The Irish Universities went to Rosslyn Park last night in search of a Triple Crown to add to that achieved last year. Little did anyone know about the manner in which they were to achieve it.
The Irish insisted on running everything, and after just two minutes ran in the first of 12 tries. A quick tapped penalty from Peter Stringer, the UCC scrum-half, was followed by a break from Aidan O'Shea who linked with his forwards. Two more passes and Dan Fitzgerald touched down.
England out-half Tim Booth came back with a penalty from inside Ireland's 22 to make a deceptive scoreline of 5-3.
The Irish were rampant from early on, hitting the English backs under severe pressure. Much of this was through the clever play of Trinity's out-half, Mark McHugh.
McHugh set up fullback Colin Healy after taking the ball outside the English 22, looping with centre Paul Barry and then switching the ball back inside to Healy who crash over to score.
With the Irish forwards linking beautifully with their backs the tries kept coming. Two more, from Shane McLoughlin and Aidan O'Shea, respectively, before England registered their first try. The England left wing, James Platt, intercepted a long pass from Stringer and ran the length of the pitch. The Irish scored one more try through Barry to put themselves out of reach by half-time.
Ireland picked up in the second half where they left off with a try from prop Ronan McCormack, who ran from the 22 after taking a pass from number eight David Lane. The English tried to match Ireland's style of play, but time and time again their efforts were foiled by handling errors.
Ireland, in contrast, showed slick hands all night and were miles ahead with an abundance of skill, strength and points. Mark McHugh's kicking was outstanding on the night, converting 10 of the 12 tries.
The best try of the lot was scored by O'Shea, who finished a move that involved the ball going through 10 sets of hands.
Late tries from replacement Willie Robb and Colm Keane, and two from a superb Donnacha Murphy, gave Ireland a richly deserved Triple Crown and one that Irish rugby can be proud of.
Irish Universities: A McSweeney (UCC, capt); G Flannery (UCC), R McCor- mack (UCD), J Fitzgerald (UCC), C Keane (UCD); G Cantwell (UCD), D Murphy (UCC); D Lane (UCC), P Stringer (UCC), M McHugh (TCD), P Archbold (Queen's), P Barry (UCC), A O'Shea (UCC), S McLoughlin (TCD), C Healy (UCC). Replacements: P Spence (Queen's) for Stringer; L Twomey (UCC) for C Healy; W Robb (TCD) for Cantwell; M Prendergast (UCD) for McLoughlin.
English Universities: W Scridivens (Loughboro); D Protherough (Birmingham), A Collins (Bristol), D Falconer (Loughboro), A Komolase (Royal Holloway); T Booth (capt, St Mary's UC), K Lavin (Oxford); N Hayward (Nottingham), J Coulson (Chichester), P Ure (Brunell), J Platt (Imperial Medics), G Lewis (Oxford), C Pawson (Exeter), N Booth (Oxford), N Paisley (Loughboro). Replacements: G Furlong (Chichester) for Paisley; M Wallworth (Loughboro) for Coulson.
Referee: F Florens (FFR).
