Dow and Kildunne hat-tricks fire 14-try England to Six Nations rout of Ireland

There will come a day when England’s dominance in the Women’s Six Nations ends. Their run of consecutive wins in the tournament, now standing at 28, will be broken. But Ireland could not make it a cloudy and windy match at Twickenham today. The Red Roses’ stranglehold has long been talked about and it was evident as to why after a 14-try performance in which they scored the bonus point before 20 minutes.

England have been professional longer than any other team and although the other countries are slowly closing the gap, it will take time for that to translate on the scoreboard. It is not only the results England are dominant in, their attendance numbers are too and it was another impressive crowd with 48,778 people at Twickenham. This is becoming a yearly occurrence for the Red Roses and their momentum is showing no signs of slowing down.

England were dealt a blow before kick-off with Rosie Galligan ruled out with a thumb injury sustained in the warm-up, Morwenna Talling being promoted from the bench. It didn’t seem to affect them as England stretched the ball left and right in the early stages but Ireland repelled them. The Red Roses kept coming and Sadia Kabeya was wrapped up in a tackle but offloaded to Abby Dow who raced in for the opener.

It was not long until England were revving again. Natasha Hunt carved up the defence, offloading and then finishing the move for a second try in three minutes. The floodgates had opened and England were soon out of sight. Megan Jones and Zoe Aldcroft were over before Ireland had their first points on the board. Dannah O’Brien slotted a penalty for the first points Ireland have scored against England since 2019.

Ellie Kildunne scored next and Dow added her second to send England into the break 38-3 up. Sophie Ellis-Bextor took to the stage for the half-time show and England did not kill the groove in the second half with Jess Breach finishing a brilliant solo effort.

A TMO check awarded Kabeya’s try, bringing England to 50 points, but Ireland started to stem the bleeding. The referee Aurélie Groizeleau spotted an illegal tackle by Lucy Packer as Ireland looked to drive a maul and the replacement scrum-half was shown a yellow card with a penalty try given to Ireland.

England may have been a player down but they were the next to score through Jones. Dow and Kildunne became hat-trick heroes, Breach added another and Maddie Feaunati scored her first England try to wrap up the game.

The Red Roses’ rampant win has kept their hopes of a grand slam going. If they beat France next weekend, they will claim their sixth successive title. But France will have their own title aspirations on the line and they were the last side to beat England in the tournament, back in 2018. The day England’s domination ends could come sooner than some think.