Impressive wins by Wales and Scotland confirmed third and fourth places for the two teams in the Six Nations - and places in WXV1 and WXV2.
Italy v Wales
Wales claimed third spot Six Nations and a place in WXV1 with an impressive second half performance in Parma. They only a point to secure a second successive top three finish but ran out comfortable winners against Italy, for whom legendary scrum-half Sara Barattin was playing her final game.
An Italian record crowd saw an even game for most of the first half, before Wales stretched away in the second.
Bethan Lewis scored Wales’ first try after Keira Bevan’s early penalty before a Veronica Madia score and Michela Sillari three-pointer levelled proceedings at 10-apiece.
Wales then scored either side of half time through Sisilia Tuipulotu and Sioned Harries before a sublime try from Alex Callender and late effort from the returning Kerin Lake added an extra sheen to the scoreline.
ITALY: 15 Vittoria Ostuni Minuzzi; 14 Aura Muzzo; 13 Michela Sillari; 12 Beatrice Rigoni; 11 Alyssa D'Inca; 10 Veronica Madia; 9 Sara Barattin; 1 Gaia Maris; 2 Vittoria Vecchini; 3 Lucia Gai; 4 Valeria Fedrighi; 5 Giordana Duca; 6 Sara Tounesi; 7 Isabella Locatelli; 8 Giada Franco
16 Emanuela Stecca; 17 Alice Cassaghi; 18 Alessia Pilani; 19 Laura Gurioli; 20 Alissa Ranuccini; 21 Sofia Stefan; 22 Emma Stevanin; 23 Beatrice Capomaggi
WALES: 15 Courtney Keight; 14 Lisa Neumann; 13 Hannah Jones; 12 Lleucu George; 11 Carys Williams-Morris; 10 Elinor Snowsill; 9 Keira Bevan; 1 Gwenllian Pyrs; 2 Kelsey Jones; 3 Sisilia Tuipulotu; 4 Abbie Fleming; 5 Georgia Evans; 6 Beth Lewis; 7 Alex Callender; 8 Sioned Harries
16 Carys Phillips; 17 Caryl Thomas; 18 Cerys Hale; 19 Bryonie King; 20 Kate Williams; 21 Ffion Lewis; 22 Kerin Lake; 23 Amelia Tutt
Scotland v Ireland
A Scottish record crowd of 4,862 saw game that was strewn with errors and seemed near stalemate with few chances for most of the first hour explode into life over the last quarter as Scotland ran in four tries for their biggest win since 2003, and their first back-to-back win since 2006.
The first half was a frustrating experience with few real scoring chances for either team. Dannah O’Brien converted an early penalty for Ireland, and Scotland ended the half with a try by Meryl Smith – her first for Scotland – but other than that there was little that was memorable.
A well-taken try by Lana Skeldon, perhaps taking advantage of Ireland briefly turning off after they were penalised for bringing a maul down, took Scotland to a 10-3 lead early in the second half before a Nichola Fryday try levelled the scores after 54 minutes.
Four minutes later Smith ghosted through the Irish line to set up Leah Bartlett to put Scotland back in front – and from here on the game suddenly caught fire. A superb run by Fran McGhie – a graduate from the Celtic Challenge series – extended the lead on 66m. Seven minutes later captain Rachel Malcolm crossed the line only to have her score ruled out for a knockon - but a minute later she crossed again, and this time it counted. And finally from the last play of the game Chloe Rollie added a sixth try for a 36-10 win for Scotland – and fourth place in the Championship.
SCOTLAND: 1 Leah Bartlett; 2 Lana Skeldon; 3 Christine Belisle; 4 Jade Konkel-Roberts; 5 Louise McMillan; 6 Rachel Malcolm; 7 Rachel McLachlan; 8 Evie Gallagher; 9 Mairi McDonald; 10 Helen Nelson; 11 Francesca McGhie; 12 Meryl Smith; 13 Emma Orr; 14 Coreen Grant; 15 Chloe Rollie
16 Jodie Rettie; 17 Anne Young; 18 Elliann Clarke; 19 Eva Donaldson; 20 Eilidh Sinclair; 21 Caity Mattinson; 22 Beth Blacklock; 23 Liz Musgrove
IRELAND: 1 Linda Djougang; 2 Neve Jones; 3 Christy Haney; 4 Nichola Fryday; 5 Sam Monaghan; 6 Brittany Hogan; 7 Grace Moore; 8 Deirbhile Nic A Bhaird; 9 Molly Scuffil-McCabe; 10 Dannah O’Brien; 11 Natasja Behan; 12 Vicky Anne Irwin; 13 Aoife Dalton; 14 Aoife Doyle; 15 Lauren Delany
16 Clara Nielson; 17 Sadhbh McGrath; 18 Kathryn Buggy; 19 Hannah O'Connor; 20 Dorothy Wall; 21 Ailsa Hughes; 22 Anna McGann; 23 Meabh Deely
Crowd records (after 29th April 2023)
For standalone test matches
France: 18,603 v Wales (Grenoble) 2023
England: 58,498 v France (Twickenham) 2023 (World record)
Spain: 9,000 v Netherlands (Madrid) 2019
Wales: 8,862 v England (Cardiff) 2023
Ireland: 6,113 v Wales (Dublin) 2022
Scotland: 4,862 v Ireland (Edinburgh) 2023
Italy: 4,700 v Wales (Parma) 2023