Tries from Sarah Hunter, Abby Dow, Jess Breach, Vicky Fleetwood, Sarah McKenna sealed victory for Simon Middleton’s side.

A home fixture against Wales at Twickenham Stoop and an away match versus Italy now stand in the way of England retaining their title.

Home comforts

They followed up impressive victories over France and Scotland with a five-try win over Ireland who themselves had been unbeaten in the tournament going into Saturday’s fixture.

It was an 19th consecutive win on home soil for Simon Middleton's side, with the victory coming in front of 5,000 fans at a sold out Castle Park in Doncaster.

The rout started as early as the third minute, captain Hunter going over off the back of a scrum before a significant break in play due to an injury to Irish forward Lindsay Peat.

The Red Roses were soon over again once the game restarted as Dow crossed in the corner, her fourth try in three games, with the ball being recycled by England’s three quarters out to the right wing.

A third try came in trademark fashion, Fleetwood dotting down off the back of a driving maul and the bonus-point was sealed before half time, with Breach over on the left wing to cross for a 22nd Test try for her country as England led 22-0 at the break.

Resolute defence

Dow had a second disallowed for an earlier forward pass but soon after England were over as McKenna darted through on the hour.

Detysha Harper came on for her Red Roses debut, but to their credit Ireland's defence was resolute in a tight second half, which saw just one try.

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England head coach Simon Middleton: “It was a really tough game and both side’s defended fantastically well, I’m absolutely thrilled with the way that we defended.

“I thought in the first half we were terrific, played some great rugby, attacked really well, attacked in different ways and gave ourselves a platform to play off and kick on from, but we didn’t execute in the second half and from attack point of view that was very disappoint.

“We didn’t look fluid in the second half but at the same time we put a first half together, so I’m scratching my head a little bit about that second half as it’s probably the worst attacking we’ve been for quite a long time and we just didn’t look like we had the right amount of discipline with the ball.

England captain Sarah Hunter: “We’ve been chomping at the bit to get back on home soil and there’s no better place to come than Doncaster as we’ve been a few times and it feels like home.

“We are a bit frustrated with our performance. I can’t fault our defence, I thought our defence was outstanding but we were probably a little bit loose with the ball. Ireland we knew were going to be tough, they frustrated us and maybe we didn’t respect them enough.

“We won and we’re happy with the win and we’ve got to keep winning to win the championship, but we’re going to have to look at that and see where we need to sharpen up a little bit especially in attack.