Ruthless England run in eight tries as Ireland draw blank
England's Ellie Kildunne tries to keep the ball in play ahead of Natasja Behan of Ireland
It is now four defeats out of four for Ireland in the TikTok Women’s Six Nations as they were comprehensively beaten 48-0 by fourth successive Grand Slam chasing England at Musgrave Park on Saturday.
It was a spirited showing by Greg McWilliams’ side in their final home fixture of the campaign but ultimately eight tries from seven different scorers – Alex Matthews the only player to claim a brace – ensured it was another difficult outing for the Irish.
Ireland knew coming into this game the stern challenge that was ahead of them. But in case they had forgotten, they were given a not so gentle reminder after just 10 seconds when the powerful Sarah Beckett blew away Aoife Doyle.
The Irish were immediately penned back by their own line – defending for their lives – but despite their best efforts, Beckett finished an incisive passing move to open the scoring.
The hosts, to their credit, continued to battle and roared on by a sizeable Cork crowd, they kept their talented opponents at bay until the quarter of an hour mark when Tatyana Heard collected Holly Aitchison’s pass and went down in the corner.
The visitors grabbed their third try of the afternoon in the 22nd minute when Ellie Kildunne finished another quick attack, and they notched their fourth try in the 27th minute when captain Marlie Packer drove through the heart of the Irish rear-guard.
Lagi Tuima failed to fire over any of those conversions, but it would be a case of fifth time lucky for the number 13 as she finally split the uprights after substitute Morwenna Talling went down behind the line to make it 27-0 at the half time break.
Ireland were playing for pride ever since the first kick-off and in the second period they restored a significant amount of it as they matched the side currently ranked number one in the world.
But similar to their 24-7 loss away to Italy last time out, the Girls in Green couldn’t convert their chances on the rare occasions they made their way past the English 22-metre line.
They would keep the World Cup finalists scoreless for 32 second-half minutes until their backline was breached by substitute Amber Reed with fellow sub Helena Rowland adding the extras.
They thought they had ended that drought sooner, but they had a try disallowed for a forward pass in the build-up.
It mattered little though as the Red Roses finished the game strongly and they tallied their seventh and eight tries of the contest from the same source – Alex Matthews – with Rowland adding the conversions to both.
England will be looking to secure their fourth Grand Slam in a row next Saturday afternoon when they face France at Twickenham but for Ireland they will again be playing for pride when they travel to take on Scotland later that evening.
Tries: S Beckett, T Heard, E Kildunne, M Packer, M Talling, A Reed, A Matthews (2).
L Tuima, H Rowland (3).
L Delaney, A Doyle, A Dalton, V Irwin, N Behan, D O’Brien, M Scuffil-McCabe; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney, N Fryday, S Monaghan, B Hogan, G Moore, D Nic A Bháird.
C Nielson, S McGrath, K Buggy, H O’Connor, J Brown, N Cronin, A McGann, M Deely.
E Kildunne, A Dow, L Tuima, T Heard, C MacDonald, H Aitchison, N Hunt; H Botterman, C Powell, M Muir, Z Aldcroft, S Beckett, A Kabeya, M Packer, A Matthews.
: L Davies, M Carson, S Bern, D Burns, M Talling, L Packer, A Reed, H Rowland.
: Lauren Jenner (FIR).
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