England’s best Slade plans put Irish to the sword
England stunned reigning Six Nations champions Ireland to take a giant step towards reclaiming their crown with a first win in Dublin for six years.
Leading 17-13 in an epic openingweekend title showdown, they engineered the decisive moment in the 66th minute when Henry Slade and Jonny May combined brilliantly from a scrum for Slade to touch down.
Owen Farrell was on target with a penalty to put the game beyond Ireland’s reach as the Aviva Stadium was stormed for the first time in the Six Nations since 2013.
It was the most impressive victory of the Eddie Jones era and their head coach hailed his players for sticking to their game-plan but did not think Ireland had been caught by surprise.
Jones said: “I’m not sure, they’re a well-coached, well-drilled side.
“We want to play good England rugby and good England rugby involves attacking the kicks, putting pressure on the opposition.
“We tried to execute a plan to find the space in the Ireland defensive line and we did that really well on the day.”
England led 17-10 at half-time with tries from May and the impressive Elliot Daly separated by Cian Healy’s burrowing score from close in.
Jones’ rampant side could have been further ahead.
And with their defence outstanding, their tactical kicking precise and the back three rock-solid under the high ball, they added two more opportunistic tries in the second period through the livewire Slade.
Ireland had seen off world champions New Zealand in an unbeaten autumn but their dream of consecutive Grand Slams came crashing down under a thunderous English assault.
Johnny Sexton was subdued as an attacking force, his pass being picked off for Slade’s second score, England were a side transformed with the return of the Vunipola brothers and Manu Tuilagi.
John Cooney’s late try for Joe Schmidt’s men did little to dampen the pain of a defeat that will jolt Irish confidence as the World Cup in Japan looms into view.
Schmidt said: “A massive challenge for us now is to be better fast.”