Wales Women 12- 67 England Women: Red Roses run riot in Cardiff

It all began so promisingly for Wales.

When Jenni Scroble crashed over after just four minutes, the prospect of a famous victory, and a first over in England in ten years, for a brief fleeting moment, might just have felt a tiny bit more plausible.

Coach Sean Lynn, who’s still barely had time to get his feet under his desk in Cardiff, must have been pleased with what was a genuinely encouraging start from his team. But, as it so often does, reality soon came back to bite down hard, and Wales were made to squeal squirm as they were utterly outclassed in front of a record crowd at the Principality Stadium.

Just over 21,000 fans came to watch this contest, the highest attendance for a women’s sporting fixture in Wales, and large portion of them might just have allowed themselves to dream after such a positive start.

But England, fresh off their 21st straight Test victory after seeing off Italy, quickly stirred, and duly fired over four first-half tries, including a brace from Maddie Feaunati, to put them into a commanding 26-7 lead at the break.

Ellie Kildunne superb on her 50th outing for England then ran over a rapid second-half hat-trick, while a brace apiece from Abi Burton and Abby Dow helped clock up the try count to 11 on the day.

Lynn made just two changes from the narrow defeat to Scotland last weekend, with Gwenllian Pyrs and Gwen Crabb both starting in an apparent bid to inject a little more experience into a pack that was always likely to have a busy afternoon.

It was a decision that looked thoroughly vindicated within just five minutes, as a monstrous early scrum yielded the game’s opening try, with Georgia Evans peeling off before coming up just short of the line.

In came Scoble who gathered and went over for a