Red Roses stay on course for Grand Slam

ENGLAND stayed on track for the Grand Slam with an eighttry victory over a resilient Ireland side. 

- BEN JAYCOCK

The win ensures the Red Roses will go to Twickenham next weekend for their first ever standalone fixture in front of a world record crowd against fellow title challengers France in head coach Simon Middleton’s final game in charge.

Middleton said: “It’s going to be a great occasion (against France next weekend) and I’m really fortunate that I get to experience another great game like that. But it’ll only be great if we get the performance we want and we get the result we want.

“We’ve got quite a bit of work to do this week in terms of fixing people up and fixing our team up, in terms of how we’ll play.”

Natasha Hunt returned for the first time after being dropped for England’s World Cup campaign and the scrum-half said: “I’m buzzing to be back in the shirt. It means so much to put on the shirt. Pulling on the Rose and being in the dressing room, there’s no feeling like it.

“That breakdown was an absolute mess for us today. There’s loads of positives, we were just a little bit loose when we came out wide.”