A record crowd cheered England to an 11-try win over Ireland in the Women’s Six Nations at Mattioli Woods Welford Road, home of the Leicester Tigers, on Sunday afternoon.
In the first women’s international played at the venue for 25 years, England won 69-0 and made it four wins out of four to set up a Grand Slam decider in France in the final round of the Tik Tok Women’s Championship.
Leicestershire's Emily Scarratt ran out ahead of the England team as she celebrated her 100th cap on her hometown pitch in front of a 15,836 crowd, which is a record for a standalone Red Roses home game in England.
With former Leicester Tigers players Louis Deacon and Scott Bemand as part of the coaching team, centre Scarratt kicked five conversions as England racked up the scores after reaching half-time just 10 points in front.
Front-rowers Lark Davies and Sarah Bern scored the first-half tries for England who then came out for the restart full of purpose and added eight more scores to maintain a winning record which now stretches to 22 games.
Back-rower Marlie Packer scored in the opening minutes of the second half and scored followed Davies, Lydia Thompson, Poppy Cleall, Hannah Botterman, Cleall again, Ellie Kildunne twice and finally from Thompson in front of an appreciative home crowd on the sunshine who Scarratt was able to thank in the post-match interviews relayed inside the stadium.