Dominant England ease past Ireland in a 14 try rout

TOUGH DAY AT THE OFFICE: Ireland players after their side's defeat in the Women's Six Nations Rugby Championship to England. Pic: Juan Gasparini/Sportsfile

Women's Guinness Six Nations

England 88

Ireland 10

Such is the lopsided nature of too many women's Six Nations games that a thumping defeat for Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday could, on occasions, still have a lot to recommend it.

This time, not so much.

England had a bonus point secured inside the half-hour and 50 points up by the 50th minute, the latter being the invisible line in the sand that Scott Bemand and his players would have hoped to remain intact.

It would get far worse. Not in their worst nightmare, would Ireland have visualised a 78-point shellacking. And as hard as a deflated Ireland tried, the feeling persisted over the course of 80-odd minutes that the Red Roses had the wherewithal to up the ante at a moment's notice if they so desired.

After beating Wales, new Irish coach Scott Bemand would have been hoping to excavate some positives, even in defeat John Mitchell's all-conquering squad. The best he can hope for here is to put the experience to bed as quickly as possible.

Notwithstanding the three points from Dannah O’Brien and a penalty try in the second half there was little else to salvage from the wreckage. Sadly, it also serves to, once more, dent the broader appeal of a tournament so lopsided that it resembles two hemispheres itself - a north of England and France, and the rest.

Clearly, there is a deep, wide ocean still between what England produce and Ireland's ability to counteract it but, with one eye on what happens later Saturday between Italy and Scotland, Ireland can still hope that the prized third spot in this year's tournament should still be up for grabs when Scotland travel to Belfast next weekend. Third place secures automatic RWC qualification in England next year.

But 14 tries on the day for England says it all really.

Both Ellie Kildunne, who duly received her player of the match award, and Abby Dow contributed hat tricks to the England cause. The remainder were scored by Megan Jones, Natasha Hunt, Zoe Aldcroft, Jess Breach, Sadia Kebaya and Maddie Feaunati.

It all started with Abby Dow breaking down the right flank bulldozing her way past Laura Delaney and Brittany Hogan for the five pointer.

Natasha Hunt added another and within the half hour England had their bonus point bagged.

On 20 minutes Zoe Aldcroft adds insult to injury for Ireland, powering through essentially from the halfway line with little to no challenge. Too easy for England, a long way back for Ireland with an hour left to play yet. Aitchinson added the extras to make it 26-0.

Dannah O’Brien got the first points on the board for Ireland to narrow the gap but keeping England at bay was proving to be an unenviable and nigh impossible task for the girls in green even if they were starting to put some nice sequences of play together themselves.

Ellie Kildunne made sure to kill any Irish momentum though with another England try before the half hour mark. Her task was made all the easier by another smooth passage of play from the Red Roses. Tatyana Heard linking with Aitchinson to put Kildunne in for 33-3.

Dow added a sixth for a 38-3 lead at the break and the pain was more acute straightafter the break once Jess Breach broke down the left to score England’s seventh and Sadia Kebaya rolled in for an eighth. This was now a rampage.

Ireland were awarded a penalty try when Lucy Packer was judged to have illegally brought the maul down, sending her to the sin bin and bringing the Irish tally to 10. It didn't halt the England juggernaut, mind.

Meg Jones added try number 9, all too easy once again. Dow had her hat trick after the hour, bringing England’s try count into double digits. Aitchison was unerring too, seven conversions for her, all splitting the posts.

Scorers for England: Tries: A Dow 3, E Kildunne 3, M Jones 2, N Hunt, Z Aldcroft, J Breach 2, S Kebaya, M Feaunati; Con: H Aitchison 9.

Scorers for Ireland: Try: Penalty try; Pen: D O’Brien 

ENGLAND: E Kildunne; A Dow, M Jones (S Gregson 67), T Heard (E Scarratt 60), J Breach; H Aitchison, N Hunt (L Packer 49); H Botterman (M Carson 45), L Atkin-Davies (C Powell 34), M Muir (K Clifford 49 (L Hanlon 75), M Talling (L Hanlon 75), Z Aldcroft, S Kabeya, M Packer (M Feaunati 58), A Matthews.

IRELAND: L Delaney (M Deely 40); K Corrigan, E Higgins (E Breen 40), A Dalton, B Parsons; D O’Brien, A Reilly (M Scuffil-McCabe 59); L Djougang (S McGrath 59), N Jones (C Moloney 44), C Haney (N O’Dowd 48), D Wall, H O’Connor, A Wafer, E McMahon, B Hogan (S Ikahihifo 55).

Ref: Aurélie Groizeleau.

Att: 48,778.