England's Women secured their biggest ever win in an 89-0 demolition of Scotland at Twickenham to put themselves firmly in the driving seat for a sixth straight RBS 6 Nations title.
What England's men lacked for in attacking verve and style, their female counterparts immediately made up for half an hour afterwards at rugby HQ running in 15 tries.
Several thousand supporters stayed behind to witness the rout with player-of-the-match Heather Fisher, Maggie Alphonsi, Emily Scarratt, Fran Matthews, Rochelle Clark and Danielle Waterman all getting two tries apiece.
Like Martin Johnson's men and Rob Hunter's Under-20s, only a trip to Ireland stands between Gary Street's team and a fifth Grand Slam in the last six years.
The writing was on the wall for the visitors as early as the second minute when Worcester winger Merchant sped in the corner and fellow wing Matthews and full-back Scarratt quickly followed suit.
Scotland struggled to keep England at bay and Becky Essex had too much power for try No.4 before Clark, Matthews and Fisher rounded off a one-sided first half.
Things did not get much better after the break when Fisher sped through after 35 seconds of play.
If ever there was an ominous sight for the visitors it was that of replacement Maggie Alphonsi getting stripped for action and she immediately made her presence known with a try within seconds of her introduction.
England were treating the crowd gathered in Twickenham's West Stand to some scintillating rugby while showing no mercy to a flagging Scottish team.
Scarratt, Alphonsi and Clark all bagged their second tries and fly-half Katy McLean finally got in on the act with a secore of her own.
Waterman rounded off the scoring against a shellshocked Scotland team to send an resounding message to rest of world rugby.
