Two from two: England
England picked up an impressive 12-6 victory over Six Nations rivals Ireland on Sunday in an absorbing 80 minutes at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.
Stuart Lancaster's outfit put in another mature effort that leaves them as the last remaining unbeaten side in the 2013 Championship.
No tries were scored in the spectacle but the English displayed an edge that denied Ireland, who had crossed for three tries against Wales, any real opportunity to get over the whitewash.
Owen Farrell kicked all of England's points, but it was their intelligence with and without the ball that ultimately won the game as Ireland struggled to get into the match, due in part to losing Simon Zebo and Jonathan Sexton to early injuries.
Farrell gave England an early lead with a second-minute penalty but Dublin tempers flared in the fourteenth minute when Ireland prop Cian Healy's apparent use of the boot on England tighthead Dan Cole at a ruck sparked a mass brawl.
Both packs managed to slow their opponents' ruck ball and neither side had a genuine chance of a try in the first-half of a match featuring several candidates for the Lions tour.
In such a tight contest, discipline was especially important, and Farrell punished Ireland for coming round the wrong side of a ruck with a superb penalty from nearly 50 metres out.
Ireland lost fly-half Sexton with a hamstring pull just after the half-hour mark, although the wet conditions put a premium on the kicking game for which Ronan O'Gara is renowned.
But when O'Gara, Ireland's most capped player, held on too long in the tackle, following good work by England defensive linchpin Brad Barritt, it gave Farrell a long-range penalty chance on the stroke of half-time. However, his kick just went wide.
Early in the second period Ireland won a scrum penalty and O'Gara cut the deficit in half.
Coach Lancaster stiffened his side's physical presence by bringing on centre Manu Tuilagi for Billy Twelvetrees and Courtney Lawes for lock Joe Launchbury in the 48th minute.
England, though, were a man down in the 57th minute when blindside James Haskell, was yellow carded by French referee Jérôme Garces for kicking the ball out of a ruck.
O'Gara landed the ensuing penalty to tie the match at 6-6 heading into the final quarter. Yet despite being reduced to fourteen, England then outscored Ireland 6-3 in the ten minutes.
Farrell's clever kick ahead set up an England line-out close to Ireland's line and then Tuilagi was just unable to get a touch for a try after a neat chip ahead by scrum-half Ben Youngs.
However, Garces had already awarded England a penalty from inside the 22 and Farrell made no mistake to nudge his side into a 9-6 lead. And that became 12-6 when the composed Farrell landed his fourth penalty after Ireland infringed by not releasing.
Ireland then saw O'Gara miss an eminently kickable penalty from just outside the 22 and England's defence held firm for a result that puts them two points clear at the summit.
Man of the match: While the official award went to captain Chris Robshaw, who was superb as a leader, we believe that Ben Youngs had a slightly better shift in Dublin. He organised his pack well while his kicking for position was outstanding in difficult conditions. Rarely does Danny Care not make it onto the field but today Youngs was not to be disturbed.
Moment of the match: After Ronan O'Gara had kicked three points following England's James Haskell kicking the ball out from a ruck, the visitors showed real character to record their own points while the flank was in the sin-bin. In such spells wins are earned.
Villain of the match: There were two occasions when Cian Healy lost his cool and it is now expected that the Irish loosehead prop will face a trip to a hearing. The first indiscretion saw him stamp on Dan Cole's ankle before he led with the elbow in a ruck. Not good at all.
The scorers:
For Ireland:
Pen: O'Gara 2
For England:
Pen: Farrell 4
Ireland: 15 Rob Kearney, 14 Craig Gilroy, 13 Brian O'Driscoll, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Simon Zebo, 10 Jonathan Sexton, 9 Conor Murray, 8 Jamie Heaslip (c), 7 Sean O'Brien, 6 Peter O'Mahony, 5 Donnacha Ryan, 4 Mike McCarthy , 3 Mike Ross, 2 Rory Best, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Sean Cronin, 17 Dave Kilcoyne, 18 Declan Fitzpatrick, 19 Donncha O'Callaghan, 20 Chris Henry, 21 Eoin Reddan, 22 Ronan O'Gara, 23 Keith Earls.
England: 15 Alex Goode, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Brad Barritt, 12 Billy Twelvetrees, 11 Mike Brown, 10 Owen Farrell, 9 Ben Youngs, 8 Tom Wood, 7 Chris Robshaw (c), 6 James Haskell, 5 Geoff Parling, 4 Joe Launchbury, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Tom Youngs, 1 Joe Marler.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 David Wilson, 18 Mako Vunipola, 19 Courtney Lawes, 20 Thomas Waldrom, 21 Danny Care, 22 Toby Flood, 23 Manu Tuilagi.
Referee: Jérôme Garces (France)
Assistant referees: Nigel Owens (Wales), Pascal Gauzere (France)
Television match official: Iain Ramage (Scotland)
Comments
foxrock says...
