.

Background and format

Traditionally, the

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 The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, which caused travel and time restrictions issues due to qualification of the 2021 Rugby World Cup needing to be completed before the

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

starts in September. Most of the players have jobs outside of rugby, and some players are

key worker A key worker, critical worker or essential worker is a public-sector or private-sector employee who is considered to provide an essential service. The term has been used in the United Kingdom in the context of workers who may find it difficult t ...

s. This, combined with national lockdowns and the need for COVID-19 testing, made it more difficult to schedule the matches during the pandemic. 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. The six teams were split into two pools of three teams. Each team played the other two teams in their pool, with one match at home and one away. Each team had one bye weekend. The winners of each pool met each other in the final, as did the two second and third-placed teams. The team in Pool A hosted regardless of who performed better in their pool, and the winner of the play-off between the two first-ranked sides won the tournament. The format is similar to the 2020 men's

. Provisional fixture lists were also announced on 3 February, and the venues and kick-off times were announced on 23 March.

Pool stage

Pool A

Fixtures

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Pool B

Fixtures

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Finals

5th/6th place

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3rd/4th place

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1st/2nd place

Final classification

Statistics

Top points scorers

Top try scorers

References

External links

The official Six Nations Site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Women

Women A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...

2021 File:2021 collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: the James Webb Space Telescope was launched in 2021; Protesters in Yangon, Myanmar following the 2021 Myanmar coup d'état, coup d'état; A civil demonstration against the October–November 2021 ...

2021 rugby union tournaments for national teams 2020–21 in Irish rugby union 2020–21 in English rugby union 2020–21 in Welsh rugby union 2020–21 in Scottish rugby union 2020–21 in French rugby union 2020–21 in Italian rugby union

Six 6 is a number, numeral, and glyph. 6 or six may also refer to: * AD 6, the sixth year of the AD era * 6 BC, the sixth year before the AD era * The month of June Science * Carbon, the element with atomic number 6 * 6 Hebe, an asteroid People ...

rugby union Rugby union, commonly known simply as rugby, is a close-contact team sport that originated at Rugby School in the first half of the 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand. In its m ...

Six Nations Championship (women) Six Nations Championship (women) Six Nations Championship (women)