Thumbs up: England
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England demonstrated a scrumming masterclass against Ireland as they crushed their visitors 30-9 in the Six Nations at Twickenham on Saturday.
In difficult weather conditions for running rugby, the English destroyed the Irish set-piece on numerous occasions as Alex Corbiserio, Dylan Hartley and Dan Cole enjoyed immense games.
The trio - with help from their back-five - totally dominated their opposite numbers in what became a feasting ground for the home side.
Victory means England finish the Championship in second place after winning four out of their five games while Ireland end up in third position.
Stuart Lancaster must now wait to see whether chief executive Ian Ritchie believes he is the right man to lead the English on a full-time basis.
On the evidence of the Six Nations, it will be difficult for Ritchie to overlook Lancaster staying with Graham Rowntree while Andy Farrell is unlikely to remain due to club commitments.
The opening half was a rather stagnant affair as both sides based their game largely on defence, with regular handling errors hampering proceedings. Ultimately, the action at Twickenham failed to excite those watching as three Owen Farrell penalties and two from Jonathan Sexton meant the half-time score was 9-6.
What was a blow to the Irish cause was the loss of starting tighthead Mike Ross, who left the field injured on 36 minutes and left Ulster loosehead Tom Court with what proved to be the toughest 44 minutes of his career. Cue England's pack twisting the knife at scrum-time.
Corbisiero was dominant while Cole also capitalised as Ireland's pack looked dejected, which created the first try of the game on 65 minutes when England were given a five-metre scrum after Tomas O'Leary carried over his line. Referee Nigel Owens had little option.
In the 73rd minute another massive scrum effort led to a further penalty for England and Ben Youngs, who came on for an out-of-sorts Lee Dickson, reacted to tap quickly to scoot over.
Farrell could not land the conversion but added another penalty three minutes from time to complete the victory and rubber stamp another positive step forward for the young side.
Man of the match: Change to Men. England's pack.
Moment of the match: It is harsh to pick on one Irish player but the back-tracking Tomas O'Leary was rather lethargic when running back in an attempt to collect a grubber through. Ultimately he did not have time to clear which meant England had a five-metre scrum that turned into seven points. The hosts turned the screw at the set-piece and the rest is history.
Villain of the match: Despite all the hype, it was relatively clean.
The scorers:
For England:
Tries: Penalty, Youngs
Con: Farrell
Pen: Farrell 6
For Ireland:
Pen: Sexton 3
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manusamoa Tuilagi, 12 Brad Barritt, 11 David Strettle, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Lee Dickson, 8 Ben Morgan, 7 Chris Robshaw (capt), 6 Tom Croft, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Mouritz Botha, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Dylan Hartley, 1 Alex Corbisiero.
Replacements: 16 Lee Mears, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Tom Palmer, 19 Phil Dowson, 20 Ben Youngs, 21 Charlie Hodgson, 22 Mike Brown.
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best (c), 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Tom Court, 18 Mike McCarthy, 19 Peter O'Mahony, 20 Tomas O'Leary, 21 Ronan O'Gara, 22 Fergus McFadden.
Referee: Nigel Owens
Assistant referees: Jérôme Garces, Neil Paterson
Television match official: Jim Yuille
By Adam Kyriacou
Comments
bok120592 says...
for all the people saying South Africa will trash England. . . don't hold your breath. England showed they can compete with the best in the NH despite being inexperienced (losing Narrowly to Wales, beating France and smashing Ireland). England will be South Africa's first test under Meyer, and injuries are already starting to mount up in the S15. I feel under Meyer Boks will play a forward orientated 12 man game, with outside backs being used to tackle to chase kicks. If England bring a strong side, expect a tough tough battle
Posted 12:18 18th March 2012
maggot says...
Would it hurt for someone just to say well done England
Posted 11:54 18th March 2012
pog_mahone says...
and another couple of comments. Lancaster comes across as a genuinely pleasant, modest and warm character with a strong relationship with his players but not afraid to make the tough decisions, if England don't appoint him can we have him please? I just read leinster_goy's post and agree with pretty much all of it, what's th problem? He's obviously disgusted with the bull that we're serving up at the moment, so am I and every other Ireland supporter What the hell O'Leary was doing on the pitch I don't know.
