A win for Ireland this season was on the cards, given the changes to the England line-up for this Championship, but the margin of the victory and the total dominance of the home side now leaves Philip Doyle’s charges in pole position in the competition.

Ireland’s victory came courtesy of a superb hat-trick from Alison Miller and a ten-point haul from Niamh Briggs, whose boot was extremely effective throughout.

Ireland displayed real power and pace all over the park to ensure that England were never in the game, and with a trip to bottom side Scotland up next, a first ever Triple Crown should be theirs next week if they can maintain their form.

England will be keen to bounce back quickly and there’s no better place for them to do it than against rivals France at Twickenham in their next game.

Gary Street will be disappointed in defeat but will know too that his young side will have learned more last weekend than from a drubbing over Scotland the week before.

England have never lost at Twickenham and will certainly not want to start now.

France will travel positively following their 32-0 shutout of Wales at home in front of more than 2,000 fans and thus bouncing back from a disastrous loss in Italy the week before.

France though always have some struggles on the road in the Championship and they have not beaten England away since 2005.

They will though, have watched Ireland’s result with interest and will surely travel with real belief that they can end their hoodoo there.

For Wales, their next clash with Italy now becomes vital in terms of their World Cup qualification hopes. England and France are already qualified for the tournament and the remaining two places available via the RBS 6 Nations will go to the next two best placed sides on aggregate from last year and this year’s competition.

At the moment Ireland are almost certain of taking one of those spots and it looks like a straight shootout between Wales and Italy for the last spot.

Italy are in the best position but a win for Wales would see them move forward. Either way it will be a fascinating contest in Italy next time out.

Finally Scotland are now almost certain to have to go through down the qualifiers path in May in Spain – a feat that will not be easy with Spain, one other Six Nations side, Samoa, Sweden and Netherlands all competing.

Karen Findlay’s side will rue the terrible weather that they were forced to play in at the weekend, for despite dominating much of the game, Italy took the only two chances that came their way and there was no way back for the Scots who went down 8-0.

With Ireland visiting next weekend in search of a Triple Crown, life doesn’t get easier for the side searching for their first win in this competition in two years.