Women's Six Nations guide: Fixtures and BBC coverage

The Women's Six Nations gets under way on Saturday, 11 April with world champions England bidding for an eighth successive title and a fifth consecutive Grand Slam.

The Red Roses will return to Allianz Stadium for the first time since beating Canada in September's World Cup final, when they start the defence of their Six Nations title against Ireland.

With captain Zoe Stratford pregnant with her first child, centre Meg Jones will captain a side that have won a world record 33 matches in a row and are unbeaten in the Six Nations since 2018.

England will travel to Bordeaux to face France - their biggest rivals for the title - on the final weekend of the championship on Sunday, 17 May.

Ireland, led by 22-year-old captain Erin King, have made significant progress in recent years and in back row star Aoife Wafer have last year's Women's Six Nations player of the tournament.

Italy have a mixture of experienced and new players as they aim to consolidate on last year's fourth-place finish under the captaincy of veteran number eight Elisa Giordano.

Scotland, with head coach Sione Fukofuka in charge of his first Six Nations campaign, will seek to continue the promise they showed during their run to the World Cup quarter-finals.

Wales will aim to end their losing run in the championship and avoid the Wooden Spoon under the leadership of Kate Williams, who takes on the sole captaincy after Alex Callender was ruled out of the tournament with an ankle injury.

Several attendance records are set to be broken this year as the sport builds on the success of the World Cup.

Ticket sales for England's opening match have already passed 70,000, ensuring the attendance will smash the current record of 58,498 for a Women's Six Nations match.

Wales play Scotland at the Principality Stadium on the same day and will be hoping to beat the 21,186 who watched Wales v England at the stadium last year.

The attendance record for a standalone women's sporting event in Scotland will be broken on 18 April when Fukofuka's side host England in their first game at Murrayfield. Ticket sales are on course to overtake the 18,555 fans who watched the women's national football team play Jamaica in 2019.

Ireland will play in front of a record crowd when they face Scotland in their first standalone Women's Six Nations fixture at the Aviva Stadium, with more than 14,000 tickets already sold for the match on 17 May.

France will host England - in what is expected to be the title-deciding match - at Bordeaux's 42,115-capacity Stade Atlantique, with Les Bleues aiming to beat their record of 17,440 for a standalone match set in the 2018 Six Nations win against England.

The overall attendance this year is set to easily surpass the 151,506 fans who attended Women's Six Nations matches last year.

Once again BBC Sport has comprehensive free-to-air coverage of this year's Women's Six Nations across TV, radio and online.

BBC TV and BBC iPlayer will show every game from the tournament and have signed up England's World Cup captain Stratford to join their team of experts analysing the games.

The BBC Sport website and app will deliver live text coverage of every game, complete with clips, player reaction and pundit analysis.

BBC Sport's social media channels will have clips of standout moments from the matches and exclusive interviews with some of the star players.

BBC Radio 5 Live, BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra and BBC Sounds will have live commentary of all matches involving England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

There will also be regular editions of the Rugby Union Weekly podcast throughout the championship for listeners to enjoy.

BBC Wales will air Sarra Elgan's Women's Six Nations preview on 10 April and Scrum V The Warm-up will be available on Thursdays throughout the tournament to look ahead to upcoming fixtures.

Rugby fans can also listen to the Scrum V podcast, the BBC Scotland Rugby podcast and the Ireland Rugby Social podcast.

Saturday, 11 April

12:25 - France v Italy, Stade des Alpes, Grenoble - BBC iPlayer

14:25 - England v Ireland, Allianz Stadium, London - BBC One, BBC iPlayer

16:40 - Wales v Scotland, Principality Stadium, Cardiff - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

Saturday, 18 April

13:30 - Scotland v England, Murrayfield Stadium, Edinburgh - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

15:35 - Wales v France, Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

17:40 - Ireland v Italy, Dexcom Stadium, Galway - BBC iPlayer

Saturday, 25 April

14:15 - England v Wales, Ashton Gate, Bristol - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

16:30 - Italy v Scotland, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma - BBC iPlayer

20:10 - France v Ireland, Stade Marcel-Michelin, Clermont-Ferrand - BBC Two NI, BBC iPlayer

Saturday, 9 May

14:00 - Italy v England, Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi, Parma - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

16:15 - Scotland v France, Hive Stadium, Edinburgh - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

18:30 - Ireland v Wales, Ravenhill Stadium, Belfast - BBC One Wales, BBC iPlayer

Sunday, 17 May

12:15 - Wales v Italy, Cardiff Arms Park, Cardiff - BBC Two, BBC iPlayer

14:30 - Ireland v Scotland, Aviva Stadium, Dublin - BBC iPlayer

16:45 - France v England, Stade Atlantique, Bordeaux - BBC Two

England secured a seventh successive Women's Six Nations title and fourth Grand Slam in a row with a nailbiting 43-42 victory over France in the tournament's final game.

Clinching the Grand Slam with five bonus-point wins earned England a further three bonus points to give them a final championship total of 28.

France finished second, as they have in every Six Nations since their last victory over England in 2018, with four wins.

Ireland claimed a losing bonus point in a 26-19 defeat by Scotland to guarantee third place.

Italy finished their campaign in style with a thumping 44-12 win over Wales to finish fourth in the table, one point behind Ireland.

Francesca McGhie's late try snatched a morale-boosting victory for Scotland as they finished fifth.

Wales' defeat condemned Sean Lynn's side to the Wooden Spoon for the second year running as they lost all five games for the first time in their history.

Teams earn four points for a win and two for a draw.

Bonus points are earned for scoring four or more tries in a match and for losing by seven points or fewer.

A team that completes a Grand Slam by beating all five other nations - as England did last year - is awarded three extra bonus points to guarantee them the title.

The championship started as the Women's Home Nations in 1996, welcomed France into the Five Nations in 1999 and became the Women's Six Nations in 2002.

However, Italy did not join the championship until 2007 when they took the place of Spain.

England have won 21 of the 29 tournaments, securing 19 Grand Slams and 25 Triple Crowns in the process.

They have won the past seven tournaments, securing Grand Slams in six of those years and only being denied the chance of a seventh by the changes to the 2021 season as a result of Covid.

England's last defeat was against France in 2018. They have won their past 32 Six Nations matches, scoring 252 tries and only conceding 33.

France, winners of the first Six Nations in 2002, have won the title six times, with five Grand Slams.

Ireland won the championship in 2013 and 2015.

Scotland won the 1998 Home Nations championship.

Wales and Italy have never won the tournament.