England Women’s position at the top of the table is now unassailable as they powered past the Scots at Meggetland.
A brace from wing Michaela Staniford and single scores from Rochelle Clark, Katherine Merchant, Claire Allan and Danielle Waterman handed England the win but the plucky Scottish side gained a 43rd minute try. A missed tackle by England allowed lock Lindsay Wheeler to streak upfield with prop Heather Lockhart driving over the line for the unconverted score.
A glut of English substitutions reinforced the visiting side in the second half and, once galvanised, the English looked unlikely to leak any more points. England Women now enter their final match against Ireland looking for a third successive Grand Slam; the champions are the only unbeaten team in this season’s tournament with a massive points difference in their favour (points for: 196, points against: 11).
Meanwhile, Wales Women’s 19-10 defeat of Ireland at St Mary’s RFC sets up a mouth-watering final round clash with France that will determine the second place finisher in this season’s tournament.
The Irish got off to a flying start with two tries from close-range, driving line-outs that pushed them into a 10-3 lead; prop Marie Barrett and Joy Neville breaching the Welsh line. Playing with the strong wind their fiery pack posed plenty of problems for Wales and it took the boot of Non Evans to steady the ship with three first-half penalties.
Louise Rickard, winning her 99th cap for Wales Women, gained her 32nd career try and Evans converted to make it 16-10 to the visitors at the break and with the wind behind them in the second half Wales created plenty of chances, but failed to convert them.
In the end it took a fourth Evans penalty strike in injury time to make the game safe and add the Irish scalp to those of Italy and Scotland.
Wales’s next opponents France dispatched their Round Four counterparts Italy in a 35-6 display at Stade Pompidou in Valence. With the Italians struggling with scrums and mauls the French were able to run in easy tries through Caroline Ladagnous, Anaïs Lagougine, Céline Allainmat, captain Estelle Sartini, and Claire Canal.
The French captain converted four of these tries with Aurélie Bailon notching the fifth. Italy were more daring in the second half but were only able to add a further penalty, again courtesy of Valentina Schiavon, to the one three-pointer gained in the first half.
