Ireland lose way without leadership of Collins

Under-19 Report: It was the proverbial tale of two halves in the shadow of Twickenham last night. Despite conceding a fourth-minute try, Ireland rallied to edge the first half with assured kicking from outhalf Brian Collins and excellent jumping at England's lineouts.

The large Irish contingent present saw Charlie McAleese's men get off to a shaky start when English scrumhalf Richard Bolt sidestepped Seán Carey to score in the corner. Collins narrowed the gap in the 11th minute splitting the posts from distance.

England had most of the possession in the opening 20 minutes but another Collins penalty put Ireland ahead. The Castleknock man was imperious, finding touch repeatedly and maintaining a perfect record from place kicks before going off just before half-time, having shipped a high tackle.

Ireland never recovered from his loss though Ian Keatley of UCD converted the resulting penalty to send Ireland in at the break leading 9-5. The second half belonged to England though. Ireland had few answers to their clever, attacking rugby.

Two penalties put Nigel Redman's side ahead by the 53rd minute. Two minutes later flanker Alex Shaw exploited a gap in the Irish rearguard to score a well worked try.

Midway through the half Ireland briefly threatened to pierce the English line, but too often the backs chose the wrong option.

In the 60th minute English outhalf Danny Cipriani touched down after making the most of a fortunate bounce.

But the misery was compounded when man of the match Cipriani waltzed past a tired Irish defence to score his second try.

Ireland: S Carey (Garbally); S Monahan (Trinity), I Dineen (CBC), I Keatley (UCD), M Barker (QUB); B Collins (Castleknock), P O'Donohoe (Belvedere); C Healy (Belvedere), D Gilchrist (UCD), J Gethings (Gonzaga), T Anderson (QUB), C McInerney (UCD), T O'Donnell (UL Bohemian), D Pollock (QUB, capt.), K Sheahan (UCD).

ENGLAND: C Pennell; O Dodge, T Youngs, A Powell, J Turner-Hall; D Cipriani, R Bolt; D Cole, R McMillan, J Forster, D Attwood, B Thomas, A Shaw, A Saull, D Tait.