England continued their seemingly relentless charge to the Women’s Six Nations title with a dominant 58-5 win over Wales at Kingsholm.
Wales went into the match unbeaten in their first two fixtures, but the Red Roses showed their class as they ran in ten tries to continue their perfect start to their campaign with another bonus-point victory.
Winger Jess Breach and hooker Lark Davies crossed twice each as Wales were swept away, unable to cope with the power of the home pack who laid the foundations for a 21st successive victory.
And England’s most impressive performance of the Six Nations yet was delivered in front of a 14,689 fans - their biggest home crowd for 12 years and highest outside of a World Cup.
Play was held up for several minutes early on after Abby Dow suffered a painful injury that resulted in her being carried from the pitch on a stretcher and she was subsequently taken to hospital.
It was England who responded better to the lengthy break as Davies finished a rolling maul and soon after Abbie Ward was over.
Wales’ scrum was being consistently overpowered but the hosts’ line-out was malfunctioning, while their momentum was also affected by an indisciplined phase.
Turning to the maul once more, however, their pack made 20 metres before the ball was spun to Breach, who was swept over by her footwork.
A second for Breach was sandwiched by two tries for the front row as Davies completed another maul before a rampaging Sarah Bern charged over from a line-out.
England’s dominance up front was complete with Bern and Poppy Cleall leading the charge and replacement Natalia John was sent to the sin-bin because of an accumulation of defensive penalties from the visitors.
Alex Matthews was the next to score, but in the 69th minute the one-way traffic was finally pierced when Wales finally registered their first points through Kelsey Jones’ try from short range.
Shaunagh Brown touched down just before John returned from the sin-bin and there were additional scores for Emily Scarratt and Sarah Hunter.
