Brilliant Breach adds to her try tally as England beat Wales
Rugby
Jess Breach made it 16 tries in six appearances for the senior England women’s rugby team as she helped them to a big win over Wales in their Six Nations campaign.
Breach was pivotal as England continued their perfect start to the campaign with a 51-12 bonus-point win at Cardiff Arms Park.
The Red Roses made seven changes from the win over France, but the cohesion was there straight away as they opened the scoring in the second minute when Sarah Bern hit a powerful line off Katy Daley-mclean’s inside ball and broke two tackles before rolling over and dotting down.
Former Pulborough and Chichester RFC youngster Breach, whose family are Felpham-based, then finished off a flowing move out wide.
Marlie Packer crossed off the back of a driving maul, before some lovely footwork by Bern saw her cross for her second and the bonus point inside half an hour.
Following some wonderful offloading by the backline, Breach added her second when she handed off and broke through – before Wales wing Jess Kavanagh stepped off her wing for their first points. England led 29-5 at the break.
In a much tighter second half, it took until the 60th minute for England to go over again as Catherine O’donnell powered over from the back of a ruck.
A break from deep by Daleymclean saw England work the ball to Abby Dow and the wing did superbly to beat three defenders and race in, before Sarah Beckett stepped inside the defensive live to sprint in under the posts.
Wales got a late consolation score from close range through Cerys Hale, then in the final play of the game Daley-mclean side stepped from five metres out for England’s ninth try.
England have now won four games in a row against Wales in the Six Nations.
They move back top of the table on 15 points, three ahead of unbeaten Italy who they play in round four at Sandy Park, Exeter.
Since her return from the England sevens programme, Breach has continued her outstanding try-scoring record for the Red Roses – she has scored in each of the three Women’s Six Nations games so far.
After six tries on her debut against Canada in November 2017, the Harlequins Ladies wing has scored in every England game she has featured in and she is up to five for the tournament this season.
Breach, who also had a try ruled out in the first half from a crossfield kick, has now scored 16 tries in her six caps.
England head coach Simon Middleton: “We’re really pleased with the result – to score 50 points in any game is impressive but to score 50 today is testament to some skilful play and down to staying in the game and overcoming some frustration to finish strong.
“Wales were incredibly strong and when they had the ball it was so difficult to get it back off of them so we really had to work for it.
“We’ll celebrate a great win and then we’ll relax and recover before moving our focus to Italy.”