Six Nations: England 13 Ireland 10

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by

John McMurtry

And so we move on to match two in my Sunday morning marathon of woe with Ireland men losing to England at dear old Twickers by 13 – 10.

Following the impressive victory against Wales Joe Schmidt goes from “hero” to “slightly less impressive” after he was out-thought and the team were out-fought in this high intensity encounter.

The game kicked off at a frenetic pace with defences dominating in a loosely refereed match.

England went close on the 6th minute when looked to have scored only for the replay to show that and had managed to knock the ball free in the act of touching down.

This last gasp defence and a subsequent penalty seemed to swing things Ireland’s way and minutes later a cross field kick by was gathered by Trimble who cut inside to feed the impressive only for the full back to be held up.

Trimble went close again in a pulsating opening quarter but the pace couldn’t be sustained and things moved down a notch as the second quarter beckoned.

England finally got a score on the board with a 23rd minute penalty from but crucially he hit the upright ten minutes later to leave the score at 3 – 0 at the break.

Ireland upped the ante at the start of the second half when Jamie Healip sent Rob Kearney through for a score under the posts and with Sexton adding the extras Ireland lead 3 – 7 in what was always going to be a low scoring game.

Ireland continued to push and a driving maul led to a penalty which Sexton converted for a 3 – 10 lead, a lead that looked decisive as Ireland began to dominate.

However sparked England’s resistance back to life with a sniping break which led to a successful Farrell penalty and minutes later the scrappy scrum half was on hand to finish off a break from the impressive to put England back in front.

Farrell added the extras and England led 13 – 10.

Both teams fought to exhaustion as Ireland pushed for a winning score in a tense final quarter but the English defence held firm and the hosts recorded a memorable win.

Final Score: England 13 Ireland 10.

ENGLAND: Mike Brown,  Jack Nowell, Luther Burrell, Billy Twelvetrees, Jonny May, Owen Farrell, Danny Care, Joe Marler, Dylan Hartley, David Wilson, Joe Launchbury, Courtney Lawes, Tom Wood, Chris Robshaw, Billy Vunipola. Replacements: Tom Youngs, Mako Vunipola, Henry Thomas, Dave Attwood, Ben Morgan, Lee Dickson,  George Ford, Alex Goode.

IRELAND: Rob Kearney,  Andrew Trimble, Brian O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy, Dave Kearney, Jonathan Sexton, Conor Murray, Cian Healy, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Devin Toner, Paul O’Connell, Peter O’Mahony, Chris Henry, . Replacements: Sean Cronin, Jack McGrath, Martin Moore, Iain Henderson, Jordi Murphy, Isaac Boss, Paddy Jackson, Fergus McFadden.

As they stand:

TEAMPWDPDPTS
IRELAND320424
ENGLAND320214
WALES32064
FRANCE32014
SCOTLAND310-412
ITALY300-290

Still plenty to play for especially as a “laissez-faire” French side turned up against Wales and Ireland will be fancying their chances for making it two from two in their remaining games.

However, the Grand Slam and Triple Crown are gone and the World Cup beckons in 2015. Time for Joe to start the rebuild!

4 responses to “Six Nations: England 13 Ireland 10”

  1. Garibaldi

    Bit late in responding to Saturday’s game, time to reflect, I suppose.
    So lets go back to last summer; It is becoming increasingly obvious Warren Gatlin’s decision to omit Brian O’Driscoll from the test team on the Lion’s Tour has been vindicated.
    The once great player is done, sad but true. Add into this mix his partner in the midfield, Gordon D’Arcy of a similar vintage, absolutely no gas in the centre backline – end of story!!!!
    Now, I concede they weren’t alone responsible for Ireland ‘s defeat. The fact is, if you hope to play test rugby and win you don’t go into a game with a well know handicap. That’s why, particularly in the southern hemisphere, these games are called test rugby.
    Unfortunately Irish rugby, (here, I include the media and most fans, North and South) in their hysterical reaction to Warren Gatlin’s dropping of O’Driscoll, have boxed themselves into a corner and now when the great man’s decline is apparent to all, the silence is deafening.
    It would’t happen in NZ.

    Reply
  2. Johnny King

    Too many unforced errors allied to poor kicking out-of-hand by Sexton. Ireland couldn’t seem to cope with the slipperiness of their back three.

    Reply
  3. Raymond Acheson on Facebook

    Our 10 didn’t have a great game but he doesn’t become a bad player after a single game.

    Hopefully we’ll bounce back.

    The Championship is wide open & I see that Ireland are still top of the log ????

    Reply
  4. Jonathan Smyth on Facebook

    Bit harsh,,,,good irsh performance…definitely played the better rugby…tried to throw the ball about..which in fairness was probably their downfall in the end….two well matched teams.

    Reply

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