Posted 11:35 18th March 2012
pog_mahone says...
Well done England, can begrudge the win, to use Conor O'Shea's word, Ireand were marmelised in the scrum. Shows that Court is not a tighthead option and truly demonstrates the game begins and ends with the scrum (as it should be).
I agree with those who have said that this was a dreadful advertisment for the game and a poor way to end the 6N. A pity, because Ireland had played well in earlier games but it's clear now how poor the teams they did well against truly were.
Thanks for the good wishes keste-whatever, with a comment like that perhaps you understand why people consider the English to be arrogant (although unlike Ferris and Kearney I've never considered them bad losers). And I enjoyed my St. Patrick's day at a local rugby derby between the top 2 clubs in Connacht. A lovely sunny spring day with lots of good honest rugby before that crap at 5pm.
Posted 11:28 18th March 2012
sextons_on_fire says...
@jtimkins
Here we go again, blaming the Leinster players for ireland's woes. You munstermen are like a broken record hahahaha...Why can't you take the red-tinted specs off and just agree that the entire irish team had a bad day. Even Kearney and Bowe were knocking it on. Kidney was actually right when he said that the chickens have come home to roost for ireland, our front row is woefully short on depth - that's something kidney himself can't be blamed for but all the same he has to take the responsibility for Ireland's inconsistent performances and ineffective kicking game plan. what more needs to be said except KIDNEY OUT hahahahaaaa
@Welshy
Stop posting troll comments...aren't you content with your Grand Slam? Clearly not. Most of your fellow Welshmen are out celebrating yet you're at your laptop trolling the Irish/English boards...how sad hahahahahahaaahaa...also, I can't let your comment about Leinster slide. Would that be the same "little team" that has won two Heineken Cups in 3 years? Remind me of how many Welsh regions are in the quarter-finals this year hahahaa. I hope you're a Cardiff man cos we're gonna give yous a right royal stuffing on April 7 and makes yous look a bit sheepish hahahahaha zzzzzzzing hahaha
Posted 10:37 18th March 2012
BigRugbyBalls says...
My own personal opinion is that the Irish scrum should be fitted with a beeper for every time it starts to move backwards.
Posted 10:02 18th March 2012
damo says...
Getting carried away England, Ireland submitted in this game and the fault is Dekkie, or Mr Kidney's and no one elses, He played O'Callaghan/Darcy this wole tournament and that is his decision, do you recall the start of the 6 nations an amount of people were saying these 2 weren't up to it and in fairness they were proven correct, Isac Boss is a regular 9 at Leinster and O'Leary came into the game 3 points down and cost us a pen try and kicked out 2 balls on the full both resulting in England scores. Darcy Darcy Darcy omg, between costing penaltys and offering his usual nothing in attack Dekky please resign and we can get a proper coach/manager in. Dekkie's game plan vs Wales drift defence that worked a charm also.
I would like a foreign coach like Gatland perhaps??? IRFU also need to change big time here we have too much talent to waste this opportunity, England played well but in fairness Ulster would have put 30 points on this Ireland side the way they are being coached.
Top players also underperformed, Heaslip needs to hit the gym not for weights but for speed work as he has so much to offer but it isn't happening he is 2 yards off the pace, sad day for the Irish
Posted 10:00 18th March 2012
GCP_JONES says...
Firstly well played England, you did to us what we did to Australia in the world cup.
I would like to see 2 things brought into rugby at international level
(1)Most importantly International rugby should follow the club game and have a full front row on the bench. Tom Court is a decent player but does'nt play tighthead for Ulster. I was seriously worried for his health.
(2) That a coach should be allowed to throw in the towel for his team:-)
Finally I for one would like to see the Irfu stop this pressure being placed to perform in the 6N. Look at the sides that trusted young talent they finished 1st and second. Ireland have plenty of talent that should be given a chance starting with the tour of NZ in the summer. D'arcy,O'Callaghan,O'Leary should never be seen in the green again.
Team to start against the All Blacks, Healy, Best, Jamie Hagan,D Ryan, POC,Ferris ,O'Mahony, O'Brien,Luke Marshall, Sexton, James Downey,BOD, Fitzgerald, T Bowe, Kearney.
