England start Women’s Six Nations title defence with bonus-point win over Italy

England started their Guinness Women’s Six Nations campaign with a 38-5 bonus-point victory over Italy in York.

Red Roses head coach John Mitchell selected an experimental line-up and watched full debutant Mia Venner respond with a try after three minutes.

Emily Scarratt, Claudio MacDonald and Amy Cokayne also crossed over in a largely one-sided opening 40 minutes, but England had to wait until two minutes from time to open their account for the second half when Emma Sing added a try to her three conversions.

A winning start in York as England run in six tries for a bonus-point success