Women’s Six Nations Team-by-Team Previews, England: Red Roses are still the team to beat

Once again, we enter a Women's Six Nations with the same question on everyone's mind. Can anybody topple the unrelenting England regime?

The Red Roses are chasing a fifth straight title, and their fourth Grand Slam in that period. However, after the heartbreak of last year's 34-31 World Cup final loss to New Zealand, will England convert their agony into motivation? Or will potential post World Cup demons linger?

Second rower Alex Matthews, 24, says as much as they tried to move on, it had a big effect on the players. “It was heart-breaking to begin with, you spend so much time together and I think some girls felt quite lost getting back to normal life,” she said.

“I have always told myself it is just a game. I enjoy it and that's why I play but you have to be quite sensitive with how everyone is dealing with it, you have to let everyone deal with it individually in their own way.”

However, she insists England have moved on and won't dwell on the past but instead, learn from it going into the Six Nations. “Since our review weekend, we haven't mentioned it again and our thing now is growing the gap between us and the other five teams.”

England enter the tournament carrying injuries to a host of key squad members and with the recent announcement that this will be head coach Simon Middleton's final tournament in charge after almost ten years at the helm, there is an air of ambiguity.

Star centre Emily Scarratt will miss the tournament with neck and ankle problems, first-choice fly-half Zoe Harrison also won't feature after suffering a serious knee injury for Saracens whilst Abbie Ward, Hannah Botterman, Vickii Conborough and Laura Keates are also unavailable.

The injuries have opened the door for Middleton to bring in fresh faces as he named nine uncapped players in the squad.

Driving force: England star Alex Matthews

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With the combination of a long injury list and other nations constantly improving, Matthews understands that the Red Roses can't rest on their laurels. She said: “[The post World Cup meeting] was about what can we do to keep growing the gap? All these nations have become professional. In a couple of years, this year maybe, they are going to be at the same standard so how can we keep pushing on and being better?

“This is going to be the best Six Nations yet with everyone having those opportunities to better themselves.”

Despite the injuries, England still boast a wealth of experience and world-class talent and enter as favourites. Their familiar playing style of dominance up front and a heavy focus on the set-piece has proven almost unbeatable over the years, but Matthews eluded that England will be looking to develop their attacking prowess in a different way. “

We want to be able to play a bit more, the girls to have confidence to play and not just kick for lineouts which we know we're good at,” the Gloucester-Hartpury back rower said. “We need to be able to adapt to be able to do all of it.

“It gives the girls the opportunity to showcase what they have got. They came into training last week and the running lines, offloading game, it excited me.”

The Red Roses kick off their title defence at a sold-out Kingston Park against Scotland before hosting Italy and then travelling to Wales and Ireland.

They'll end the tournament with a potential Grand Slam matchup against France in the first standalone fixture at Twickenham for women's rugby, and with over 36,000 tickets already sold, it is on track to be in front of a record crowd.