Dominant hosts prove too strong for Irish

IRELAND suffered a heavy defeat in their Women’s Six Nations opener as France ran out 24-0 winners at Stade Ernest Wallon.

Jessy Tremouliere’s early penalty came back off the posts for the home side but the full back soon combined well with Pauline Bourdon to set winger Cyrielle Banet up for the opening try after just six minutes.

Jade Le Pesq then claimed the first of her two tries and Tremouliere kicked the conver- sion before crossing for a try of her own to secure a 17-0 lead at half-time.

The home side continued to dominate after the restart as Ireland struggled to escape from their own half.

Play had to be held up for several minutes to allow treatment for second row Ciara Cooney, who was carried off on a stretcher with an apparent knee injury.

The visitors’ defence cracked again the 74th minute as Le Pesq raced on to a clever off-load by substitute Audrey Forlani.

Meanwhile, captain Sarah Hunter scored three tries as defending champions England defeated Italy 42-7 in their Six Nations opener in Reggio Emilia.

After the teams went in at half-time with the score level at 7-7, the Italians having replied to Sarah Bern’s early try through a Valentina Ruzza effort, England powered to a bonus point victory, crossing six more times.

As well as Hunter’s hat-trick, Poppy Cleall, Abigail Dow and Ellie Kildunne also crossed the line. Katy Daley-Mclean, who converted two of the seven tries, had put England back in front with a penalty.

England’s second match of the tournament will see them host Wales next Saturday. STUART McInally says Scotland’s NatWest 6 Nations capitulation in Cardiff was “a bitter pill to swallow”.

Scotland arrived at the Principality Stadium scenting a first victory in the Welsh capital since 2002, having crushed Australia earlier this season and ran world champions New Zealand close.

But optimism was quickly replaced by damage limitation as Wales scored two converted tries during the opening 12 minutes and then ran out 34-7 victors, with Scotland restricted to a late Peter Horne try that Finn Russell converted for their only scoring contribution.

France head to Murrayfield next Sunday, and the Scots have to regroup quickly or their Six Nations campaign could collapse into a complete state of disrepair.

“We spoke so much during the week about coming down (to Cardiff ) and winning,” Scotland hooker McInally said.

“It is a bitter pill to swallow. A lot of the points they scored were our doing, our errors, so that is something we need to look at.

“It was 14-0 after 14 minutes — something like that — but the tries they got were two errors from us. They didn’t have to work too hard for them. They got an intercept where we just set up our carrier really wide, and then (Gareth) Davies picked that off.

Scotland prevented any further Wales points before halftime, but two quickfire Leigh Halfpenny penalties shortly after the break left McInally and company 20 points adrift and with no hope of a comeback.

“We didn’t seem able to string more than a few phases together, and their defence was excellent,” McInally added. “They just played better than us.