England Women 82-0 Wales Women: England run in 16 tries in record-breaking rout at Headingley
England prepare to face world champions Australia in Las Vegas in March with crushing victory over Wales at Headingley; England have now won their last four matches by an aggregate score of 248-0
Last Updated: 02/11/24 9:19pm
England outclassed Wales for the second year in succession with a crushing 82-0 victory at Headingley.
Twelve months after scoring 11 tries in a 60-0 rout at the same venue, Stuart Barrow's side produced an even more ruthless display with 16 tries, nine of which were converted by scrum-half Isabel Rowe on her 18th birthday.
It means England have now won their last four matches by an aggregate score of 248-0 as they prepare to face world champions Australia in Las Vegas in March.
Winger Anna Davies set a new England record with five tries, with the total of 82 points also surpassing the previous best of 72 set against Russia and Brazil.
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Huddersfield full-back Amelia Brown and St Helens centre Erin Stott both marked their first international appearances with tries, former winger Brown utilising her pace to grab a hat-trick as an exhausted Wales side crumbled in the latter stages.
Barrow had expected a tougher test after Wales qualified for the 2026 World Cup under head coach Tom Brindle, but it was almost entirely one-way traffic from the moment captain Jodie Cunningham set up Olivia Wood to crash over from close range in the fifth minute.
Davies collected a grubber kick from Rowe to claim her first try on 12 minutes before the influential Rowe set up Paige Travis to score under the posts, leaving Rowe with the easiest of conversions.
Travis and Davies both scored their second tries before Wales thought they had got on the scoresheet in the 29th minute, only for the video referee to confirm Jasmine Gibbons had a foot in touch before she was able to get the ball down in the corner.
England quickly worked their way to the other end of the pitch and Eboni Partington finished off a sweeping move in the corner before Davies completed a first-half hat-trick to make it 34-0 at the interval.
Unfortunately for Wales, there was no let-up in the second half as Brown and Stott scored their debut tries either side of a fourth for Davies, with hooker Katie Mottershead coming off the bench to get in on the act with a superb solo effort.
A fifth try from Davies, again set up by Amy Hardcastle, was followed by further scores from Brown, Hollie-Mae Dodd and Partington, who saved the best until last with a stunning score from 70 metres out.
'Many aspects' please England coach Burrow
England head coach Stuart Barrow was delighted with his side's performance in their last outing before the trip to Sin City next year.
"It was a massive incentive for everyone because there's 20 going to Vegas on the plane," Barrow said. "I'm really happy with lots of different aspects because we had so many new faces in.
"We've always been so familiar that we hit the ground running on day one, but we progressed slowly over the week and the challenge was to carry on that progression.
"There were some little individual errors and we started to get a bit giddy with the scoreline and the big challenge was to concentrate in the second half and repeat, repeat, repeat, so I did a little experiment and took Jodie Cunningham off to see how we could cope and respond."
'Vital experience for Wales'
Wales coach Tom Brindle called for clarity over his side's schedule going forward after a lack of competitive fixtures proved costly.
"I'm a bit disappointed as I think they were better than us in every area but it's a vital experience for us ahead of the World Cup," Brindle said.
"England were very, very clinical, we never got really into the game and then our energy got away from us, so we've got to be better in those areas.
"We don't know next year's schedule, so that needs to improve. Some of those girls have not played for six weeks but we're committed to making sure we improve."
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