Impressive England performance. Their discipline was very good and, in that respect, England were clearly superior to Ireland. Ireland were blunted by their injuries. But, in such a tight game, Heaslip's evident shortcomings as captain were a factor.
And, for once, the game was well refereed. Congrats to Jerome Garces.
Posted 08:45 11th February 2013
marzie says...
@TVaddict - Healy "makes Hartley look like Mother Teresa." Pretty facetious comparison I'd say. Healy's first major offence vs Hartley's serial recidivism? Not on the same page. It is worth pointing out Cole's reluctance to move from the wrong side of the ruck as well. Hardly a mitigating factor in Healy's case but worth pointing out all the same.
Posted 08:33 11th February 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
@kent the point I was making was that in the Dublin game we saw two sides doing everything they could to either get the ball to the try line or, in the case of defence, stop it getting there.
In the Paris game (and Jonathan Davies mentioned it) it looked like both sides were playing so conservatively that kickable penalties were more unforced error than desperate defence.
Even the try looked like North had just ruined a perfectly good touch kick (although I'm sure the try was intended :) ).
Posted 08:29 11th February 2013
jontheref says...
England, well done, to go there and win when you were stuffed two tears ago.
Jamiethe prop, don't get ahead of yourself!
Wales may or may not have turned the corner, but Wales will certainly be up for it on march 16th!
especially if there is anything riding on the game!
Looking forward to it.
Also agree Farrell should have been MOM, showed great game sense and maturity.
Posted 08:22 11th February 2013
Reded says...
Absorbing? 12-6? Thank God for the Southern Hemisphere!
Posted 05:27 11th February 2013
philip274 says...
England - Well done, they quelled the Irish in the first 20 minutes, and forced errors upon them. This should be the turning point for Kidney's demise, why he made certain substitutions with 5 to go is beyond me. O'Gara, bow out now! Slower than a wet week! Couldn't find touch, and when he did he may as well have thrown it in!
Tuilagi didn't bring the force everyone expected him too. Think 12Trees should start again next week. Farrell is improving greatly, is looking like the new Johnny!
It's Englands to lose now!
Posted 03:29 11th February 2013
bothhands says...
I got drunk at the beach, fell asleep and missed the game.
Posted 02:52 11th February 2013
munster30 says...
@ admack
so we're still playing a 5 nations tournament you absolute idiot are we?
Posted 02:38 11th February 2013
JamieTheProp says...
I was worried about this game but looks like England did well! I couldn't watch the game due to flying back from Oz but this is a great result in Ireland and looks like England went with the right game plan executed very well.
The encouraging thing is that England now seem to have more than one game plan and a core group of players who can be picked and do an excellent job to deliver it - plus strength in depth in most positions.
England are surely now in pole position for the tournament and developing like this, who knows, maybe the slam!
Wales look ordinary (at best) and should be beaten by an organised team (which England certainly seem to be). Especially with the joker Howley in charge.
France - who knows! As ever depends on which French team turn up on the day!
Should be able to grind out a win against Italy at home as well.
Fingers crossed - well done boys! Makes a 4 hour wait at Abu Dhabi airport that bit more bearable!
Posted 02:25 11th February 2013
PREEST says...
No tries...May as well have been a draw.
Posted 01:41 11th February 2013
MunsterRedArmy says...
Really hard game to watch, when both Zebo and Sexton went off I had a mini heart attack! I am a great ROG fan but he's getting too old and the game itself is different than it was 6 years ago. I am positive we could of scored at least one try but every time we had an opportunity to do something we either made an error or kicked the ball away. We need to give those young fly halves more game time otherwise the same scenario as ROG and Sexton had will repeat (Deccie couldn't decide who is his no.1 fly half even though it was clear the game moved on beyond ROG's style of play). It wasn't that awful though, scrum was solid, Murray wasn't as bad as some people on PR claim, the back trio worked fine. Missed a spark of creativity in the center partnership, if they'd get any decent balls.
I wonder which fly half with Deccie call up if Sexton is injured. Also as Caramba13 said Ferris , O'Connell were missed. Heaslip is not a captain material yet, BOD should be ''reinstated''!
G'WAN IRELAND!
Posted 01:33 11th February 2013
Cabhan says...
Without a doubt the better side won this one. England protected the ball and played good percentages. Too many basic errors from Ireland. Their game was up once ROG entered the fray.
Posted 23:24 10th February 2013
rukrym says...
I can sleep soundly tonight in the knowledge that this will be Deccie's last 6 nations at the helm! A win would have almost certainly seen his contract extended to 2015 so at least there's that silver lining.
As an aside I thought Chris Ashton showed a level of maturity and good sportsmanship I've not seen from him before, on top of having a great game. I'll be more than happy to see him wear the Lions jersey come June.
