Wales were overwhelmed as England kept their Six Nations Grand Slam hopes on track with a 59-3 bonus-point victory over Wales at a sold-out Cardiff Arms Park.

In front of a record 8,862 attendance for Wales women’s home match, the four-time defending champions’ strength in depth was on full display on an afternoon that saw each of the Red Roses’ nine tries come through different scorers.

Lucy Packer, Tatyana Heard, Abigail Dow, Holly Aitchison, Jess Breach, Ellie Kildunne, Maud Muir, Hannah Botterman and Sarah Beckett all touched down for the visitors, with Emma Sing and Lagi Tuima adding seven conversions between them.

Wales v England – TikTok Women’s Six Nations – Cardiff Arms ParkHolly Aitchison was among England’s try scorers (Steven Paston/PA)

England were heavy favourites to make it three wins from three in this season’s Six Nations but it was Wales, who had also won both of their first two matches, who opened the scoring after an electric start when Keira Bevan slotted over a penalty.

However, that proved to be Wales’ only points of the game as England hit back in emphatic fashion.

The Red Roses took the lead in the 26th minute when Dow broke down the left and crossed into the hosts’ 22 before being brought down just shy of the try line, but Packer was able to scoop up the ball from the ensuing breakdown and twist over the line.

Heard helped make it 12-3 before an exquisite pass from Aitchison set Dow up on a fine run from midfield, the Harlequins winger crossing the whitewash on the 40-minute mark before Sing’s conversion left the resilient hosts – who had enjoyed both a possession and territorial advantage – trailing 19-3 at the break.

Aitchison quickly added her name to the list of England’s try-scorers to secure the bonus point after the restart, when the floodgates firmly opened for the Red Roses who – despite going down to 13 women after May Campbell and Marlie Packer were sent to the sin-bin in the 67th minute – went on to complete a comprehensive victory.

"It is important that we don't let this derail our Six Nations," fly-half Elinor Snowsill told BBC Sport Wales. "It's a tough one to reflect on because even though the scoreline is similar to previous years, which we are very disappointed with, I don't think it was quite similar to previous years.

“We competed a lot more with them. Everyone gave everything. There were some things that were brilliant for us, but then there were a lot of things that we do need to learn from.

"England are a world class outfit and probably bouncing back from the World Cup loss, I think they had a point to prove."

Wales go from being roared on to playing in front of a partisan bumper crowd in Grenoble.

"France away is always very tough, they bring a great crowd, but actually we thrived off the crowd [against England] and I think we could do something similar out there," said Snowsill.

"If we can get three or four wins from this Six Nations, then it will be a massive improvement on last year. "That's all we hope because we are on a journey and it is not always going to be up, up, up. There are going to be bumps along the way, it's as long as we learn from them."

Having recorded bonus-point wins against Ireland and Scotland to set up a Triple Crown showdown, Ioan Cunningham's side now lick their wounds before heading to France next Sunday, then finishing against Italy.