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. Scotland captain Rachel Malcolm, Ireland captain Erin King, France captain Manae Feleu, England captain Meg Jones, Kate Williams, captain of Wales, and Silvia Turani of Italy pose for a photo with the Women's Six Nations trophy [Getty Images] Record crowds as women's game continues to grow 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.