Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
ED’S GREEN WITH ENVY
Farrell relieved after Jones’s 14 men go down fighting
A RECORD victory at Twickenham but there was intense relief mixed with ecstasy for Andy Farrell and his players at the final whistle.
In the 12th minute of yesterday’s surreal clash with England, Caelan Doris crossed the Red Rose whitewash and for a glorious moment Ireland believed they were 12-0 up with the conversion to come.
But their second try was rightly ruled out for an earlier knock-on and, instead, they found themselves in an enthralling dogfight against Eddie Jones’ 14 men.
Charlie Ewels’ second minute red card for a high challenge on James Ryan – who himself had to leave the fray with a concussion after coming out worse in a clash of heads – handed the initiative to Ireland.
They initially seized it as James Lowe ran in a sixth minute try but, after Doris’ near miss, the visitors almost blew it despite the numerical advantage.
Inspired by Ellis Genge,
England’s front row beasted Ireland’s trio.
Without the injured Andrew Porter at loosehead, the pack in green coughed up a worrying six scrum penalties.
Cian Healy and Tadhg Furlong complained to ref Mathieu Raynal that Genge and his pack were wheeling the scrum. Their words fell on deaf ears. It was a tough day in the office for Healy in particular.
“They put us under the cosh,” admitted Farrell.
“Their set piece was outstanding, our discipline creaked a bit. They spoiled parts of our game really well and credit to them.
“The pressure they put on lineout time was there for everyone to see.
“You can see the lads asking questions and looking for answers. They want the game to keep going.
“We’ll go through the channels and see whose fault it is. If it’s ours we’ll adjust.”
Ireland conceded 15 penalties in total as they played a sloppy, careless game at times. It nearly cost them dearly. The fearless Hugo
Keenan scored a second try just before half-time but numerous promising attacks were wasted as players tried to force offloads or didn’t look after the ball.
They got there in the end, boosted by massive bench impact from Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham, the two late try scorers who secured what may be an important winning bonus point, and from Rob Herring and Conor Murray.
London, led Ireland to a bizarre bonus point 32-15 triumph.
Afterwards England boss Eddie Jones claimed his side weren’t properly rewarded for their scrum dominance as Ireland weren’t shown a yellow card.
For their part, the visitors claimed that England were wheeling the scrum illegally.
“I’ve had lots of bizarre matches,” said Sexton. “It was a
“It was a crazy old game,” said Farrell (inset), after winning on his old stomping ground for the first time as Ireland manager.
“Test matches are never perfect, that’s why they’re called Test matches – the quality of sides make it so. If you paid good money to be here, you’d be happy.
“We spoke during the week of trying to make our supporters singing at the end.”
That’s how it worked out, but after 61 minutes Twickenham was rocking to England’s beat.
The volume went up to 11 when Marcus Smith good Test match. You never have an easy game here.
“They have lost only eight here in 20 years, it’s incredibly tough. When you come here you need to play your best, and it was a mixed performance from us.
“But it was outstanding for the lads to stick to the task and it will be very important in the championship race.
“We didn’t get the performance we wanted during the game but we landed his fifth penalty to draw the Red Rose level.
As the Ireland players gathered under the posts, they realised they needed to find another level to avoid a damaging defeat.
They did that, but will have to take a hard look at themselves – despite the record win – ahead of their clash with Scotland.
Ireland have a Triple Crown on the line at the Aviva and will need to tidy up in a lot of places.
“I’m over the moon,” said Farrell. “If you said that would happen at the start of the day we’d snatch your hand off. It’s a tough place got glimpses of it.”
However the 36-year-old added: “Two years ago, we would have lost that game.
“We have a chance to win a
Triple Crown chance at home in the Aviva, we very rarely have had a chance to play for something in front of our home crowd. Often when we have, it’s been away from home.” to come.
“We were under pressure in that second half and some of that was our own doing
– but to come away with a bonus point is something we should be proud of.
“The lads were calm under pressure and stayed on task and deserved the bonus point.”
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