The 2022 Women’s Six Nations was the first “stand alone” competition held outside of the traditional February/March time frame with the five rounds played in March and April.

From an Irish point of view it was the first tournament with the new head coach Greg McWilliams in charge. McWilliams tasked with rebuilding the side after 6 years of a declining performance from the Ireland Women’s international side culminating in their failure to qualify for the 2021 Women’s World Cup – the competition delayed to October 2022 due to the Covid pandemic.

Off the field, the tournament is regarded as one of the most successful ever with the games free to view on the BBC and record attendances claimed for most games though actual attendance figures are not available for the latter rounds.

On the field, the tournament was dominated by England and France. England averaged winning margins of more than 60 points per game against the other four sides with France averaging, slightly less than, a 30 point winning margin against the same.

Results

Ireland won two of their five games, losing to Wales, France and England and beating Italy and Scotland.

RD1	Dublin	Ireland	19	27	Wales	TRY: Amee-Leigh Murphy Crowe, Linda Djougang, Stacey Flood. CON: Nicole Cronin 2
RD2	Toulouse	France	40	5	Ireland	TRY: Eve Higgins
RD3	Cork	Ireland	29	8	Italy	TRY: Lucy Mulhall, Neve Jones, Eve Higgins, Penalty Try, Katie O’Dwyer. CON: Cronin
RD4	Leicester	England	69	0	Ireland
RD5	Belfast	Ireland	15	14	Scotland	TRY: Neve Jones, Enya Breen. CON: Enya Breen PEN: Hannah O’Connor

The results left Ireland with a fourth place finish. It’s been a while since we have had a completed Women’s Six Nations Tournament but it’s a place higher than their 5th place finish in the last completed series in 2019.

2022 Women Six Nations Final Standings

TEAM	P	W	D	PD	BP	PTS
England	5	5	0	260	7	27
France	5	4	0	104	4	20
Wales	5	2	0	(70)	3	11
Ireland	5	2	0	(90)	1	9
Italy	5	2	0	(119)	0	8
Scotland	5	0	0	(85)	3	3

Players Used

Greg McWilliams used 35 players throughout the 2022 Women’s Six Nations, for comparison there were 27 players used in the 3 match 2021 tournament, 25 used over 4 competed games in the 2020 tournament and 31 used in the 2019 competition.

Seven players, Aoibheann Reilly, Anna McGann, Christy Haney, Aoife Wafer, Molly Scuffil-McCabe, Niamh Byrne and Vicky Irwin all made their International XV’s debuts for Ireland.

Leinster continue to be the dominant province with 49% of the players named and they accounted for 39% of the minutes played. This is up 10% from the 2019 minutes played but down 5% from last season’s high of 44% minutes played for Leinster players.

Ulster’s minutes played is up 4% from last season, unfortunately though there is no Ulster club representation following Neve Jones‘ move to Gloucester-Hartpury

Looking at the representation by club there was a significant increase in players named from Railway Union, which is no surprise due to their domination of the AIL competitions, but in terms of playing time they only got players on the pitch for 2% more game time than, their nearest rivals, Blackrock College.

However, given the number of 7s players in the squad and the overseas club representation it was a team that did little to represent the Women’s AIL, which was a shame.

Player Statistics

Minutes Played

Ireland’s player statistics account for 5,968 minutes out of a maximum of 6,000 the other 32 minutes lost due to 3 yellow and 1 red card.

No player played every minute of every game but it is still somewhat surprising the top six players in terms of minutes played are all forwards with Linda Djougang and Neve Jones bucking current trends by consistently playing over 70 minutes per game in the front row.

However, there is little doubt the mass exodus of the 7s players, after three games, have warped the stats with Eve Higgins, Stacey Flood and Lucy Mulhall all recording appearance minutes greater than 96% for the matches they were available.

Wasps Edel McMahon topped the minutes played table playing for 96.5% of the available time, missing only 14 minutes over the five games.

PLAYER	MINUTES PLAYED
Edel McMahon	386
Linda Djougang	379
Nichola Fryday	373
Neve Jones	352
Dorothy Wall	339
Sam Monaghan	320

Points Scored

The 90 point deficit is the largest points deficit for Ireland Women in the Six Nations since 2010 (when we started keeping records), thanks largely to the 69 unanswered points scored by England.

Perhaps more worryingly the 68 points scored is the lowest total scored by Ireland since 2010, the next nearest being 70 points in 2020 when only four games were completed.

Ireland’s points came from 11 tries, 5 conversions and a penalty goal. With a try and a conversion coming from a penalty try, Ireland’s conversion rate was 40% with 4 conversions from 10 attempts.

