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
new_j4a says...
@melkdave, less than 5 years mate....RWC15...Eng v Bok final....you heard it here first.....and a narrow win for....??? (the Boks)
Posted 16:39 15th February 2013
melkdave says...
@New_j4a
Watched the clip from your link,yes windy ,and a soft pitch,not very good conditions for good running rugby.But then it was missing the driving ice cold sleet,which made the conditions at the aviva even worse ,for ball handling ect,also that was done by one of the greatest teams ever to grace a rugby field.against a poor australia Even as an England supporter,i wouldnt say the present England side is half as good as they where,but hey England are working on getting there slowly to be sure,but we do seem to be improving game by game ,campaign by campaign.So who knows maybe in 5 yrs time England could do something similar ??
Posted 02:32 14th February 2013
carpelone says...
Rugby_rockstar
The bad weather exposed the fundamental lack of skills of both Ireland and England.
England looked more solid though, but was not a triumph, but a memorable snorefest.
Posted 14:00 12th February 2013
new_j4a says...
@rugby_rockstar who says..."Only the extremely naive or the idiotic would try to run the ball in weather like Sunday's." Oh really? Here's some "extremely naive" idiots who try every now and then to teach people like you who don't understand rugby and lack imagination a bit about the great game. Watch and learn, prat.
Have a look at this from @kiwishamoo says...Weather? ahem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEfiSvXLn1g
Posted 12:26 12th February 2013
Wolf_Squirrel says...
Does anyone know of where to view footage of the Zebo injury? I missed it during the game
Posted 22:42 11th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
Carpelone, I'm guessing you expected Australia to score 80 points on Scotland last summer too. Right? Like I said to Reded, learn how to play the game. Only the extremely naive or the idiotic would try to run the ball in weather like Sunday's.
Posted 16:20 11th February 2013
TVaddict says...
@ronanmeagher
I agree that Clarks was worse, though I didn't see that live. I'd say it was as bad as Hartley's eye gouging but no where near his other crimes. Healy was setting out to deliberately and illegally injure an opposition player. It was quite possible that he could have broken Cole's ankle and could have ended his career. You could see on his face he knew what he was doing and that he meant it. Considering he followed it up not with remorse and calming down but then going on to throw sleigh punches and elbows does nothing to support his case. I predict 4-6 week ban, but 9 would feel a lot better.
Posted 15:29 11th February 2013
rugbylover says...
A win is a win, & well deserved.
Terrible conditions & enormous pressure on both teams.
Well done England.
Dare I say it.............?
Posted 15:20 11th February 2013
carpelone says...
How poor is O'Gara?
Is there any chance that Kidney drops him or will he be around for ever (caregiver included)?
Posted 14:47 11th February 2013
nhb99 says...
Not sure that most of Ireland's handling errors were "unforced". When the defender takes his eye off the ball, not advisable even in the best conditions, because he's worried about the impending tackle - as happened several times, notably by O'Driscoll & Heaslip - then the error is not unforced. Rather its down to good agressive defence, characterised by good linespeed.
I would like to think England are a more skillful side than Ireland, but I'm not sure its true. We didn't have the number of handling errors that Ireland did, partly because we had less possession, but also because we weren't put under such intense pressure by the Irish defensive line.
Posted 13:29 11th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
That was a TOUGH game. I'm relieved that we pulled it off TBH. I was mentioning the sheer bloody mindedness of the English race in the run up to the game and that was certainly a huge contributing factor towards the win. The second was our kicking game. We took one look at the appauling weather conditions and made sure the game was played in the Irish half! That game plan won us the game. Anyone who moans about lack of tries and thinks the All Blacks or whoever would have run the ball obviously don't know alot about Rugby Union.
The last contributing factor was Ireland. They underestimated England. They watched us chuck the ball about vs Scotland and licked their lips in anticipation. As P.R. says we were mature beyond our collective age. Anyone remember Scotland v England in 2000???
There is plenty to sort out though. We came off 2nd best in the set peice. we lost more scrums and lineouts than Ireland we we were just really lucky Ireland were over confident and tried to show off skills in the rain. I do worry about our athletic 2nd row. if there was ever a day for players like tom palmer and Louis deacon then sunday was that day. We got lucky and Lancaster ought to look for more balance in his EPS. If we'd up against the Springboks then we'd have been steamrollered.
Ireland probably wish our other 22 players were a throw back to the bad old days like James Haskell and his stupid yellow card. He is a throw back from those days and we saw again why that England side lost so often away from home.
Healey's stamp will result in a 3 week ban. he lost it, he was trying too hard to make up for last year and to push his lions claim and walked away with the reputation of a bully who could lose the lions the series with thuggish foul play. Yes he is better than Joe Marler, but he better hope Alex Corbisero isn't fit in time for the lions. Corbs is the best.
Posted 12:12 11th February 2013
rugby_rockstar says...
learn how to play the sport reded.
Posted 11:44 11th February 2013
blametheref says...
