Scotland Women vow to respond after suffering Six Nations defeat by England in front of record crowd

In front of a record home crowd of 7,774 at Hive Stadium in Edinburgh, Scotland were massive underdogs going into this one against the world number one side. However, seven recent Test wins and then edging France close a fortnight ago left many feeling they could perhaps push England closer than in previous years. That was not the case though in this Guinness Women’s Six Nations round three clash and Scotland have not beaten England since 1999 and only twice ever.

Easson said: “We have to keep working hard to close the gap between ourselves and England because this performance wasn’t us, it was poor. England were outstanding, but it wasn’t good enough from us. We let England get on the front foot and they punished us. The disappointing thing for us is that we didn’t really fire a shot, we will draw a line under this game after the review on Monday and won’t forget that our performances against Wales and France were really good. We will regroup, refocus and take learnings as we build into the two big games to come against Italy and Ireland.”

The match got underway with torrential rain falling and it took seven minutes for England to take the lead, hooker Amy Cokayne going over for an unconverted try. They were playing a quick, offloading game and good hands saw winger Abby Dow bag try number two in the 11th minute.

In very windy conditions, Scotland were struggling to get out of their own half and in the 24th minute England nearly scored try number three, but the score was ruled out for a knock on in the build up by centre Meg Jones. There was then a flashpoint five minutes later, England tighthead prop Maud Muir thought she had scored, but the referee conferred with the TMO and yellow carded Cokayne for a dangerous clear out on No.8 Evie Gallagher. That try was disallowed, but England’s third try did come in the 34th minute when full-back Ellie Kildunne went in under the posts. Stand-off Holly Aitchison converted and it was 17-0 at half-time.

The bonus point fourth try came for England just three minutes into the second period, back-row Sadia Kabeya with the converted effort. Try number five came in the 51st minute through winger Jess Breach and it was 29-0 before, three minutes later, Cokayne was given a second yellow card for a shoulder to head tackle on Scotland hooker Lana Skeldon and, as such, was sent off.

With 14 players England continued to dominate as Breach, player of the match Kildunne and replacement Marlie Packer scored further tries with one converted to make it 46-0. Scotland have won one and lost two in the competition now and are in Italy next on April 20.

In the women's National Bowl final on the Murrayfield back pitches Marr defeated Dalkeith 36-29 to lift the silverware.