Neve Jones and Eve Higgins topped the try, and points, scoring charts with 10 points each from 2 tries.

PLAYER	MINS	T	C	P	PTS
Neve Jones	352	2	0	0	10
Eve Higgins	240	2	0	0	10
Enya Breen	201	1	1	0	7
Penalty Try	0	1	1	0	7
Nicole Cronin	269	0	3	0	6
Linda Djougang	379	1	0	0	5
Stacey Flood	234	1	0	0	5
Lucy Mulhall	223	1	0	0	5
Amee-Leigh Crowe	197	1	0	0	5
Katie O’Dwyer	172	1	0	0	5
Hannah O’Connor	264	0	0	1	3
TOTAL	–	11	5	1	68

Try assists were also monitored in the stats with Sam Monaghan and Stacey Flood recognised for 2 each with Linda Djougang, Nicole Cronin, Eimear Considine and Kathryn Dane recognised for one each.

Meters Carried

Ireland averaged just over 106 carries per game compared to an average of 123 carries by their opponents, Ireland’s carries per game down about 20% on previous seasons.

The spread of carries between forwards and backs seems pretty similar to previous seasons, the main issue being they just weren’t getting possession as often as in the past.

Ireland had their joint highest, and identical, meters carried and number of carries figures against Italy and France. Italy tried to match Ireland, but their second string squad weren’t able to, whereas France carried for 221 fewer meters than Ireland (about 25% less) but concentrated in the red zones to open Ireland up.

Despite missing out a game due to injury, Sam Monaghan was Ireland’s main carrier with 49 carries, captain Nicola Fryday was second with 43.

player	mins	meters	carries	meters Per Carry
Eve Higgins	240	277	28	10
Sam Monaghan	320	230	49	5
Amee-Leigh Crowe	197	210	20	11
Lucy Mulhall	223	205	26	8
Hannah O’Connor	264	202	40	5
Beibhinn Parsons	125	191	17	11
Linda Djougang	379	168	36	5
Edel McMahon	386	167	36	5
Dorothy Wall	339	165	35	5
Nichola Fryday	373	159	43	4

Passes and Offloads

Open play in the Women’s Six Nations was disappointing. It’s not restricted to the women’s game, there is so much focus on defence these days that the game is largely consists of breakdown to breakdown to handling error. Unfortunately in the women’s game this hands a disproportionate advantage to the superheavyweight English pack.

Keeping the ball alive through passing and offloads is one way of reducing the physical advantage with offloads having the additional benefit of tying in a couple of defenders and in my opining makes the game a much more exciting spectacle.

A miserly 3 – 4 off loads per 100 passes tells the story and it was fairly similar for most of the teams against Ireland, France the only exception with a near 10% or 1 in 10 offloads per pass.

It’s a good area to work on for Ireland and could deliver a pretty spectacular improvement for a team that is never going to be able to consistently compete in the superheavyweight stakes.

Sam Monaghan, despite only completing 4.5 passes per game had the highest offload rate at 33% or 1 in 3 offloads per pass of the players that completed 10 or more passes over the series.

player	mins	passes	offloads
Sam Monaghan	320	18	6
Stacey Flood	234	41	3
Amee-Leigh Crowe	197	7	2
Beibhinn Parsons	125	5	2
Brittany Hogan	140	8	2
Christy Haney	203	6	2
Eve Higgins	240	14	2
Aoibheann Reilly	132	121	1
Aoife Doyle	181	4	1
Edel McMahon	386	14	1
Katie O’Dwyer	172	3	1
Linda Djougang	379	10	1
Lucy Mulhall	223	20	1
Neve Jones	352	2	1
Vicky Irwin	80	2	1

Tackles

Ireland attempted a total of 922 tackles over the five games with 796 successful, giving a success rate of 86% compared to 89% for their opponents. Their opponents figures were boosted by a 95% tackle success for England and Ireland actually had the third best tackle success rate above Wales at 84% and France at 82%.

Once again, France’s figures are interesting and perhaps indicative of a team picking their moments to fully commit rather than expend a lot of energy trying to skittle everyone over every time?

Irrespective of that, the figures from McMahon and Jones are impressive, though personally I’d rather have seen Jones carry more and tackle less.

player	mins	tackles made	Tackles Missed	Tackle Success
Edel McMahon	386	89	5	95%
Neve Jones	352	77	2	97%
Linda Djougang	379	64	7	90%
Dorothy Wall	339	64	9	88%
Sam Monaghan	320	48	7	87%
Nichola Fryday	373	43	7	86%
Nicole Cronin	269	41	6	87%
Hannah O’Connor	264	38	6	86%
Stacey Flood	234	34	8	81%
Enya Breen	201	30	6	83%

Turnovers

Teams generally concede possession more times than they win it, though teams would be looking for a 40% win rate or better.