Posted 23:23 10th February 2013
TVaddict says...
Well Healy might have been worried about the scrum, but he didn't need to go stamping on Coles ankle to try and get an advantage. You say 'White Orcs', we reply 'Green Goblins'. I've not seen such an unpleasant act live since the gouging from Burger on the lions tour and it should have been a red card there and then. Should receive a lengthy ban and I'm not sure if I want him to go on the lions tour any more considering how uncontrollable he is, makes Hartley look like Mother Teresa.
On the positive side, England won when I really didn't expect them to. Showed huge mental (and physical) strength and stamina to defeat Ireland in Ireland and it bodes well for the future. I thought all the forwards really stood up today, as well as Youngs, Barritt and Goode. A clinical if not spectacular performance. To be fair, considering Haskell got a yellow card for being in the way and Healy got nothing for stamping it was amazing that the England team kept it's cool. A deserved win.
On a side note how badly did the lions team get beaten around today?! Sexton, Lawes, Zebo all going off injured. With O'Driscoll, Youngs, O'Brien, Cole (though not a legal knock) and more getting knocks in the game. Let's how the others survive the rest of the 6 nations!
@Jhamer25
Adam 'Stop, drop and roll' should not be the starting lions prop on current form, let's see him stand up quickly (an ask for him usually) after a vicious stamping.
Posted 23:21 10th February 2013
NHsaints says...
@papachinzo What game were you watching? There were only two things stopping England from pulling clear away today and that was losing more lineouts than we won before hartley came on, and the ref missing Healy's stamp and Murray's punch. What's clear is that Best has earned himself the lions 2 jersey with full certainty now. On a different note it's odd to see such contrasting weekends of rugby, the most enterprising team this week (weather permitted of course) was Scotland which is something we don't often get to say...
Posted 23:03 10th February 2013
sirtidychris says...
I thought Owen Farrell should be man of the match...he scored all the points and seems to get better every game ! Another shocking match to watch but at least the scrums were interesting..not sure about the Alex Goode love here though, yes this game suited him and his tactical placement and kicking is great but as an attacking runner he offers no threat from deep....on form ben foden or brown for me everytim
Posted 23:00 10th February 2013
waz4before says...
The game had real quality for the first 25 minutes and then lost it towards half-time and never really recovered, no doubt the enormity of the ensuing arm-wrestle starting to weight of players minds?
I have to strongly disagree with PR's assessment for "man of the match" - I think Irish TV commentators called it right, just look at his stats for the day PR - Robshaw was outstanding throughout particularly when down to 14 men and epitomized in the final play when he called for the ball at the line-out - a good call by the Irish TV commentators. In contrast, his opposite number was a giving england a regular penalty-fest in the first half and the other candidate on the field for the Lions captaincy, O'Driscoll, has again serious question marks over his fitness and was nondescript for the short time he was playing today, a seat on the Lions plane yes, captaincy definitely not!.
I thought the referee had a good game and allowed a difficult game to flow as best it could, particularly in the scrum area where he allowed play to continue on several occasions despite both front rows chewing grass ... I thought he rushed to the yellow card a bit early but that would be a minor criticism, in the end that 10 minutes changed the game, rather ironically in England's favor as so often happens these days where sides have well rehearsed strategies for playing with 14 men. had he have kept his card in his pocket might we have seen a different outcome?
So not a classic weekend of Rugby but what a fascinating contest building - is it possible France could lose their first three games??? 2 weeks ago I wouldn't even have bet Richard Anderson's money on that, and I still think its unlikely ...
Posted 22:49 10th February 2013
schmidtyforpres says...
England deserved winners on the day. O'Gara, I think, showed today that he really is past it...
Posted 22:46 10th February 2013
Heathy says...
Lots of pressure on a young side and a difficult place to go and win. Ireland are a good side. Weather dictated how this game was going to be played which was a shame. England came of age and did what they needed to do. It was a mature win with lots to be pleased about. What wasn't for England was James Haskell who was stupid - again!!! Put England in a difficult position which could have gone the other way. Cain Healey was also very stupid. Yes, Dan Cole was on the wrong side but not near the ball. That could have broken his leg and he will miss games. Stupid really from someone who should know better. This will hamper Ireland who are not blessed with props. @ Jhammer25 - ordinarily, I would agree with you but Adam Jones has not been good of late. He got stuffed against a poor French side and he's never offered anything around the park. He's in for his scrummaging and that's all. When that goes (which it has ATM), he's in trouble. He may be past his best. I hope not as when he's on form, there's no better scrummager. He just needs to do far more. Look at the work rate of Cole, Healey, Murray, Jenkins etc. They all do a hell of a lot more.
Posted 22:44 10th February 2013
nabberuk says...
I'd still have Cole ahead of Jones every day of the week.
Posted 22:43 10th February 2013