Cueto's triple hands Scotland record loss

England A 78 Scotland A 6

England demolished Scotland, scoring 11 tries without reply, in a one-sided though marvellously entertaining A international last night, to maintain their unbeaten run and set up a chance of winning the Five Nations' A Team Championship for the first time since it was inaugurated in 1998.

England posted a record score against the Scots, surpassing the 60 they got at Headingley two years ago, as their pace, finishing and support play were all on a higher level than anything of which the Scots were capable.

England had raced away to a 31-0 lead within the space of 19 minutes, and though Scotland kept the lid on the scoring in the second quarter, there was no stopping England, whose first-half tries went to Dan Scarbrough with two, Mark Cueto and Phil Christophers.

England continued in top gear after the interval, producing three more quick tries, with Cueto grabbing the first, the second the result of another blistering burst by James Forrester, while Cueto brushed off the tackle of Simon Webster to score his third try.

For their next trick, the England pack pulled a mighty drive out of the bag for the captain, Kyran Bracken, to dive over for England's eighth try. By now it had become embarrassing, but there was no respite for the Scots. Forrester and Christophers finished off the visitors with two more dazzling tries. Alex King's 10 conversions and a penalty gave him 23 points.

England A: Tries Cueto 3, Scarbrough 2, Christophers 2, Bracken, Forrester 2, Waters; Conversions King 10; Penalty King. Scotland A: Penalties Hodge 2.

ENGLAND A: D Scarbrough (Leeds): M Cueto (Sale), H Paul, J Simpson-Daniel (Both Gloucester), P Christophers (Bristol); A King (Wasps), K Bracken (capt; Saracens); M Worsley (London Irish), A Titterrell (Sale), R Morris (Northampton), S Borthwick (Bath), C Jones, A Sanderson (Both Sale), A Vander (Bath), J Forrester (Gloucester). Replacements: B Johnston (Saracens) for Simpson-Daniel, 37; M Corry (Leicester) for Sanderson h-t; F Waters (Wasps) for Paul, 56; H Vyvyan (Newcastle) for Jones, 64; N Walshe (Sale) for Johnston, 70.

SCOTLAND A: S Moffat (Glasgow); S Webster (Edinburgh), A Bulloch, A Henderson, C Joiner; D Hodge (capt), G Beveridge (all Glasgow); A Jacobsen (Edinburgh), S Scott (Borders), J Branninghan (Edinburgh), I Fullarton (Sale), N Ross (Glasgow), A Rennick (Borders), J Petrie (Glasgow), E Peters (Connacht). Replacements: D Hilton (Glasgow) for Branninghan h-t; A Hall (Edinburgh) for Ross h-t; C Howarth (Glasgow) for Hodge, 54; D Hall (Edinburgh) for Scott, 62; R Kerr (Glasgow) for Joiner, 72.

Referee: S McDowell (Ireland)