Red Roses batter Ireland in 98-point Twickenham homecoming
England’s Red Roses continued their dominance in the Women’s Six Nations, battering Ireland 88-10 to set up their Grand Slam showdown next week in France.
Following last year’s tight affair with the French, this was just the second standalone women’s fixture at Twickenham Stadium.
A penalty and a penalty try was all Ireland could muster as England ran in 14 tries from eight different scorers as they entertained 48,778 fans.
Living up to the matches’ billing as the ‘Red Roses rock Twickenham’, England raced to an early lead, with Maud Muir and Alex Matthews making breaks to allow Abby Dow to step her way down the wing to score.
Natasha Hunt got England’s second just minutes later, breaking through the centre of the park and being brought down just metres short, before finishing what she started and picking from the base of the ruck to go over unopposed.
Megan Jones opened her account for the afternoon stretching over the line following an Abby Dow break.
Wrapping up the bonus point in just 20 minutes, Ellie Kildunne screamed through the Irish defence making 40 metres and allowing Zoe Aldcroft to ignore her support and power over from outside the Irish 22.
Ireland made it onto the scoreboard mid-way through the first half with Dannah O’Brien slotting a penalty from in front of the posts.
Penalty advantage from a collapsed maul gave the Red Roses license to thrill as the ever-creative Kildunne made her way over the whitewash for England’s fifth of the afternoon.
Seemingly scoring her second, Dow found herself on the end of Sadia Kabeya’s magic pass but was found to have dropped the ball over the line.
Dow made no mistake on her next opportunity dotting down from Holly Aitchison’s loop play, extending England’s lead to 35 points.
England were denied again at the close of the first half, with Jones crashing over from a forward pass.
The Red Roses picked up where they left off, with Jess Breach beating her opposite number and storming over from 45 metres out.
England reached the half-ton just five minutes into the second half, as Kabeya, initially deemed to have been held up, was awarded the try following a TMO review.
Ireland were awarded a penalty try, as Lucy Packer was sent to the sin-bin for collapsing the maul.
With Aitchison covering scrum-half in the absence of Packer, Jones jinked over to finally claim her second.
Substitute Emily Scarratt made an instant impact, threading the pass to Jones from inside her 22, allowing Dow to claim her hat-trick from halfway.
Scarratt once again showed her deft hand, popping the ball to Dow, making space for Kildunne to race over with the game entering its final ten minutes.
The Red Roses scored two tries from grubber kicks in quick succession, Aitchison’s kick finding Breach before player of the match Kildunne went over for a hat-trick of her own from Scarratt.
Maddie Feaunati crashed over the left wing for England’s final try, Breach falling short after again finding space, England firmly beating the clock against Ireland.
