Match Centre: Women's Six Nations: Ireland 0-48 England
Marlie Packer scored a try before leaving the field injured
©PA
Ireland 0-48 England, Musgrave Park
England have blanked out Ireland 48-0 as they maintained their hope of Grand Slam in the ongoing Women's Six Nations tournament with a dominating victory at Musgrave Park on Saturday.
The red rose team now have 20 points from four games and they will take on France in the final round while Ireland are at bottom after four defeats from as many games.
England opened their account straightaway as Sarah Beckett touched down after good work from Natasha Hunt but the conversion went wide.
The visitors doubled their tally as Tatyana Heard crossed over after a great pass from Holly Aitchison and in the 20th minute Beckett sent an one-hand offload for Ellie Kildunne's try. Lagi Tuima missed the conversion once again.
The bonus point came by 25th minute as Marlie Packer grabbed the ball from Hunt to score as they extended their lead to 0-20. England suffered a double setback as they lost Hannah Botterman and Packer to injuries. Nevertheless, they completed the opening half with a 0-27 lead after Morwenna Talling scored at the back of a maul and finally Tuima got the extras right.
Ireland showed better intent in the second half as their defence kept England away from scoring but with 11 minutes left, England thought they scored their first points in the second half with Kildunne going over. However, it was disallowed after a forward pass in the build up.
Nevertheless, Simon Middleton's finished the game strong as Claudia MacDonald, who was stopped inches from the tryline found Amber Reed to score while Alex Matthews went over twice in the last four minutes to complete a convincing win.
Team line up:
Ireland: L Delany; A Doyle, A Dalton, V Irwin, N Behan; D O'Brien, M Scuffil-McCabe; L Djougang, N Jones, C Haney; N Fryday (capt), S Monaghan; B Hogan, G Moore, D Nic a Bhaird.
Reserves: C Nielson, S McGrath, K Buggy, H O'Connor, J Brown, N Cronin, A McGann, M Deely.
England: Kildunne; Dow, Tuima, Heard, MacDonald; Aitchison, Hunt; Botterman, Powell, Muir, Aldcroft, Beckett, Kabeya, M Packer (capt), Matthews.
Reserves: Davies, Carson, Bern, Burns, Talling, L Packer, Reed, Rowland.
