England beat Ireland in front of record Women's Six Nations crowd

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England beat Ireland 49-5 in last year's Six Nations

ByAlastair TelferBBC Sport journalist at Allianz Stadium

Published36 minutes ago
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Women's Six Nations

England (21) 33

Tries: Cokayne, Bern 2, Breach, Kildunne Cons: Rowland 4

Ireland (0) 12

Tries: McGann, King Con: O'Brien

England opened their title defence with a comfortable win over Ireland in front of a record Women's Six Nations crowd of 77,120 at Allianz Stadium.

It was the Red Roses' first match since they became world champions in front of a record women's crowd of 81,885 at Allianz Stadium in September.

Hooker Amy Cokayne crossed for the opening try, with prop Sarah Bern grabbing two first-half scores.

Slick handling then put Ellie Kildunne clear, but unlike her brilliant solo try in the World Cup final, the full-back lost control when attempting to ground the ball in one hand.

Early in the second half, Jess Breach raced onto a kick through to expertly grab the important bonus-point try in front of the record attendance.

The previous record crowd for a Women's Six Nations game was the 58,498 that watched the Grand Slam decider between England and France in 2023.

Ireland scored next through replacement Anna McGann, which was cancelled out by an excellent finish from Kildunne.

Captain Erin King bagged the final try of the game as the visitors avoided another heavy defeat by the Red Roses.

John Mitchell's side, who are on a record 34-game winning run, are seeking an eighth straight Six Nations title and fifth Grand Slam in a row.

England will now face Scotland (13:30 BST) at Murrayfield next Saturday, while Ireland host Italy (17:40 BST) in Galway later that day.

Women's Six Nations: Five-try England beat Ireland in front of record crowd - reaction

Kildunne bounces back from poor error

England delivered a clinical performance to defeat Canada on their last appearance at Allianz Stadium, ending their 11-year wait for a World Cup.

Eight changes from the World Cup final starting XV and a new captain in Megan Jones, who is standing in for pregnant skipper Zoe Stratford, brought a new look to the world champions.

Mitchell has developed his side's attacking game to get his lethal backs on the ball more, but close to the tryline his forwards have remained near unstoppable.

The opening scores came through his pack as Cokayne, who started and scored in the World Cup final, finished off the back of a rampaging maul and Bern powered over from close range.

Bern's second try came after a neat offload from Claudia Moloney-MacDonald, which rewarded the hosts' willingness to play an open and expansive brand of rugby.

Despite dropping what would have been a first-half bonus-point try, Kildunne accelerated on an outside arc and confidently dotted down with one hand.

Kildunne looked dangerous throughout the game to put what was a poor first-half error behind her.

The Red Roses always looked in control of the game but one area of concern will be the loss of another lock after Morwenna Talling was carted off on a stretcher.

World Cup winners Stratford, Abbie Ward and Rosie Galligan, who have all played in the second row under John Mitchell, all recently announced their pregnancies.

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Pressure resulted in Kildunne losing control of the ball for what looked a certain try

Ireland continue to show improvement

Prior to the game, Ireland had scored 15 points and conceded 254 in their past four championship games against England.

Scott Bemand's side finished third in last year's Six Nations and narrowly lost to France to miss out on playing the Red Roses in a World Cup semi-final.

Vast improvement under Bemand made a repeat of the 88-10 defeat at Twickenham two years ago unlikely, with the visitors fronting up bravely in defence.

Ireland have never played in front of a crowd of this magnitude and early first-half errors showed nerves on the big stage.

However, they refused to be blown away by the hosts and deserved both second-half scores.

Ireland have now lost every game against England since their narrow win in 2015.

The gap still remains wide but it was their best showing in a number of years against the world champions.

Given France's slow start against Italy, Bemand's side will take confidence from Allianz Stadium that they can beat one of the big two in this year's championship.

Line-ups

England: Kildunne; Breach, Jones (capt), Rowland, Moloney-MacDonald; Aitchison, L Packer; Clifford, Cokayne, Bern, Talling, Ives Campion, Feaunati, Kabeya, Matthews.

Replacements: Powell, Carson, Muir, Lutui, Burton, Hunt, Harrison, Sing.

Ireland: Flood; Parsons, Dalton, Higgins, Elmes Kinlan; O'Brien, Lane; Perry, Moloney-Macdonald, Djougang, Wall, Tuite, Hogan, King (capt), Wafer.

Replacements: Jones, O'Dowd, Cahill, Campbell, Moore, Whelan, McGillivray, McGann.