Sadia Kabeya's Six Nations column: I go into fan mode
England flanker Sadia Kabeya looks back on their win against Ireland, what the squad got up to in Cork, and what's to come this weekend against Scotland in England's penultimate round of the 2025 Guinness Women's Six Nations.
The Red Roses remain undefeated in the Six Nations after beating Ireland 49-5 in the third round of the tournament. Despite a low-scoring first half, England rallied and scored 42 points in the second half.
Win against Ireland
Ireland had a great defensive line. One of our super strengths is being able to get momentum through the centre of the pitch and Ireland were doing a really good job at shutting that down, so props to them.
We weren't able to get the go-forward that we wanted and unleash our backs properly in the first half. The Irish crowd was also amazing; any little thing Ireland would do, the crowd would get behind them, so I am sure they were feeding off that energy too.
We always felt calm and in control, but the little things were letting us down. The message at half time was to go back to what our game plan is, and I think we saw that as we came out in the second half nearly scoring in the first 30 seconds. It was nice to come away with a win, but we have things to learn from it.
Cork & in camp
It was nice to be out in Cork and have a look around; it has a great energy and live music. I went into the town centre on a really sunny day to get frozen yoghurt and look in Penneys, which is Primark in Ireland, to see if it was any different, but it wasn't!
The bond between the staff and players is really special. The more cohesive you are off the pitch, the better you play on, especially if you feel you're supported by everyone. So, if you make mistakes it's not the end of the world, and that's the environment you want.
Scotland week
I'm a non-playing reserve this weekend, so for me it's about the individual things and seeing what the girls need; whether it's extra contact before the game, extra passing, helping with anything pre-match, getting their anthem jackets ready. I've watched some of the girls do it over the past couple of weeks and they have been great at being that extra helping hand. So doing what I can to prepare them and making everything as easy as possible.
When watching and not playing, I go into fan mode. It will be interesting to watch the game from the bench and not in the crowd. I think I'll be more nervous sat with the girls. I try to enjoy it more than anything and then after the game I can watch back from a player perspective.
Scotland have come off the back of an unfortunate loss against Italy, and I think they weren't up to the standard that they expected of themselves, so we're expecting them to come out firing. They're a team who like to play wide and they have fast backs, so it will be interesting to see that match-up with our back line too.
We understand what threats they have and what their kicking game is, but for us it's about how we can adapt out game to still get that win over them. It's about being direct, aggressive and being able to unleash our backs.
