A heavy home defeat to France at Cardiff Arms Park in the Women's Six Nations has cost Wales eighth place in the World Rugby Women's Rankings with Ireland the side to benefit.

For the second season running Les Bleues put a half-century of points on Wales with the 50-0 defeat resulting in eight-hundredths of a rating point being knocked off their total.

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Les Bleues breached Wales' line eight times with Cyrielle Banet and Laure Sansus both claiming two tries apiece and former World Rugby Women's 15s Player of the Year Jessy Trémoulière adding 10 points with the boot.

The marginal gain in points for France was not enough for them to improve on fourth place in the rankings.

Ireland moved above Wales even though they too were well beaten, 27-0 away to Grand Slam-chasing England. With a large points differential between themselves and number two ranked England, the defeat did not cost Ireland any rating points.

England in control

Number eight and captain Sarah Hunter opened the scoring at Doncaster's Castle Park, with Abby Dow, Jess Breach and Vicky Fleetwood all following her over the line in the first half.

Sarah McKenna's try was the only score in a much more evenly-contested second half, where England were guilty of over-playing their hand.

The bonus-point win puts England three points ahead of France in the standings.

Next up, England welcome Wales to the Twickenham Stoop before travelling to Padua to take on the Azzurre. France are at home to Scotland, who have only played twice, before welcoming Ireland to Lille in the final round.

Further to an increased number of Covid-19 cases in the Milan Area, the Italian authorities decided to cancel all sporting events in the Veneto and Lombardi regions, with Italy's match against Scotland one of the matches affected.

Following the decision to postpone the fixture, Six Nations Rugby are looking at options with the FIR and Scottish Rugby to reschedule it at a later date.

Photo: WRU