England go into Sunday’s Women’s Six Nations decider against France chasing an eighth straight title and a 37-game winning run, with the final again set to be decided by two sides that have spent the spring on parallel tracks. France have finished runners-up to England for the past six years, and last year’s title match was settled by a single point.

That makes the margin for error tiny, even if England have been the tournament’s most prolific attack. They have scored the most points in the competition, and Zoe Harrison has landed 23 of her 24 kicks. France, though, arrive with their own case to be taken seriously. They have the fewest missed tackles in the competition, the best tackle success rate at 88.4% and the most dominant contacts, while Anaïs Grando has scored four tries in four games.

England’s title push has come while working around a depleted squad. Zoe Stratford, Abbie Ward and Alex Matthews are out because of retirements, pregnancy and injury, and Sadia Kabeya is back from injury as the side tries to hold together enough continuity to finish the job. Marlie Packer will start on the bench.

The England captain’s comments this week captured the mood inside the camp after a tournament that has still brought results but not always the cleanest execution. Packer said the side need to be quicker in the moment and stop overthinking once the ball is live, warning that hesitation gives the opposition an opening. She also pointed to a defensive maul issue that surfaced against Wales and then again against Italy, saying England cannot afford that against France and that the work will have to be done this week.

That concern matters because France have built their campaign on exactly the sort of pressure England have occasionally struggled to shrug off. They led the tournament in carries, offloads and defenders beaten, and under head coach François Ratier they have repeatedly found ways to stay in games that might have slipped away in earlier years. The question is not whether France can make the final uncomfortable. It is whether they can make it unrecognisable.

John Mitchell brushed off the challenge with the confidence of a side that has spent years turning tight contests into trophies, but the numbers give France room to believe. England were pushed hard enough by Italy to concede the most points they had ever allowed in the Six Nations to a team other than France, a reminder that even the reigning champions can look vulnerable when their structure slips.

That tension is what gives Sunday its edge. England still look like the benchmark in the women’s six nations, but France have narrowed the gap through superior defensive work and sharper carrying, and the decider may come down to whether the champions can impose themselves before the pressure of another one-point sort of finish takes hold again.