A rescheduled fixture and the snow couldn’t stop England as they swept aside Scotland, cruising to a 53-0 victory in round two of the Women’s Six Nations at BT Murrayfield.
Abby Dow’s stunning score, as well as tries from Sarah Bern and Jess Breach saw the visitors establish a 22-0 lead at the break before conditions took a turn for the worse.
But England stepped up a gear as Emily Scott scored a quick-fire double before tries from Dow, Sarah Hunter and Claudia MacDonald completed the emphatic victory.
There was also a piece of history for Emily Scarratt as her final conversion saw her surpass her team-mate Katy Daley-McLean as England’s leading points scorer with a total of 539.
Simon Middleton’s side were looking to follow up their 19-13 win over France on the opening weekend and they got off to a fine start, scoring inside the first three minutes.
After Scarratt made hard yards, lock Poppy Cleall was unlucky not to be awarded a try when she appeared to touch down before Bern finished the job, powering over from close range.
England were a constant threat but mistakes continued to creep into England’s game as Natasha Hunt twice knocked out at the base and Breach fumbled a high ball.
This gave Scotland hope as they gained possession in England’s half on 24 minutes and started to get a foothold in the match.
But when passes stuck the visitors proved too strong, scoring two more tries before the interval.
Scarratt produced a superb miss-pass out wide to Breach who slid over on the half-hour mark.
HISTORY 🌹
— England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) February 10, 2020
The moment @EmilyScarratt became the Red Roses record point scorer.
Watch LIVE on @SkySports Main Event. pic.twitter.com/4MoVD8rMDi
While Dow then scored a stunner eight minutes later when she received the ball inside her own half before slipping off three tackles as she weaved her way through to score.
Scarratt landed the conversion to extend England’s lead to 22-0. And they took little time to grab the bonus point in the second half.
Cleall thought she had scored the fourth when she pounced on Sarah Beckett’s kick only for it to be chalked off for offside but on 43 minutes England moved the ball through the hands before Scott straightened up and darted through.
The snow was pouring down but nothing could hold England back, a cross-field kick from Harrison found Dow who fumbled but Scott was on hand to score the fifth.
It could have been a 55-minute hat-trick for Scott but she unselfishly fed Dow, who crossed in the corner for her second to make it 39-0.
England made a host of changes but the replacements just injected more energy into the side with front-rowers Amy Cokayne and Hannah Botterman adding to the attack.
The away side had another try ruled out after Scarratt’s pass to Breach was adjudged to have gone forward but with the pack firmly on top a powerful scrum resulted in Hunter dotting down with Scarratt converting on 64 minutes.
With four minutes left MacDonald pounced on a mistake from Chloe Rollie and dotted down for the eighth, Scarratt added the extras to break Daley McLean’s record and cap an excellent afternoon for England.
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