Outgoing England women’s coach Simon Middleton has labelled the current goal-kicking laws as “unfair” for female kickers, and would like to see a tweak in the future.

Middleton was talking ahead of the resumption of the Women’s Six Nations this weekend, with the Red Roses set to face Wales in Cardiff in round three.

Middleton – who leaves his role as head coach at the conclusion of the tournament – has seen England knock over just eight of 22 conversion attempts so far in the tournament.

Related: Women’s Six Nations fixtures

He said: “If you gave someone the option of kicking from the touchline or bringing it ten metres in, I would hazard a guess that most kickers in the female game would bring it in.

“I think that could impact the game and change it positively. I think it is a bit of an unfair game for female kickers because so much about goal-kicking relies on power.

“Obviously timing and technique but Holly (Aitchison) struck the ball beautifully (in round two, against Italy) and dropped about five under the crossbar.

“You want to be rewarded for good skill and hard practice and I don’t think they get rewarded because of physical constraints that come with what we know is a natural discrepancy between male and female athletes.”

England captain Marlie Packer was asked about this too and said: “It is something that could be tweaked but we could just stick the tries closer to the posts. That might help the situation.

“It is tough for the girls. I see them practising their kicking in training, it is a skill they work so hard at. Unfortunately they are a bit short. If we get closer to the posts it won’t be an issue but if it were to change it would help.

“I don’t think anything is going to change overnight but the game is evolving, people want to see points being scored, so it could be looked at going forward.”

Do you think the goal-kicking laws in women’s rugby should change?

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