Women’s Six Nations: England cruise past Wales while Italy off the mark with victory over Ireland

Planet Rugby
Holly Aitchison

England made it three Six Nations wins out of three after they saw off Wales 59-3 in a bonus-point victory at a sold-out Cardiff Arms Park on Saturday.

The hosts celebrated a record 8,862 attendance for a women’s home fixture, but unfortunately they saw their team well beaten by the impressive English.

The four-time defending champions’ strength in depth was on full display on a day that saw each of the Red Roses‘ nine tries come via different scorers.

Lucy Packer, Tatyana Heard, Abigail Dow, Holly Aitchison, Jess Breach, Ellie Kildunne, Maud Muir, Hannah Botterman and Sarah Beckett all touched down for the visitors, with Emma Sing and Lagi Tuima adding seven conversions between them.

Heavy favourites pre-game

England were heavy favourites to make it three wins from three in this season’s Six Nations but it was Wales, who had also won both of their first two matches, who opened the scoring after an electric start when Keira Bevan slotted over a penalty.

However, that proved to be Wales’ only points of the game as England hit back in emphatic fashion.

The Red Roses took the lead in the 26th minute when Dow broke down the left and crossed into the hosts’ 22 before being brought down just shy of the try-line, but Packer was able to scoop up the ball from the ensuing breakdown and twist over the line.

Heard helped make it 12-3 before an exquisite pass from Aitchison set Dow up on a fine run from midfield, the Harlequins winger crossing the whitewash on the 40-minute mark before Sing’s conversion left the resilient hosts – who had enjoyed both a possession and territorial advantage – trailing 19-3 at the break.

Aitchison quickly added her name to the list of England’s try-scorers to secure the bonus point after the restart, when the floodgates firmly opened for the Red Roses who – despite going down to 13 women after May Campbell and Marlie Packer were sent to the sin-bin in the 67th minute – went on to complete a comprehensive victory.

Italy beat Ireland in Parma

Elsewhere, Italy picked up their first victory of this year’s Women’s Six Nations campaign as they overcame fellow strugglers Ireland 24-7 in Parma.

Both nations came into the game at the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi having lost their opening two matches but it was Italy who emerged victorious thanks to tries from Alyssa D’Inca (2) and Sofia Stefan.

The hosts broke the stalemate in the 28th minute after some quality team play down the left wing saw Beatrice Rigoni offload to scrum-half Stefan who went over for a try that was converted by Michela Sillari.

That score was all that separated the teams at half-time, with Ireland failing to make the most of their early opportunities to trail 7-0 at the interval.

However, Italy were quickly out of the blocks at the start of the second half and within two minutes had doubled their advantage as D’Inca finished off a well-worked move.

Ireland were awarded a penalty try midway through the second half to give them a glimmer of hope at 17-7 but D’Inca put the game to bed late on with her second try of the match, leaving the visitors propping up the Six Nations table.

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