England brought Ireland’s 2020 Six Nations winning start to a halt with a comfortable 24 -12 win at Twickenham on Sunday afternoon.

We’d lost a bit of interest in this with the COVID restrictions coming into force but here’s the report for posterity.

England pretty much dominated the first half leaving Ireland scoreless at the break. Robbie Henshaw crossed at the start of the second half to give Ireland a glimmer of a chance but by the time Andrew Porter crossed for their second, on the 78th minute, it was nothing more than a consolation try.

Ireland’s basic game plan of strong defence, dominate the breakdown, keep it tight and feed of mistakes, came unstuck in a clinical first half from England who minimised key breakdown occurrences with an astute kicking game.

A Ben Youngs grubber saw George Ford score, after Johnny Sexton failed to gather, for the opening try on the 7th minute and Ford became the provider a quarter of a hour later as Elliot Daly latched onto Ford’s chip ahead after a jinking run by Jonathan Joseph had Ireland on the back foot.

England finished a dominant first half with a Owen Farrell penalty, to add to two conversions, just before the break to give England a 17 – 0 lead as the teams changed ends.

A somewhat chastened Ireland came out at the start of the second half and, after Conor Murray and Peter O’Mahoney went close, they finally opened their account as Henshaw battled over after sustained pressure in the England red zone. Sexton missed the conversion leaving the score at 17 – 5.

Any thoughts of a comeback were quickly dispelled. Ireland’s scrum, which they looked to to get them out of bother in the previous two games, was turned over with a penalty to England and the resulting lineout in the corner saw Cowan-Dickie dot down off the back of the maul. Farrell converted to push the score along to 24 – 5 with just under 20 minutes left.

Ireland huffed and puffed in the final quarter but they were unable to break the England defence until the last minute, Porter barging over from close range. John Cooney converted but his kick brought the final whistle, England winning 24 – 12.

ENGLAND: Elliot Daly, Jonny May, Manu Tuilagi, Owen Farrell, Jonathan Joseph, George Ford, Ben Youngs, Joe Marler, Jamie George, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, George Kruis, Courtney Lawes, Sam Underhill, Tom Curry. Replacements: Luke Cowan-Dickie, Ellis Genge, Will Stuart, Joe Launchbury, Charlie Ewels, Ben Earl, Willi Heinz, Henry Slade.

IRELAND: Jordan Larmour, Andrew Conway, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale, Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong, Devin Toner, James Ryan, Peter O’Mahony, Josh van der Flier, CJ Stander. Replacements: Ronan Kelleher, Dave Kilcoyne, Andrew Porter, Ultan Dillane, Caelan Doris, John Cooney, Ross Byrne, Keith Earls