Fully deserved England win! But it's got to be taken into account that Ireland 'helped' England win with far to many unforced errors, missed touches and especially by captain Heaslip at 2 restarts...it was crucial for Heaslip to set a positive tone as captain and he didn't...also, it appeared Ireland didn't have a plan B when they needed one, and the loss of Sexton could've been in some way the cause of this. But the deeper cause is the coach Kidney who almost never seems to have a plan B when plan A doesn't work...Real proof of this, is that Ireland changed nothing at Half time, when they needed to, and especially when Haskell was binned and Ireland went into their shell while England upped the tempo with a game plan they were comfortable with and executed with few unforced errors, which factor, and the loss of Sexton, was the difference between these sides on what was a vicious day to play rugby
Posted 11:02 11th February 2013
APV1 says...
Great game and great result. Anyone who beats Ireland at the Aviva needs a pat on tha back.
England beat Ireland in a scrappy and attritional game. But the final score was 12 - 6 and had anyone offered that on Saturday evening, I would have jumped at it.
Healy - a ban is coming, I hope. No need for that. I don't have an issue with a bit of rucking of the body if the player's all over the ball, but that was a deliberate attempt to injure.
Scrum - was even. Makes the lions selection a little more juicy. Cole is still the front-runner for me.
Haskell's was a yellow, but no more. Cynical (smart..?) play, but he deserved to go. England's defence was awesome. I don't remember ever seeing BOD so contained and ineffectual. Earls gave us a couple of heart-stopping moments, but we just about managed to stop the try.
Anyone complaining that it wasn't exciting obviously didn't watch. It was a very tense affair the whole way through, especially the last 15 minutes. They've obviously never seen sleet, let along played in it. Just have a count up of the handling errors from people who are usually solid.
Can we go all the way..? Goodness knows!
Posted 10:32 11th February 2013
carpelone says...
Rubbish game. Results expected, further to the results of the previous games. England looked much more powerful than Ireland and in full control of the game.
Fell asleep a couple of time in the second half.
Posted 10:31 11th February 2013
ronanmeagher says...
@TVaddict - I think you're getting carried away. Healy's stamp was poor, and he'll get and deserves a ban - it doesn't compare with Burger, Hartley or Clark (NH flanker who tried to break leicester players arm last year). I do think Healy can be frustrated and then he loses his discipline.
Poor match, extremely scrappy. Once the forecast came true, I had a good idea England would win, simply because they are a bigger team with a bigger bench.
To me it looked like Ireland lacked intensity, whether that was due to the exertions of last week or due to their "Second game" syndrome issues, I don't know.
To be honest, I'm kinda sick of Irish supporters calling for Kidneys head constantly....broken record. I do think he should be replaced, at this stage, fresh-face, fresh ideas, etc. People stating Grand Slam or bust was a bit lame, considering we've won 2 in 70 years.
As for Substitutions happening late in the match, I think most of them were due to players being injured, Healy's was anyway.
Am/Was a big fan of O'Gara's, he's done a hell of a lot for Ireland over the years. I thought he was a safer bet on the bench purely in case what happened yesterday might happen. So he came on kicked his points, but his game control is gone, wasn't helped by some dodgy passes early on but he added nothing really.
Final point, I'm sick of the lack of leadership on the pitch. People blame the management for a lot, but they players need to shoulder some of the blame. Its been happening for years, and not just a Jamie Heaslip phenomenon. I just can't understand it with the calibre of people like BOD, POC & ROG.
Posted 10:00 11th February 2013
shoobydo says...
Some poor basic skills from Ireland.
When I was 14, I learned to catch the ball side-on so you don't knock-on if it slips through your fingers.
Amazing how many top pros don't do that in wet conditions.
England adapted better and deserved to win
Posted 09:48 11th February 2013
roamin says...
What a classic Northern Hemisphere game ! Interesting that England were able to control the game even though Ireland won the line out and had parity in the scrums.
I think it comes down to the co-ordinated kicking / defensive game led by the England back three and halves, bolstered by the whole team's kick chase, defensive line and break down effort. In the process England's young men showed that Test rugby is a young man's game - so much for Steven Jones' article in the Sunday Times this weekend.
On the whole England negated the Irish choke tackle, and Ireland had no further cards to play. Surprising to see an Irish team so poor in the air, and in the wet - isn't this what their climate and Irish football prepare them for ?
England have developed a pressure game that makes them very hard to beat on stodgy grounds. The next question is do they have the pace to compete with the big Southern hemisphere sides on hard dry pitches ?
Posted 09:28 11th February 2013
jamesliveinhope says...
@reded - too right, wherelse would we get our bar staff from.
Posted 09:24 11th February 2013
Propmelsey says...
I think it's about time these foriegn unions were taken to task over the state of their pitch ..... last week the welsh pitch was a disgrace and now this week we have the french and irish turning out sub-standard quality ..... It loks to me like they roll it ous on a Thursday .. water it a bit on a Friday ... Stamp on it Saturday morning and declare it ready for a test match!!! ..... It looks really dangerous to scrumage on .. and in my opinion causes more penalties than any skullduggery the front row might have in mind!!! Infact .. i bet it's very frustrating for the packs ..... Fines for the dopes behind the pitch preparation long overdue ..... x
Posted 09:00 11th February 2013