Saturday afternoon. Twickenham. 77,120 people.
Not for a World Cup final. Not for a Grand Slam decider. For the opening match of the 2026 Women’s Six Nations. Round 1. And it was absolutely epic.
We headed to Allianz Stadium to watch the Red Roses take on Ireland in their first match since lifting the World Cup trophy on that same pitch back in September – walking into a stadium that full for a women’s rugby match on the first weekend of a tournament felt like witnessing something shift in real time.
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The previous Six Nations attendance record was 58,498, set when England beat France in the 2023 Grand Slam decider. Saturday smashed that by nearly 19,000. Let that land for a second. This wasn’t even a knockout game. It was a Saturday afternoon in April, Round 1, and over 77,000 people chose to be there.
There’s something about being in a crowd that size that’s hard to explain until you’ve felt it. The noise when Amy Cokayne crashed over for the opening try from a rolling maul ten minutes in – genuinely spine-tingling. You could feel the whole stand react before your brain had even processed what happened.
What we’ve learned from women’s sporting events, though, is that they are just different. It was warm. Families everywhere, groups of mates, couples, people who clearly knew every lineout call and people who were visibly at their first ever rugby match. That mix is what makes women’s sport feel different right now – it’s not an exclusive club, it’s a party everyone’s invited to.
The fan village in the west car park had DJs, food, drinks – proper matchday energy before you even got through the gates. And getting in was weirdly smooth for a crowd that size. No endless queues, no chaos, just straight in and find your seat.
The match
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England 33-12 Ireland. Five tries. A bonus point. And a 34th consecutive test win for the Red Roses, which is a world record that just keeps growing.
Sarah Bern was an absolute force – two tries in the first half that were pure power, carries that make you involuntarily grab the person next to you. Cokayne’s opener set the tone from the lineout, and by half-time England were 21-0 up and looking comfortable, if not quite at their World Cup-winning best. There was a moment where Ellie Kildunne dropped the ball over the try line after a brilliant break from captain Meg Jones, which drew a collective groan from 77,000 throats. You don’t get that sound anywhere else.
Second half, Jess Breach scored her 54th try in her 54th test in the 54th minute – the kind of stat that sounds made up but was very real and very rapid, racing onto a charge-down from Jones on halfway and beating the cover defence for pace. Then Kildunne made up for her earlier fumble with a gorgeous finish off a long-range counterattack that had the whole stadium on its feet.
But credit to Ireland, massively. This wasn’t the team that got beaten by 78 points in previous years. Erin King, their new captain, led from the front. Anna McGann’s try in the corner on 63 minutes was properly well-worked, and King herself powered over late on. 33-12 is their narrowest loss to England in a decade. Scott Bemand’s side is clearly closing the gap, and they didn’t look remotely overwhelmed by the occasion, which, considering the occasion, says a lot.
Seven months ago, 81,000 people watched the Red Roses win a World Cup final at this same ground. You could argue that was a one-off – a home World Cup, a final, peak hype. But 77,120 turning up for an opening weekend fixture? That’s a returning fanbase. That’s a sport that’s moved past the “growing” phase and into the “this is just how it is now” phase.
These players deserve every single one of those fans. Meg Jones, captaining the side for the first time, put in a player-of-the-match performance. Sadia Kabeya was relentless. Lilli Ives Campion, at 22, was suddenly the senior lock after three teammates stepped away due to pregnancy, and she ran the lineout like she’d been doing it for years. This is a squad full of genuinely world-class athletes, and Saturday felt like the moment the rest of the country properly caught up.
If you haven’t been yet to see the Women’s Rugby – the Red Roses play Wales at Ashton Gate in Bristol on Saturday, 25 April, and you can check our recent article for the rest of the Women’s Six Nations fixtures.
We’ll be back, for sure.
Nonchalant x
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This article was written by one of our creative team writers here at Nonchalant Magazine.
