SIX NATIONS 2019 WORLD IN MOTION!
Brilliant England start dreaming of Six Nations glory ... and more
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Alex Spink
EDDIE JONES’ England shattered Ireland’s aura of invincibility with a performance of pure genius to kick off World Cup year.
A year after having to watch the Irish celebrate a Grand Slam at Twickenham, Jones’ ( right) white- shirted warriors gained emphatic revenge at the home of the world’s in-form side.
England not only beat the odds-on favourites, winning in Dublin for the first time since 2013 but also scored their first Six Nations try at the Aviva for eight years.
The marauding visitors put Ireland to the sword with scores for Jonny May, Elliot Daly and two from Henry Slade giving them a bonus point triumph.
Each was a work of art, testament to the work of coaches and players alike during their weeklong training camp in Portugal.
England return home to face a France side shellshocked after coughing up a 16-point half-time lead to Wales on Friday.
Shockwaves
They do so as the talk of rugby after a performance which will send shockwaves around the sport ahead of the World Cup.
From the first minute they took the game to the Irish, only too aware that history showed a failure to hit the home side hard and early in Dublin does not end well.
There was barely a minute on the clock when Ireland were caught napping at the first lineout and Manu Tuilagi powered on to a long throw and shunted the hosts onto the back foot.
White shirts swarmed through and patiently worked the ball through numerous sets of hands until
Keith Earls popped out of the defensive line.
Owen Farrell seized the chance, bypassing the winger with a stunning miss-pass which Daly took and fed on to May for the score.
Not for eight years had England scored a try here and even that was a consolation at the end of a heavy defeat. But May had warned pre-match that they were in town to “fire some shots” and as it turn out they had come with plenty of ammo. Ireland did briefly retake the lead through a closer ange Cian Healy try and f i ve points from Sexton’s boot. Life even became awkward when Tom Curry was sin-binned for a high tackle.
But the visitors were men on a mission, bristling with physicality to the point that the game’s first dozen dominant tackles all belonged to them. With half an hour on the clock they broke right. Daly sensed a gap and threaded a grubber through for Jack Nowell to chase. Jacob Stockdale got to it but the ball bobbled and Daly was on to it in a flash.
Indiscipline
Farrell’s conversion and later penalty put England seven points clear at the break and Ireland left the field knowing that the last 20 times they trailed by more than a point at half-time they lost.
This though is no ordinary Ireland side. So of course they came back hard, helped by England conceding seven of the game’s first eight penalties.
But for every moment of indiscipline they produced half a dozen or more of defensive excel-