Posted 09:42 18th March 2012
kybone says...
Well how did i know this was going to happen. If Ireland had won the Irish would be telling us all how brilliant they are, but because England won its 'if Ross had stayed on we'd have won', 'O'Leary won the game for you', 'England had a scrum and thats it' , 'England only won because Ireland were awful'. You lot are just completely incapable of giving England any credit what so ever aren't you.
Ive spent all week reading about how Kearney was going to show Foden how to play fullback, and how Ireland were going to put England in their place. Well Kearney was rubbish and, while im not usually in the business of gloating, ive never been happier to see a team take a beating. Watching the Irish players skulk around the pitch for the last 20 mins was just brilliant and then coming on here to read what the excuse brigade can come up with to justify their teams ineptitude is even better. @lawynd- Im not sure about the margin of victory being smaller, bareing in mind the ridiculas Croft drop, im only surprised that England didn't win by more!
Posted 09:38 18th March 2012
ChrisInCrete says...
England just out the garage, a work in progress with some promising test-runs. Well done Stuart Lancaster for rebuilding the team and getting a second place in the championship. It's not all going right yet, but I'm feeling happy about it so far. Shame that the back line could not get running, was this a game plan, inability to distribute, or the very fast up Irish defence?
Ireland desperately need to go into the garage and get some new parts.
How can a scrum disintegrate so badly and consistently at test level (although it did look like Corbissiero was driving across, and what was the Irish wing forward doing diving into the tunnel, was that the road block last defence?)?
In the last period, every time there was a knock-on, you just winced with what was about to come.
Posted 09:10 18th March 2012
curates_egg says...
No villain of the match? Did you miss the verified biting incident in the first half? If they find out who was responsible for biting Ferris, they are facing months on the sideline. Astounding stuff.
Fair play to the English pack. The smelt blood and were ruthless once they sussed our scrum out. What is worrying is that there is no alternative front row in the waiting.
The sight of Tomas O'Leary on the bench was already an insult to Irish rugby fans from the other provinces. He was a shambles. Looking back over the video, almost every single play he made was an error. Clearly, it wouldn't have made difference overall but it did put the team under extra pressure. I wish the Irish media would finally call Kidney out.
Posted 07:24 18th March 2012
jtimkins says...
Earls was the only Irish player who put on a performance worth a damn today. Granted I expect the usual Leinster bias commentators providing the usual drivel but IMHO it was the leinster players ??'arcy and heaslip who epitomized the well below par Irish performance, though O'Leary certainly helped matters for the english.
Posted 03:52 18th March 2012
Ramage says...
@TVaddict, totally agree with many points in your post. England are back and what an abysmal performance by Ireland absolutely smashed in the scrums. I too believe Lancaster should be given the chance to work further on the changes he has made. I am impressed at how in such a short time he has turned around the shambles that was England at the RWC into a squad playing good rugby. Not yet the full deal but a very good way along the road. he needs the opportunity to continue this work. South Africa will be a good yardstick to see where the team stands in the pecking order. as for Ireland back to the drawing board by the Irish coaching staff to see if they can prepare the team for the daunting task of taking on NZ
Posted 03:04 18th March 2012
Ramage says...
@TVaddict, totally agree with many points in your post. England are back and what an abysmal performance by Ireland absolutely smashed in the scrums. I too believe Lancaster should be given the chance to work further on the changes he has made. I am impressed at how in such a short time he has turned around the shambles that was England at the RWC into a squad playing good rugby. Not yet the full deal but a very good way along the road. he needs the opportunity to continue this work.
Posted 03:02 18th March 2012
Welshy says...
@ Leinster goy
Oh dear. Somone didn't have a good day. Always good to hear you spreading the joy that obviously fills your life around to us mere mortals who couldn't possibly understand the burden that you carry around with you.
If it's any consolation I too found it painful to watch an international team so clearly outclassed in so many areas. Had to shut my eyes at scrum time and was half expecting the air ambulance to arrive to whisk the Irish scrum away to a darkened room to die quietly.
Interestingly, you don't really talk about the problems with the pack and instead seem to blame everything on the backline, which I thought was a level above your pack.
Ahhh well, what would I know. Anyway good luck with your little team in the HC and do pop back to PR soon to spread some more joy.
