Six Nations: Ireland explode to lift in second half to defeat England

Ireland 27 England 22 

Ireland scored 22 unanswered points in a scintillating second-half display to ensure victory over England on the opening weekend of the Guinness Six Nation’s Championship at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday evening.

England started positively and took a deserved lead in the 9th minute when they capitalised on a poor Sam Prendergast clearance to pin Ireland back into their own 22, and centre Henry Slade was able to slide a beautiful grubber kick through for left-wing Cadan Murley to collect and dive over on his debut.

It took an age for Ireland to score, but when they did, it was a beauty. James Lowe used his strength to shrug off English scrum-half Alex Mitchell in the tackle in the 35th minute, and he was able to find the supporting Jamison Gibson-Park on his inside, and the Irish number nine stepped Freddie Steward to brilliantly score the try.

Right on the stroke of half-time Ben Earl made a huge break up the Irish middle and Josh van der Flier was forced to concede a penalty, and the returned Marcus Smith was able to slot from 20m to ensure that Steve Borthwick’s side led 10-5 at the half time break.

In the 45th minute, Murley completely misjudged what looked like a poor kick from Gibson-Park with the play ending up being a 5m Irish scrum, which led to Ireland being camped on the English line.

England resisted for six minutes but in the 51st minute Prendergast spun a sublime flat pass to Bundee Aki, who was loitering on the left wing, and the Connacht centre bashed his way through three English defenders to score in the left corner.

Prendergast had missed his two conversion attempts, but he made no mistake in the 55th minute when he split the posts with a 40m penalty, to give Ireland the lead for the first time, after Itoje had been harshly penalised in a lineout.

The New Zealanders Gibson-Park and Lowe combined brilliantly in the 64th minute with Lowe running a superb line just to the left of a ruck and Gibson-Park put him through the hole. The winger did not have the pace to get home himself, but he was able to find Tadhg Beirne and the big second row was able to get the score that put Ireland in complete control of the tie.

It was no surprise that Lowe had his paw prints all over try number four in the 72nd minute, with him bursting through some weak English tackling to feed Dan Sheehan, and the Leinster hooker gleefully slammed the ball to the ground to announce his return to the game after seven months out injured.

Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman scored late consolation tries for England, but Ireland were in celebration mode by then, as England could not live with them in the second half.

Scorers for Ireland: S Prendergast (1 pen), J Crowley (2 cons), J Gibson-Park, B Aki, T Beirne, D Sheehan (1 try each). 

England: M Smith (1 pen, 2 cons), C Murley, T Curry, T Freeman (1 try each).

IRELAND: H Keenan; M Hansen, G Ringrose, B Aki, J Lowe; S Prendergast, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, R Kelleher, F Bealham; J Ryan, T Beirne; R Baird, J van der Flier, C Doris (c).

Subs: R Henshaw for M Hansen (4), M Hansen to R Henshaw (18), D Sheehan and J Conan for R Kelleher and R Baird (49), R Henshaw for B Aki (57), T Clarkson and J Crowley for F Bealham and S Prendergast (58), I Henderson for J Ryan (61), C Murray for J Gibson-Park (74).

ENGLAND: F Steward; T Freeman, H Slade, O Lawrence, C Murley; M Smith, A Mitchell; E Genge, L Cowan-Dickie, W Stuart; M Itoje (capt), G Martin; T Curry, B Curry, B Earl.

Subs: J Heyes for W Stuart (37), W Stuart for J Heyes (40), J Heyes for W Stuart (49), T Dan and T Willis for L Cowan-Dickie and B Earl (55), O Chessum, C Cunningham-South, W Stuart for G Martin, B Curry and J Heyes (59), H Randall and F Smith for A Mitchell and F Steward (67), F Baxter and J Heyes for E Genge and W Stuart (70). 

Referee: Ben O’Keeffe (NZR).