The Red Roses triumphed over Scotland in round two of the Women’s Six Nations, winning 84-7 in front of a 30,498 strong Murrayfield crowd – the largest of any standalone women’s sporting event in Scotland.
Rianna Darroch made her debut for Scotland, coming off the bench at scrum-half, with England’s Demelza Short also earning her first cap starting at flank.
A try for 19 year old Haineala Lutui, on just her second Red Roses appearance, solidified the promise of fresh talent amongst a heavily reshuffled England squad.
Nelson kicked off for Scotland with a deep kick putting England under immediate pressure to exit. Scotland took the opportunity to pounce but had their try attempt held up by scrambling white shirts.
England found their gear after the initial shock of Scotland dominance and responded moments later with a spell of brilliance from Ellie Kildunne on the wing, who open the scoring with a try in the corner.
With the floodgates now opened, Jones rushed through a gap in the Scottish defence to secure England’s second try of the afternoon. Front-rower Clifford then crossed for England’s third score of the game.
Nelson’s boot once again gave Scotland a chance as she chipped the ball over English heads into fullback Rollie’s grasp who passed to winger Rhona Lloyd to score Scotland’s only try of the game. Nelson converted to complete Scotland’s points tally for the day.
England rounded out the half with another try, scored this time by fullback Emma Sing.
The second half was a relentless display of English attacking rugby with seven more tries scored by the Red Roses.
Hooker Amy Cokayne opened the scores after the break, followed by two tries from prop replacement Sarah Bern, and a try a piece for Marlie Packer, Sadia Kabeya, Mia Venner, and Haineala Lutiu.
Standout performances also came from England’s fly-half Zoe Harrison, who kicked with pinpoint accuracy to convert each one of their 12 tries, and player of the match, number 8 Maddie Feaunati.
Scotland’s try scorer Lloyd left the field for a head injury assessment, and centre Evie Wills suffered a shoulder injury, it remains to be seen if this could rule either player out of future selection.
Despite a convincing display of English dominance, the significance of this record smashing game was not lost on Scotland’s head coach Sione Fukofuka: “The performance wasn’t what we wanted to put on in front of such a fantastic crowd and an occasion.
“When we weren’t accurate, when we weren’t clinical and executed, we were punished.
“We’re really looking forward to an opportunity now to take the learnings out of today and turn that on to Italy.”
England head coach John Mitchell insisted that the Red Roses refuse to get complacent despite their 35 game winning streak: “The Six Nations is always a short period of time to bring a group together culturally, as well as technically.
“We’re still an unfinished rugby team in many ways, so we’ll just keep going.”
Next Saturday, round three of the Six Nations sees England host Wales at Ashton Gate, Scotland travel to Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi to face Italy, and France will welcome Ireland to Stade Marcel-Michelin.
