Women's Six Nations: Ireland 5-49 England as Red Roses brush off tough first half to race away with win

England fly-half Zoe Harrison scored a try and kicked seven conversions in the Women's Six Nations victory over Ireland

England's Red Roses brushed off a tough first half against Ireland in Cork to come from behind and race away to a 49-5 victory.

Ireland - who lost to England 88-10 at Twickenham last year - put in a superb first-half performance filled with great physical effort, taking the lead through Amee-Leigh Costigan's fantastic try.

England lock Morwenna Talling responded with a maul try before the end of the half, but it was a second-half sin-binning to Ireland loosehead Niamh O'Dowd which really saw the game get away from the hosts - Red Roses fly-half Zoe Harrison and centre Meg Jones getting over for tries.

Replacement prop Sarah Bern then emerged to score two tries, before full-back Ellie Kildunne scored with a stunning individual effort and prop Kelsey Clifford got over for her first England try to complete the scoring.

• Women's Six Nations 2025: Full fixtures as Red Roses defend title
• From coma and psych ward to England chance: Abi Burton's remarkable journey
• Not got Sky? Get Sky Sports or stream with no contract on NOW 📺
• Choose the sports notifications you want! 🔔

Bemand: We never recovered from yellow card

Ireland head coach Scott Bemand told BBC Sport:

"We are not perfect yet and we are trying to close gaps on the likes of England and France. I hope people can see the commitment that goes into it.

"We had to absorb pressure in the first half and it's a game that we could have gone in easily winning at half-time.

"We defended well and smartly. The second half we started picking up errors and we never recovered from the yellow card.

"We know to stay in the game as long as we did is a step forward from last year. It's not where we want to be but we have pride."

Harrison: Tough Test was about staying patient

Red Roses fly-half Zoe Harrison told BBC Sport:

"That was really tough, especially the first half. That one was about being patient. Ireland's defence was fantastic so credit to them. We needed to get our momentum back.

"The half-time talk changed our mindset. It was calm and we talked about where we were putting pressure on ourselves.

"It's been a tough journey [returning from injury], I wanted to get back playing good for the club and them come back to England when the time was right."

England attack coach Lou Meadows:

"We actually really enjoyed that Test. We needed that and it's good for the game to have a first half like that. It was about fixing it and we knew we had good set-piece. We just didn't finish and fire our final shot.

"That's something we wanted to work on, the girls were really calm and came out and finished the job. You have to keep it really simple so we thought, 'Let's clear it up', and we did."

What's next?

England next host Scotland at Welford Road in Leicester for round four on Saturday April 19 (4.45pm kick-off).

Ireland next travel to play Wales for their round-four clash at Rodney Parade in Newport on Sunday April 20 (3pm kick-off).

France maintain 100 per cent win record with win over Wales

France maintained their perfect start to the Women's Six Nations campaign with a 42-12 bonus-point win over Wales in Brive to stay on course for the Grand Slam.

After Emilie Boulard, back in the starting XV, touched down in the corner to give France an early lead, Wales responded when Kate Williams was driven over following a lineout.

Winger Boulard extended the advantage with a second try in the 16th minute after more strong carrying by the French pack, only for Wales to again get another close-range score from Gwen Crabb.

Rose Bernadou then saw a try ruled out for a dropped ball but, with the clock in the red, hooker Manae Feleu crossed after a lineout and Morgane Bourgeois added the extras to give France a 21-12 half-time lead.

France co-captain Feleu crashed over four minutes into the second half to secure a bonus point, before Wales - beaten by Scotland and then thrashed by England in Cardiff - had a try from Courtney Keight ruled out for obstruction in the build-up.

With 13 minutes left, Wales conceded a penalty try after collapsing a scrum, with Maisie Davies sent to the sin bin. France made their late pressure count as replacement Lea Champon pushed over in the closing stages.

British & Irish Lions tour of Australia on Sky Sports

Watch the Lions tour of Australia live on Sky Sports in 2025

Sky Sports will exclusively show the 2025 British and Irish Lions tour of Australia, with all three Tests against the Wallabies and six warm-up matches to be shown exclusively live.