England run riot to dash Wales’ Triple Crown hopes

England crushed Wales’ Triple Crown hopes with a dominant display at Cardiff Arms Park.

Wales had taken an early lead through a Keira Bevan penalty and were in the contest trailing 19-3 at half-time.

But the Red Roses ran riot in the second half to break Welsh hearts and extend their unbeaten Six Nations tally to 22 matches.

They remain top of the table with three convincing bonus-point wins, while Wales are second before France’s meeting with Scotland on Sunday.

England looked to strike early and fired a warning shot when Jess Breach tore down her wing.

But it was Wales who opened the scoring, and it came from an overthrown line-out which was superbly scooped off the floor by Elinor Snowsill before unleashing the powerful forwards.

Kelsey Jones was bundled over the line, but the ball was held up by England skipper Marlie Packer.

Wales did leave the 22 with points through, Bevan kicking a penalty to the roar of the home crowd.

The lead was almost short-lived, England were gifted a five-metre scrum after a mistake by Lowri Norkett on the restart, but they were let off the hook as Lucy Packer uncharacteristically knocked on.

But the scrum-half soon made amends – the player from Ammanford scoring the first try of the game with a clever show and go.

Full-back Emma Sing added the conversion on her first England start.

Wales continued to compete well at the breakdown, but England’s class began to shine through.

Bethan Lewis’ deliberate knock-on gave England a five-metre driving line-out, which Wales did well to initially hold up, but it released Holly Aitchison who put through a perfect grubber kick for Lewis’ room-mate and player of the match Tatyana Heard to dot down.

Wales conceded again before half-time and it was Aitchison who was the provider again, shipping a long pass out to Abby Dow who outpaced three defenders to cross for England’s third try.

Sing added the extras to give England a 19-3 lead going in at half-time.

Alex Callender’s 50-metre break sparked the second half to life, but it was one-way traffic from that point on, as the Red Roses simply went through the gears.

It was more magic from Aitchison which saw the first try of the half. The fly-half started the move and looped around Heard before crashing over to secure the bonus point.

England were in again moments later, prop Sarah Bern proving a complete mismatch for Hannah Jones before offloading to Breach who could not be caught as she ran in under the posts.

Fatigue began to set in for Wales as England started putting width on the ball. It allowed Ellie Kildunne a run in on the overlap with her first touch of the game.

Wales were then dealt another blow on the hour mark as replacement flanker Kate Williams was shown a yellow card for a high tackle.

England kicked to touch, played off the driving maul and unleashed the forwards, with Maud Muir crashing over under the posts.

Hannah Botterman added her name to the try scorers, as England reached their half-century and showed why they are the number-one team in the world.

Play was then halted when two incidents were brought to the attention of referee Joy Neville.

Packer was shown a yellow card for a high tackle on her fellow skipper Hannah Jones, and May Campbell then followed her to the bin for a similar tackle on Lisa Neumann.

Wales failed to capitalise on the extra two players when Williams returned, and it was England who finished with dominance.

Wales head coach Ioan Cunningham said: “There was enough to take out of that, for sure.

“When we look at that first 30 minutes, I thought we showed physical dominance, I thought we were on top territorially and possession-wise.

“But we had three entries into their 22 and we only had three points, and that is the difference at this level.

“The growth in the group has been massive and we are definitely improving.”

England head coach Simon Middleton said: “Massive credit to Wales for that first 25-30 minutes, they attacked us in every quarter.

“They attacked the breakdown, they came at us in defence, they were good with the ball in hand and had us under massive pressure.

“At that point you’re thinking this is going to be a high quality Test match all the way through, but then credit to our team.

“I thought we were brilliant today, how we handled the pressure, how we problem-solved and some of the attacking stuff we showed was outstanding.”

Wales: Keight; Neumann, H Jones (capt), Bluck, Norkett; Snowsill, Bevan; Pyrs, K Jones, Tuipulotu, Fleming, G Evans, B Lewis, Callender, Harries.

Replacements: C Phillips, Hope, Hale, John, K Williams, King, F Lewis, Wilkins.

England: Sing; Breach, Tuima, Heard, Dow; Aitchison, L Packer; Carson, Davies, Bern, Aldcroft, O’Donnell, Kabeya, M Packer (capt), Matthews.

Replacements: Campbell, Botterman, Muir, Burns, Beckett, Wyrwas, McKenna, Kildunne.

Match officials

Referee: Joy Neville (IRFU)

Assistants: Beatrice Benvenuti (FIR), Maria Pacifico (FIR)

TMO: Olly Hodges (IRFU)