SUCH WAS the intensity of England’s Six Nations victory in Cardiff that most English fans might have overlooked how their female counterparts fared against the Welsh.

In case you didn’t see the Red Roses’ game, they demolished the Daffodils 63-0.

What does it matter, blurt the macho men among us. Why would any veteran supporter consider the female equivalent of Europe’s most prestigious rugby tournament an entertaining spectacle to watch?

Quite simply, because times are changing and the signs of the women’s game slowly catching up with the men’s are as clear cut as Owen Farrell’s right boot.

You only need to read about Oliver Pickup’s experience of training with the England Women’s camp before their World Cup triumph in 2013 to understand that these women are not flabby unfit, anatomically clumsy versions of muscular men, but athletes in their own right, whose passion for the game runs deeper than a paunchy regular down the pub might think.

Hammering this message home to the annual set of Six Nations ‘part-time’ fan base who silently play the ‘which penalty was awarded for what’ game to themselves come February would be a good starting place, because knowing the rules of rugby is one thing, knowing that a Six Nations Women’s Six Nations fixture is being played at the same time is another.

This year the women’s tournament is receiving more coverage than ever before, with every game being either televised or streamed. Sky Sports are showing all of England’s Six Nations clashes for the first time and is leading the way when it comes to promoting coverage of the women’s game.

It is also the first time an English female side have fielded a full professional squad, 18 of who are on full-time contracts – and if Pickup went back to train with the team now he’d no longer find the policeman, teacher and a vet who once all played rugby as their ‘hobby’.

And all this is capped off with England skipper Rochelle ‘Rocky’ Clark making the headlines when she surpassed Jason Leonard as England’s most capped rugby player last November.

Would Leonard have ever predicted that his record would fall to a woman? Perhaps not, but Clark has taken another huge step towards putting her sport on a level playing field in doing so.