Only Italy had a lower win rate than Ireland and looking back at the games Ireland had particular issues taking the ball into contact with the player far too upright. Along with the passing this is another good work on for Ireland which should yield fairly quick results.

In terms of turnovers, this is one area where Ulster says no with Neve Jones conceding nothing while winning six, the sort of figures the “Turnover Queen” Claire Molloy would have been proud off.

Player	mins	won	conceded	net
Neve Jones	352	6	0	6
Aoife Doyle	181	1	0	1
Aoife McDermott	50	1	0	1
Aoife Wafer	11	1	0	1
Enya Breen	201	1	0	1
Aoibheann Reilly	132	1	2	-1
Edel McMahon	386	1	2	-1
Katie O’Dwyer	172	1	2	-1
Anna McGann	25	0	1	-1
Brittany Hogan	140	0	1	-1
Grace Moore	45	0	1	-1
Hannah O’Connor	264	3	5	-2
Linda Djougang	379	2	4	-2
Stacey Flood	234	1	3	-2
Eve Higgins	240	0	2	-2
Sene Naoupu	147	0	2	-2
Dorothy Wall	339	0	3	-3
Kathryn Dane	265	0	3	-3
Nikki Caughey	60	0	3	-3
Beibhinn Parsons	125	0	4	-4
Lucy Mulhall	223	0	4	-4
Molly Scuffil-McCabe	160	0	4	-4
Nicole Cronin	269	0	4	-4
Nichola Fryday	373	2	7	-5
Eimear Considine	176	0	5	-5
Sam Monaghan	320	0	6	-6

Handling Errors

Handling errors are part and partial of the modern game with blitz defences causing errors and Ireland’s average of just under 16 per game is in their “usual” ballpark and somewhat less than their opponents.

Looking at handling errors per pass, Ireland’s error rate comes in at 9% and their opponents 10% so not a lot in it. It’s all about maintaining skills under pressure and it’s something that can be worked on. Wales, who kept things fairly simple in their win against Ireland produced an extraordinarily low 4% handling error rate whereas the makeshift Italian side posted one in excess of 14%.

You would expect those players that complete the most passes to have the most handling errors, so in defence of the top 3 in the table below Dane’s handling error rate comes in at 3%, Reilly’s at 6% and Cronin’s at 10%

Player	Mins	Handling Errors
Kathryn Dane	265	9
Aoibheann Reilly	132	8
Nicole Cronin	269	7
Beibhinn Parsons	125	5
Nikki Caughey	60	5
Dorothy Wall	339	4
Enya Breen	201	4
Stacey Flood	234	4
Brittany Hogan	140	3
Katie O’Dwyer	172	3
Lucy Mulhall	223	3
Nichola Fryday	373	3
Sam Monaghan	320	3
Christy Haney	203	2
Edel McMahon	386	2
Eimear Considine	176	2
Eve Higgins	240	2
Hannah O’Connor	264	2
Molly Scuffil-McCabe	160	2
Sene Naoupu	147	2
Ailsa Hughes	5	1
Amee-Leigh Crowe	197	1
Anna McGann	25	1
Linda Djougang	379	1

Penalties Conceded

Considering the number of scoring chances that come from attacking line outs penalties conceded is a big work on for Ireland who conceded an average of 3 more penalties per game than their opponents.

The benchmark of 10 or less penalties per game is oft quoted but that has slipped up with the introduction of the new tackle laws. Italy were the only side that conceded more penalties than Ireland in their head to heads, Wales setting the benchmark by only conceding 5 in their opening round meeting.

player	mins	penalties conceded
Dorothy Wall	339	8
Linda Djougang	379	5
Christy Haney	203	4
Hannah O’Connor	264	4
Katie O’Dwyer	172	4
Neve Jones	352	4
Nichola Fryday	373	4
Edel McMahon	386	3
Nicole Cronin	269	3
Sam Monaghan	320	3
Aoibheann Reilly	132	2
Beibhinn Parsons	125	2
Brittany Hogan	140	2
Chloe Pearse	47	2
Nikki Caughey	60	2
Stacey Flood	234	2
Amee-Leigh Crowe	197	1
Eimear Considine	176	1
Emma Hooban	49	1
Enya Breen	201	1
Michelle Claffey	72	1
Molly Scuffil-McCabe	160	1
Sene Naoupu	147	1
Vicky Irwin	80	1

All the statistics used in this report came from the Official Womens Six Nations site you can view our consolidated stats for all the Ireland players by clicking below.