Abby Dow shows her class as England overpower Wales in Six Nations

England teams over the years have not had a happy time at Cardiff Arms Park and Wales did their best to make this an uncomfortable afternoon. On Grand National Day the hosts gave their opponents a run for their money in the first half before the floodgates opened after the interval and it is England who are galloping towards another grand slam.

Abby Dow, who broke her leg in this fixture last year, scored the best of their nine tries, a spectacular effort in the last move before the break. England, that World Cup final defeat last autumn a distant memory, are in a ruthless mood. They have scored 31 tries in this Six Nations and Ireland will not look forward to their visit next Saturday.

In the bright, spring sunshine Wales took the game to England. Keira Bevan landed a penalty, the least Wales deserved for their early pressure, only for Lowri Norkett to make a horrible error from the restart, knocking on close to her own line. England, though, failed to take advantage and, with Wales’s 19-year-old tight-head prop Sisilia Tuipulotu putting the visitors’ scrum under immense pressure, it was clear the visitors were in for their first real test of this tournament.

England continued to make handling mistakes in the face of Wales’s stifling defence and the game was 26 minutes old before it was breached. Dow found some space on the left wing and the ball was recycled for Lucy Packer to cleverly twist and turn and crash over the line. Womens’ kicking of conversions came under scrutiny during the week but Emma Sing, making a first international start, had no trouble landing her effort from close to the touchline.

The tide slowly turned. England’s pack rumbled forwards from a lineout before the fly-half Holly Aitchison’s clever