| 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship | |
| Date: | 3–24 April 2021 |
| Countries: | |
| Count: | 17 |
| Matches: | 9 |
| Top Point Scorer: | Emily Scarratt (39) |
| Top Try Scorer: |  Caroline Boujard (5) |
| Player Of The Tournament: | Poppy Cleall[1] |
| Previous Year: | 2020 |
| Previous Tournament: | 2020 Women's Six Nations Championship |
| Next Year: | 2022 |
| Next Tournament: | 2022 Women's Six Nations Championship |
The 2021 Women's Six Nations Championship was the 20th series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. 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, 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 and Triple Crown were not contested.
Traditionally, the Women's Six Nations Championship 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,[2] which caused travel and time restrictions issues due to qualification of the 2021 Rugby World Cup needing to be completed before the tournament starts in September.[3] Most of the players have jobs outside of rugby, and some players are key workers. This, combined with national lockdowns and the need for COVID-19 testing, made it more difficult to schedule the matches during the pandemic.[4] [5]
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.[6] [7] 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.[6] [7] Each team had one bye weekend.[7] The winners of each pool met each other in the final, as did the two second and third-placed teams.[6] 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.[6] The format is similar to the 2020 men's Autumn Nations Cup.[7] [8] Provisional fixture lists were also announced on 3 February,[6] and the venues and kick-off times were announced on 23 March.[9]
| Position | Nation | Matches | Points | Tries | Bonus points | Table points | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | For | Against | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 119 | 13 | +106 | 17 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 44 | 87 | –43 | 7 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 30 | 93 | –63 | 3 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Position | Nation | Matches | Points | Tries | Bonus points | Table points | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | For | Against | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 109 | 15 | +94 | 16 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 10 | ||
| 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 60 | 56 | +4 | 9 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 98 | –98 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Position | Nation | |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | ||
| 2nd | ||
| 3rd | ||
| 4th | ||
| 5th | ||
| 6th |