Brian Moore claims England’s women should play matches against junior men’s teams

England’s women should play matches against their men’s Under-18 and Under-20 teams as they are not being tested enough by their conventional opponents, Brian Moore has claimed.

England began their Women’s Six Nations campaign with a resounding 57-5 win over Scotland in Edinburgh on Saturday, but were not at their best in a performance described as ‘rusty’ by head coach Simon Middleton.

Middleton said he was ‘frustrated’ with the display despite the heavy margin of victory in the match in Edinburgh, the latest in a string of comfortable wins for England in the Women’s Six Nations.

England have clinched the last three titles and their triumph in 2020 included three victories where they did not concede a point, as well as a 66-7 rout of Wales and a narrow 19-13 win over France.

In the 2021 tournament, England beat Scotland 52-10 and Italy 67-3 before overcoming France 10-6 in the final, while in 2019 they racked up 278 points – including 80 without reply against Scotland – and conceded just 45 across their five games.

Rugby legend Moore said he was concerned by England’s dominance and suggested the women’s team take on the Under-18 and Under-20 sides in cross-gender games to give them a tougher test.

England thrashed Scotland 57-5 in their Women’s Six Nations opener in Edinburgh on Saturday

Brian Moore said he was concerned England were not being tested enough by their opponents

Writing in The Telegraph, Moore said the RFU might need to get ‘creative’ to take the women’s team to the next level ahead of the World Cup in New Zealand later this year.  

‘If the England women’s team cannot find the sort of physical and technical challenge that they need in ordinary fixtures against conventional opponents, they should look to see if it is possible to have structured training sessions and games against the England Under-18 or Under-20 male teams,’ Moore wrote.

‘Purists might baulk at this sort of crossover and in an ideal world, where every Tier 1 union valued and invested in women’s rugby, this would not be necessary. Until then, they might have to be creative.’   

Fans took to Twitter to question the cross-gender matches suggestion made by Moore 

Moore’s idea has been criticised on Twitter, with @spikestweeting asking: ‘Are you insane?’ 

‘Is this serious?’ @OTbutInTweets said, while @alia_wong wrote ‘I let you imagine all the horrors that this text inspires in me’.

‘It’s only 10:09 and I think I’ll log out of Twitter for the day,’ added @ViewXv, in reply to a post containing Moore’s column.

Moore has suggested England’s women play against their men’s under-20 team

Simon Middleton said he was ‘frustrated’ by England’s performance in the win over Scotland

Moore, who played 64 times for England, also urged Scotland, Ireland and Italy to increase their investment in women’s rugby.

The 60-year-old said there was ‘no reason, other than lack of will, for the Scottish, Irish and Italian Unions to fund a form of professional women’s game’.

‘It does not have to be the equal of that in England or New Zealand, but they can and must invest in this area,’ he added. 

‘It is not just the right thing to do from a diversity point of view, it is in their own long-term interests to grow rugby in this way.’