England Women’s captain Sarah Hunter admits her side are dreaming of a first Women’s Six Nations crown since 2012 after beating defending champions Ireland at Twickenham on Saturday.
England Women 13-9 Ireland Women
Tries from Emma Croker and Abbie Scott and a penalty from Amber Reed helped seal the win but they were under huge amounts of pressure at times in the second-half.
Defending champions Ireland briefly led through three Niamh Briggs penalties and will be disappointed to have surrendered their lead when the opposition had Harriet Millar-Mills in the sin bin, and they missed the chance to become the first Ireland Women side to beat England away from home.
But Hunter – whose side host Wales in less than two weeks’ time in round four – enjoyed the victory that keeps them a perfect three from three.
“It’s such an honour to come and play at the Home of England Rugby,” said Hunter.
“Ireland were the reigning Six Nations champions for two of the last threeyears and so to come here and get the win, and continue on our Six Nations journey was just a great occasion.
“We know the Six Nations is about performing and getting those wins so we knew it was going to be a battle. We knew that there was going to be no release.
“They showed up, they played and they led but we came back. It was huge for us. We knew the importance of this game because we want to be in with a shot of winning the tournament and so we had to win.
“We can always get better and better. We’ll go away, review the areas we need to work on, and we play Wales in a couple of weeks. We’ll enjoy beating Ireland at Twickenham but we start again.”
Wales Women 10-8 France Women
Wales caused the upset of the round on Sunday, holding on in the face of mounting pressure to secure a 10-8 victory over previously-unbeaten France.
Megan York’s second-half score proved decisive as some superb Welsh defence secured the win that moves them up to third in the table – level in the standings with France.
Victorious skipper Rachel Taylor paid tribute to her squad, and insists they will welcome the Red Rose in round four full of confidence.
“The magnitude of this win probably won’t sink in for a couple of days,” she said. “We knew they are a physical side, we knew they would come and try and beat us up front but I’m massively proud of the girls’ effort.
“We knew what to expect, they try and bully you and beat you up around the park, we knew it was coming and just had to front up and compete. The first five minutes showed we were here to party – I couldn’t be prouder.
“We’ll now go and face England very confident – why wouldn’t you after beating France?”
Italy Women 22-7 Scotland Women
Also on Sunday, Italy secured their first win of this year’s Championship with a 22-7 victory over Scotland in Bologna.
Italy dominated the early stages with tries from Melissa Bettoni, Elisa Cucchiella and Manuela Furlan.
Lisa Thomson replied for Scotland – who are without a win in this Championship since 2010 – but Italy held firm to secure victory.
Next up for the Azzurri is a trip to Dublin to take on defending champions Ireland and the Italians will be hoping a repeat of 2015 – when they lost their first two games before winning the next three – is on the cards.
Click here to view the complete 2016 Women’s Six Nations fixture list
