World Rugby player of the year Ellie Kildunne scored an eight-minute hat trick as England dismantled Wales in a 67-12 victory at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff on Saturday.
England’s latest commanding Six Nations victory — their 31st in a row — keeps their hopes of a seventh consecutive championship on track as they top the table after two matches.
It was Wales, though, who took an early lead after England fly-half Zoe Harrison’s knock on in her own try area prompted a five-metre scrum. Roared on by a record crowd for a Welsh team event in Wales (21,186), the hosts pushed the England scrum back before Georgia Evans peeled off and brought the attack to the whitewash before Jenni Scoble dived over.
But England responded quickly as first Maddie Feaunati and then Meg Jones raced clear of the Wales defence before touching down.
Five minutes later, some quick hands from Feaunati under the posts bypassed two red shirts and allowed prop Sarah Bern to score her 24th Test try.
Abbie Dow thought she had scored England’s fourth, but her try was chalked off after Kildunne’s pass was ruled forward. It proved to be only a temporary reprieve for Wales as Feaunati added her second try and secured England’s bonus point following some haphazard defending.
Kildunne celebrated earning her 50th cap with a 48th-minute try after she was found in space out wide via a sweeping pass from Harrison. The fly-half fed Kildunne to score again in the 54th minute and she then completed her hat trick a minute later with an eye-catching try that was awarded after a review from the TMO.
The 25-year-old has been directly involved in 26 tries across her last 15 starts for England (20 tries, 6 assists).
Two-time Olympian Abi Burton came off the bench to make an emotional England debut in the closing stages. She spent 25 days in an induced coma after being diagnosed with autoimmune encephalitis — a condition where the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the brain — in 2022, and was sectioned after an initial misdiagnosis. She also contracted pneumonia twice and lost over three stone in weight during three months in hospital.
After Dow scored the try that she was denied in the first half with a mazy run, Burton celebrated her England debut with a first international try as she powered through two tired tackles on the line.
With Wales’ will broken, Dow and Burton both crashed over again as England made their title aspirations clear after racking up 11 tries.
“Honestly it doesn’t get better than that,” Kildunne told the BBC in a post-match interview. “You can’t write it, I couldn’t have imagined it, everything today has just fitted in.
“We’ve still got a lot to work on, but to walk out on my 50th cap in front of such a great crowd in an amazing stadium is something I’m very honoured for.
“Pressure is definitely a privilege, every time we step out as an England squad we want to surprise, and raise the expectation because we want to keep on going. We’re not at our best yet, we’re going to keep on getting better and there’s a lot more to come.”
Earlier on Saturday, France kept alive their hopes of a first championship triumph since 2018 when they put on a show in the second half to overcome Scotland 38-15 in La Rochelle.
Scotland made things difficult for the hosts in the opening 40 minutes but a sensational drop goal from scrum-half Pauline Bourdon Sansus gave the hosts the spark they needed and Les Bleues reeled off a succession of tries to add some gloss to the scoreline.
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Source: espn.com