Sarah Rendell’s match report from Edinburgh is here:
And that’s the lot from me. Thank you for reading – congratulations to England and commiserations to Scotland. Roll on Twickenham next week. Or indeed the Stadio Sergio Lanfranchi in Parma, where Italy will host Scotland. Ciao!
“I thoughtEngland were outstanding,” says the Scotland head coach, Bryan Easson. “Once you give them ball on the front foot they are going to put you under pressure.
“We didn’t really fire a shot … and we’re disappointed with that.
“It’s difficult for both teams … they got on the front foot, and it’s difficult to stop them.
“Today was poor. Today wasn’t us. We are going in the right direction. There are glimpses in there that we’ve got some good things in us.
“We’ll draw a line under that one … We’ll learn a lot from that.
“The lineout’s been frustrating … second half, when we threw to the front, we got some decent ball … but by then the game was gone.”
Ellie Kildunne has a chat: “I think it was quite a sticky game. The weather didn’t help.
“We all got soaked during the anthems but we adapted to the conditions. There’s a lot to work on, but to put eight tries on a very good team, we’ve got to be proud of ourselves.
“It was a team performance. We [the backs] got space on the edge only because of the girls working in the middle.
“We speak about confidence, we speak about taking the handbrake off … each game we seem to discover a new strategy, and we’re building for the big ones at the end.”
The Scotland players console each other after a very difficult day.
England are three wins out of three and they stay top of the table with 15 points – and a points difference of +130. The have scored 24 tries in three matches in this championship.
A very scruffy lineout ends with Packer diving over. The extras are added by Harrison. Gaps are certainly opening up in this Scottish defence but that is only to be expected considering the work they have had to get through.
71 min: England continue to work through the phases, keeping the Scotland defence honest. As Brian Moore has said on co-commentary for the BBC, a possible criticism of England is that they haven’t been clinical enough with converting their chances.
67 min: Kildunne storms down the England right now in plenty of space in the Scots’ half. A fantastic tackle by Lisa Thomson stops her in her tracks and even drives the England player back.
Number two for the wing. A tremendous finish too, beating several defenders with a jinking run. Jones tries the conversion from out wide but misses it.
58 min: England freshen up their front row. Scotland nevertheless win a penalty at a defensive scrum, and the celebrations are wild. It’s been a tough day but they are a long way from giving up on this contest.
That was a poor challenge and Cokayne can have no complaints. She jogs off for an early bath. (Of course, it wasn’t a try anyway so the score remains the same.)
Brilliant strike move by England. Kabeya initially takes it to the line and feeds Aitchison, who in turn finds Dow, with tonnes of space opening up on the England left. A clinical looped pass by Dow is gratefully accepted by Breach, who neatly scoots over the line and touches down. Aitchison misses a difficult kick.
50 min: More of the same from England with Scotland pinned back in their own half. Scotland try to run it from inside their own half, but England’s swarming defence is too much for them when they try to spin the ball wide. A knock on brings and England scrum.
England rumble an attacking scrum up to the line, right under the posts. Kabeya has an easy task to snaffle the ball and dive over from short range. Hunt had previously tried to dive in by the posts. But England kept pushing the Scotland pack back, over the try-line, and that meant no one was home to try and make a tackle for Scotland. A tap-in for Kabeya. Aitchison cracks over the conversion.
42 min: Lisa Thomson is on for Scotland, with Meryl Smith coming off. Grant also failed her HIA from before half time so Francesa McGhie is on permanently.
“I thought the girls were outstanding, managing the wind,” England forwards coach Louis Deacon tells the BBC of the first half. “We’ve got to be direct playing with the wind [second half].”
That was clever. Aitchison kicked a grubber through in behind the Scotland line. Jones sprinted on to it and spotted Kildunne on the inside … instead of trying to gather the ball, she boots it right-footed towards the posts. There is a defender on hand but the lethal finishing of Kildunne does the rest: she pounces on the ball and rolls over the try-line. Aitchison, who created the try with an excellent grubber, adds the extras.
Correct decision. Cokayne picks up Gallagher, the Scotland No 8, with England pressing for the third try. It’s very fortunate that Rosie Galligan of England is on hand to hold Gallagher in the air after Cokayne lifts the Scotland player’s legs above the horizontal. Otherwise she might be falling on her head and neck. That is dangerous and it’s a deserved yellow card for Cokayne.
The score is back to 10-0 to England after the third try is ruled out.