Posted 00:54 18th March 2012
alanatleeds says...
England can only beat the team that is in front of them. Ireland were obviously fatigued by playing 4 intense matches in as many weeks but were undoubtably poor on the day. Can't help feeling that Stuart Lancaster has stolen a march on Ireland and France in getting a new generation of players going forward to the next RWC.
Posted 23:12 17th March 2012
melkdave says...
Well the 6Ns is over for another year and as usual some games where very good others just dredfull to watch..England have exceed expectations imo but are still along way from the finished article and alot of work needs to be done even in the forwards who where outstanding today.Wales did the slam and where for the most part the most consistant team of the championship.Had a bit of luck at times but cant really fault them for it.Now they have to kick on and hopfully get a series win in Australia.France well they flattered to decive and proved their RWC finalists tag was lucky and not deserved as most posters said at the time.I expect a brand new squad in the summer and quite a few of the old guard to be gone .Ireland again underachive given the amount of class players they have all with experiance .Kidney really now has to blood the youngsters and hopefully thats the last time we see Darcy and DOC in the green of Ireland and the end of this garryowen kicking gameplan .Its old easy to counter and relies to much on getting a lucky knock-on or bounce .In other words its awful .Scotland well what can you say for 3 games played well and seemed to make progress in achiving their potential.Then in the last 2 games they where terriable a huge clearout of the old guard needed here and a clean slate for the new coaches to work with imo .So goodbye Blair-Cuister-Murrry-Jacobson-Morrisson to being in the squad and Hamilton-De Luca- and the Lamonts as starters imo.Italy well they need Burton or whoever is 10 to play flater all the hard work of the forwards was mostly wasted today and in other matches as the backline stands to deep so gets tackeled 10 mtrs or so behind the gainline.They also need to stop kicking posession away .Then they just might start looking threatening during matches ..Oh and before some SH fan says the 6Ns was poor .So have alot of S15 games been so far
Posted 23:03 17th March 2012
bananayellow88 says...
7/Overall I think that this team does not need a complete overhaul but it needs to be picked on form, on merit with players in the appropriate positions. For this to happen Kidney needs to abandon his lazy, unadventurous tactics and adopt a braver approach that rewards player's based on performance and then allows them to play to their best ability, unlike the backline who have shown glimpses of what they can do despite having very little to work with.
Posted 23:02 17th March 2012
bananayellow88 says...
First of all it's important to realise that it's not as bad as it seems for Ireland even though most people tend to get carried away after games like this and it highlighted issues that should really have been fixed a long time ago and now kidney despite all his reluctance has to bring some change.
1/ This was a humiliating game but not much new was learnt here.It was won in the scrum which is an area Ireland have had difficulty with for a long time but haven't been exposed like today because they have been lucky with injurys in the front row for a long time. Ireland need depth at prop because Mike Ross can get injured and currently there is no alternative.
2/ Gordon D'arcy should not be playing international rugby and this has been said by many before. McFadden is constantly glued to the bench despite far superior form for the past 2 years(at least) and he's not the only 1 with a good claim.
3/ Peter O'Mahony is the only option at 7 and needs to be developed there based on his excellent performances for Munster. O'Brien is an explosive player at 6 but he is very ordinary the way he is being used now and he should compete with Ferris to start and put pressure on Heaslip.
4/ Why does Kidney insist on playing O' Callaghan ahead of Ryan when Ryan is 1st choice at Munster and justifies it every game. This should be the end for O'Callaghan with O'Connell returning and 2 or 3 others staking a claim.
5/ Like for D'arcy and O'Callaghan there should be a clearout of players who do not merit inclusion based on performance.An obvious example being Tomas O'Leary.
6/ The argument of O'Gara v Sexton is irrelevant and will change nothing in this team because both are playing the best rugby of their careers for their provinces but the way they are used by Kidney is the issue.For example playing them too deep or using Sexton at 12 when D'arcy's mistakes start to inevitably pile up.
Posted 23:01 17th March 2012
jimbosim says...
England are going to get trashed in South Africa and brought back down to earth. This England team will compete at times but will win nothing in terms of trophies etc LOL
Posted 22:58 17th March 2012