Sadia Kabeya's Six Nations column: We don't expect anything tame
England back row Sadia Kabeya reflects on watching the Scotland game as a fan, the Easter break, and looks ahead to their match-up against France this weekend in their final round of the 2025 Guinness Women's Six Nations.
The Red Roses remain undefeated in the Six Nations after beating Scotland 59-7 in the penultimate round of the tournament, and now prepare for the Grand Slam chase at Allianz Stadium.
High stakes
It was really exciting to watch and I think the girls played so well. As you can see in the first half, the girls had intent to attack and used all our options, like going through the middle and then out wide to Claudia MacDonald, who was having a great game. It was really exciting to watch as a fan, seeing tries on tries.
We were up 42-0 at the break because we read them really well. We identified where Scotland was weak in the middle and sent our big ball-carriers through. We also had Holly Aitchison distributing and putting our edges in the game a lot more, so we saw more tries out wide because of that.
Having Claudia back is so good. She had a tough time with her injuries and rehabbed hard to get back. Even before she was injured, she was one of our best players and was going really well, so it's nice to see her back and at her top form again.
In camp & Easter break
There's always something going on in camp, and Maud and her tours has become a regular thing. We usually have a bus and she gets on the mic at the front and does a bus tour when we go to captains run. She asks the team for facts, but usually a lot of them are made up which makes it even more funny. To us it's pretty normal, but we don't expect anything tame around camp!
We didn't have a big celebration up in Leicester after our win against Scotland as we were given the chance to go home and enjoy the Easter weekend. I went back to Loughborough and spent it with my house mates in the sun in the garden. It was nice to relax!
We came back to camp on Tuesday after the long weekend, so this week has been rugby focused rather than off-pitch stuff. It was great to have some regeneration back home and then come back in and hit the ground running.
Grand Slam bid
This week I won't be travelling as a non-playing reserve, but I'll be watching in the stands with the rest of the girls.
Nothing has drastically changed in training this week ahead of playing France, but there's maybe a bit more onus on the girls who aren't playing to really up that training standard. We want to be like France and give them the most realistic and toughest sessions, so when it does come to the game they're ready and prepared.
Playing at Allianz is amazing! Having all your friends and family there, and all the fans who have travelled to watch the women's game is incredible. The atmosphere is huge; how loud the crowd is and the buzz - it's different to any stadium we get to play in, it's definitely one of the best experiences.
Despite it being our home stadium, there's no extra pressure on us, but instead something to relish in.
We're not speaking about beyond France yet as we don't want to speak too much about something that hasn't happened yet. Our plan is to go out there win, and once that win hopefully comes our way, then the plans will definitely be firing up after.
