Cork (Ireland) (AFP) - France maintained their Women's Six Nations title bid with a 53-3 rout of Ireland on Saturday but it was Wales who ended the day top of the table after a hard-fought 34-22 win over Scotland.
Both France and Wales have now won their opening two matches, with Les Bleus running in nine tries against Ireland in Cork despite playing an hour down to 14 players after Annaelle Deshaye was sent off.
The prop saw red for a high tackle but it made little difference to the result at Musgrave Park as the visitors followed-up last week's scratchy win over Italy in convincing style.
France scrum-half Pauline Bourdon and centre Gabrielle Vernier scored two tries apiece, with Audrey Forlani, Caroline Boujard, captain Agat Sochat, Cyrielle Banet and Charlotte Escudero also crossing Ireland's line.
France have long been the only side in Europe capable of providing Grand Slam champions England with a competitive game and hooker Sochat told France Televisions: "We kicked off our campaign for real with this match.
"We played against a team that resisted.We enjoyed ourselves a bit more.There are parts of our game we can perfect."
For Ireland, deprived of several senior players because of their sevens commitments and in the early stages of professionalism, this was a second chastening defeat after their 31-5 loss to Wales.
"We wanted to show a bit more fight and the players definitely did that," Ireland coach Greg McWilliams told the BBC.
"In fairness to France they are very clinical.You just have to keep developing and keep working.
"The key is to keep building now, we had three new caps today.We will get together for Italy and look to show improvements all the time."
Wales weather storm
It was a very different story in Edinburgh where Scotland, umercifully hammered 58-7 by England last week, put up a fight before Wales secured a second successive bonus-point win
Wales, who led from the third minute, saw props Sisilia Tuipulotu and Gwenllian Pyrs both score two tries as they made their forward power count.
Scotland, however, stayed in the game thanks to tries by Lana Skeldon, Coreen Grant and Chloe Rollie.
The Scots were just two points behind at 22-24 with eight minutes left before Elinor Snowsill's penalty edged Wales into a 27-22 lead.
And it was not until the 78th minute that Wales put the result beyond doubt when a huge scrum shoved the Scotland pack off their own ball and allowed replacement scrum-half Ffion Lewis to dart over for a decisive try.
"Scotland were excellent they are a very good team, the momentum swung in their favour and they were on top, I'm super proud that we weathered that storm," said Wales coach Ioan Cunningham.
Defeat extended Scotland's losing streak to 11 games, with captain Rachel Malcolm saying: "I'm disappointed because we were totally in it and I couldn't ask for more from the girls."
World Cup finalists England continue their title defence when they welcome Italy to Northampton on Sunday.
