THE RED ROSES secured the Women's Six Nations Grand Slam for a ninth time with an emphatic 12- try rout of Scotland to complete a clean sweep of bonus-point victories.
England head coach Simon Middleton suggested in the lead-up to the match that his team had proved their worth after the RFU gave full-time contracts to 28 of his squad, saying “We are in a fantastic situation but it comes with a huge amount of accountability.
“That's our driving force at the moment and it is a source of pressure. The players may have contracts but these girls have in reality been professionals for three or four years.”
England were as professional as they were ruthless in their dismantling of Scotland, running in 12 tries at Twickenham. A record crowd of 13,278 were in attendance at the RFU's headquarters as England took just two minutes to get on the scoreboard through flanker Sarah Beckett.
A flurry of tries then followed from Jess Breach, Natasha Hunt, Kelly Smith, Poppy Cleall and Amy Cokayne to give England a commanding lead at halftime en route to a second Six Nations Grand Slam in three years.
Coming out of the changing rooms in the second half with a 45-0 lead, England added five more tries to take their tally for the championship to 45 with nine of those going to impressive 21-year- FRANCE head to the northern Italian town of Padua to battle it out for second place.
The pre-tournament favourites have been victorious in the last three meetings between the two and are led by line-out expert Gaelle Hermet. The France captain will shift back to No.8 in place of the suspended Romane Menager as one of three changes made for the trip. Italy have named Veronica Madia at fly-half, moving Beatrice Rigoni to to inside centre as they look for another big scalp. old winger Breach.
Cleall, Sarah Bern, captain Sarah Hunter, Emily Scarratt and Catherine O'Donnell all went over in the second half, with the final try coming despite Daley-Mclean being sinbinned in the 73rd minute.
TEAMS
ENGLAND: McKenna, Breach, Scarratt, Harrison, Smith, Daley-Mclean, Hunt; Botterman, Cokayne, Bern, Cleall, Scott, Beckett, Fleetwood, Hunter (c)
Replacements: Davies, Cornborough, Brown, O'Donnell, Packer, Riley, Burford, Scott
SCOTLAND: Rollie, Lloyd, Smith, Thomson, Sergeant, Nelson, Maxwell; Kennedy, Skeldon, Forsyth, Wassell, Howat, Bonar, McLachlan, Konkel
Replacements: Rettie, Cockburn, Dougan, Muzambe, McCormack, Grieve, Martin, Evans
Star player
Poppy Cleall – England
