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Red Roses

26 Jun 2019 | 4 min |

Red Roses earn big win against Wales

England Women continued their perfect start to the Women's Six Nations after a 51-12 bonus-point win against Wales at Cardiff Arms Park.

Following some wonderful offloading by the backline, Breach added her second when she handed off and broke through before Wales wing Jess Kavanagh stepped off her wing for their first points, but England led 29-5 at the break. 

In a much tighter second half, it took until the 60th minute for England to go over again as Catherine O'Donnell got low and powered over from the back of a ruck.

A break from deep by Daley-Mclean saw England work the ball to Abby Dow and the wing did superbly to beat three defenders and race in, before Sarah Beckett stepped inside the defensive live to sprint in under the posts.

Wales got a late consolation score from close range through Cerys Hale, then in the final play of the game Daley-Mclean side stepped from five metres out for England's ninth try.

England have now won four games in a row against Wales in the Six Nations and move back top of the table on 15 points, three ahead of unbeaten Italy who they play in round four at Sandy Park, Exeter.

Brilliant Breach  

Since her return from the England sevens programme, Jess Breach has continued her outstanding try scoring record for the Red Roses as she has scored in each of the three Women's Six Nations games so far.

After six tries on her debut against Canada in November 2017, the Harlequins Ladies wing has scored in every England game she has featured in and she is up to five for the tournament this season.

Breach, who also had a try ruled out in the first half from a crossfield kick, has now scored 16 tries in her six caps.

Reaction

England head coach Simon Middleton: “We’re really pleased with the result – to score 50 points in any game is impressive but to score 50 today is testament to some skilful play and down to staying in the game and overcoming some frustration to finish strong.

“Wales were incredibly strong and when they had the ball it was so difficult to get it back off of them so we really had to work for it.

“We’ll celebrate a great win tonight and then we’ll relax and recover before moving our focus to Italy.”

Teams

Wales

15. Elinor Snowsill, 14. Jasmine Joyce, 13. Hannah Jones, 12. Hannah Bluck, 11. Jess Kavanagh, 10. Robyn Wilkins, 9. Keira Bevan; 1. Caryl Thomas, 2. Carys Phillips, 3. Amy Evans, 4. Gwen Crabb, 5. Mel Clay, 6. Bethan Lewis, 7. Alex Callender, 8. Siwan Lillicrap.

Replacements: 16. Kelsey Jones, 17. Cara Hope, 18. Cerys Hale, 19. Natalia John, 20. Alisha Butchers, 21. Ffion Lewis, 22. Lisa Neumann, 23. Lauren Smyth.

England
 
15. Sarah McKenna, 14. Abby Dow, 13. Rachael Burford, 12. Zoe Harrison, 11. Jess Breach, 10. Katy Daley-Mclean, 9. Natasha Hunt; 1. Vickii Cornborough , 2. Amy Cokayne, 3. Sarah Bern, 4. Catherine O’Donnell, 5. Abbie Scott, 6. Sarah Beckett, 7. Marlie Packer, 8. Poppy Cleall.

Replacements: 16. Lark Davies, 17. Hannah Botterman, 18. Shaunagh Brown, 19. Jo Brown, 20. Sarah Hunter, 21. Claudia Macdonald, 22. Carys Williams, 23. Emily Scott. 

England Women 2019 Six Nations 

Ireland 7-51 England

England 41-26 France
 
Wales 12-51 England

England v Italy
Saturday 9 March, KO 12.05pm GMT - live Sky Sports
Sandy Park, Exeter
 
England v Scotland
Saturday 16 March, KO 7.30pm - live Sky Sports
Twickenham Stadium