England roll up their sleeves for victory

Ireland 6 England 12Irish fans would have feared an arm wrestle and, alas, on a soaking wet Sunday in Dublin that is exactly what transpired.

Less experienced maybe, but younger, more physical, durable and, on the day, inestimably more accurate, England duly rolled their sleeves up and suffocated the life out of Ireland’s game.

Ireland’s third loss in succession to England was, in its own way, almost as demoralising and dispiriting as the scrum carnage of Twickenham last year. Younger, England will assuredly get better and this latest win, coming away from home against more experienced opponents, further enhances their prospects of being real contenders when hosting the 2015 World Cup.

Whether it proves to be Brian O’Driscoll’s last tilt at the title or not, it’s doubtful whether a better opportunity will come along. But what will rankle this time is that there was no one overwhelming factor ala the scrum of last year. In point of fact, the Irish scrum held up pretty well, even regaining some form of supremacy during the third quarter, and along with their maul was about their only source of succour on the day.

Quite why Ireland played so poorly in other respects is hard to fathom. Even allowing for the teeming rain and the slippery pill, the amount of unforced spillages in the first-half especially was staggering. There were nine in the first 40 alone, and although Ireland brushed up their act in that third quarter, there was still a surprising lack of precision at times – as when Conor Murray went right off a ruck with the cue of runners in green lined up to the left.

Utterly vindicated

On a day such as this, Stuart Lancaster’s decision to retain Brad Barritt at outside centre was utterly vindicated, the South African-born Saracens centre closing down the midfield space and mowing down anybody in his vicinity. Typical of how they gave Ireland almost nothing easily, save for that third quarter when their accuracy at line-out and discipline went a little awry, was how Rory Best’s intended target invariably under pressure.

With Ireland trailing 6-0 just past the half hour, the mood of the crowd didn’t improve any as Sexton pulled up sharply after attempting to hack the ball ahead. As the big screen quickly went to the prostrate Irish out-half, a hush fell over the ground, which not even Ronan O’Gara’s fan club could greatly alleviate.

Aside from taking Ireland’s primary playmaker out of the equation, it left Ireland with only Eoin Reddan on the bench covering the backline. Kearney’s dead leg was evidently his left one, for he twice punted with his right foot and was never utilised to take some of the right-side penalties up the touchline in the second half.

This compounded the loss of Zebo early on, leaving Ireland with neither of their hefty left-footed kicking options, either with penalties up the line or from the back. As in much of the tactical kicking, England won the aerial tennis hands down, with Alex Goode having a very composed game at the back for England as, it has to be said did Chris Ashton and the impressive Mike Brown.

Their superior kicking game gave them an early foothold, the customary ‘hang time’ of Farrell’s kick-off contrasting with Conor Murray’s slightly over-cooked box kick giving England a steady flow of initial possession from which Farrell opened the scoring after Heaslip was penalised for not rolling away.

Much of Ireland’s response was good, but the handling malaise became a disease. Heaslip untypically dropped a couple of box kicks in his direction; Craig Gilroy failed to hold a high pass from O’Driscoll, Gordon D’Arcy lost the ball in contact after taking a good line, Mike McCarthy twice fumbled in open play, Murray fumbled off a line-out, and so on and so on.

Murray did release Keith Earls for a blindside break from deep off a line-out maul, and in perhaps the move of the match O’Driscoll also released the replacement winger with a flat skip pass only for the covering Tom Wood to deny Rob Kearney a try. But with the crowd increasingly quietened, Heaslip was adjudged offside at a line-out and Farrell doubled England’s lead. The captain was not having a great day and after Sexton’s departure about the only Irish respite was Farrell ending the half with a miss from 45 metres.

Psychological blow

Ireland regrouped well at the interval and O’Gara landed a penalty to open the home account. O’Brien made a huge carry off the restart, though was fairly smashed for his troubles, and after a couple of fine Murray box kicks either side of Best brilliantly snaffling the ball, James Haskell was binned for ill-advisedly playing the ball with his foot while on the wrong side.

O’Gara struck the ensuing, angled penalty from 45 metres superbly. Suddenly the sides were level and the Aviva was alive. Not for long.

England kept possession off a line-out, Farrell grubbering deftly into the corner and earned another penalty off a collapsed maul, then tagged on another when Kearney was very swiftly pinged by Jerome Garces for not releasing.

The Irish maul soon earned a penalty which O’Gara only missed by a whisker but in a game where every point, as well as ever inch, was hard-earned, it felt like a big miss.

SCORING SEQUENCE– 3 mins: Farrell pen 0-3; 29 mins: Farrell 0-6; (half-time 0-6); 45 mins: O'Gara pen 3-6; 57 mins O'Gara pen 6-6; 63 mins: Farrell pen 6-9; 64 mins: Farrell pen 6-12. IRELAND: R Kearney (Leinster); C Gilroy (Ulster), B O'Driscoll (Leinster), G D'Arcy (Leinster), S Zebo (Munster); J Sexton (Leinster), C Murray (Munster); C Healy (Leinster), R Best (Ulster), M Ross (Leinster), M McCarthy (Connacht), D Ryan (Munster), P O'Mahony (Munster), S O'Brien (Leinster), J Heaslip (Leinster, capt). Replacements: K Earls (Munster) for Zebo (11 mins), R O'Gara (Munster) for Sexton (32 mins), D O'Callaghan (Munster) for Ryan, C Henry (Ulster) for O'Brien (both 66 mins), S Cronin (Leinster) for Best, D Kilcoyne (Munster) for Healy (both 75 mins), D Fitzpatrick (Ulster) for Ross (79 mins). Not used: E Reddan (Leinster). ENGLAND: A Goode (Saracens); C Ashton (Saracens), B Barritt (Saracens), B Twelvetrees (Gloucester), M Brown (Harlequins); O Farrell (Saracens), B Youngs (Leicester Tigers); J Marler (Harlequins), T Youngs (Leicester Tigers), D Cole (Leicester Tigers), J Launchbury (London Wasps), G Parling (Leicester Tigers), J Haskell (London Wasps), C Robshaw (Harlequins, capt), T Wood (Northampton Saints). Replacements: C Lawes (Northampton Saints) for Parling, M Tuilagi (Leicester Tigers) for Twelvetrees (both 47 mins), D Hartley (Northampton Saints) for T Youngs (51 mins), M Vunipola (Saracens) for Marler (59 mins), T Waldrom (Leicester Tigers) for Lawes (71 mins). Not used: D Wilson (Bath), D Care (Harlequins), T Flood (Leicester Tigers). Sinbinned: Haskell (57-67 mins), Referee: Jerome Garces (France)