Marie Louise Reilly won her 50th cap tonight.

Reilly's Grand Slam hopes blown away in Donnybrook

Any hopes Marie Louise Reilly had of marking her 50th appearance for Ireland by leading the team to a Grand Slam were swept away in the wind and rain at Donnybrook tonight. 

Instead England won the Woman's Six Nations Grand Slam, clinching the deal wih a 34-7 win over Reilly and her colleagues. 

Reilly led the team out onto the pitch to mark her half-century of senior appearances and the Meath woman had an excellent game. 

She executed a number of steals and was the main ball winner in the Irish line-outs however the home side were on the backfoot for most of the contest as the English produced some excellent rugby to win with ease. 

Behind by just 0-5 at the interval after playing against a strong wind the Irish had grounds to be optimistic going out for the second-half but the pace and the swift off-loads of the English opened up gaps in the home defence. 

Laura Keates, Amy Cokayne, Emily Scarratt and Lydia Thompson ran in for second-half tries for the English to secure the win and the Grand Slam. 

Scarratt tagged on three conversions and a penalty in that second-half. 

The only Irish try came when Leah Lyons powered over with Nora Stapleton converting. 

Having only started playing rugby relatively late and by accident rather than design Reilly's achievement in winning 50 caps is a remarkable achievement. 

That's likely to be added to as Ireland host the Women's World Cup later this year. 

However this time around there was no repeat of the Grand Slam for Reilly and Ireland as was achieved in 2013.