England keep title hopes alive as George Ford outwits Ireland defence
It is impossible to hide in the unforgiving spotlight of a big Six Nations occasion. As England discovered in Paris and Ireland were reminded here there is also no escape from the consequences of glaring underperformance. The deflated players in green who trooped back down the tunnel at halftime, lucky to be only 17-0 behind, already knew deep down there was going to be only one outcome on a grey, blustery afternoon in south west London.
Up in the coaching box that was certainly how Eddie Jones felt. “If it had been a cricket game we could have declared,” observed England’s head coach, opting to give the knife one last twist afterwards. Given Ireland bowled England out for 85 at Lord’s only last summer it was a slightly risky analogy but, in truth, it was fair comment. Only after John Cooney and Caelan Doris arrived to add some much needed snap and crackle did a genuine contest belatedly materialise.
By then, though, it was way too late. If Ireland had hoped that inviting Bono into camp during the build-up might pay on-field dividends they were sadly mistaken. The only U2 track that sprang to mind in the end was Sunday Bloody
Sunday: Ireland did win the second half 12-7 but for Johnny Sexton and Conor Murray, so often their side’s tactical driving force, this was definitely a black Sabbath.
England’s only regret will be their failure to nail down a bonus point, an omission which may yet come back to bite them. They now sit second in the table four points behind unbeaten France with two rounds left, although the mathematics will become irrelevant should Les Bleus complete a grand slam. Either way this was much more like the England who progressed to the World Cup final. Driven forward by Courtney Lawes and Maro
Itoje and powered up by the returning Manu Tuilagi, there was also vindication for Jones’s selectorial choices, certainly compared with the opposition’s. If Cooney does not start ahead of Murray against Italy, it will be a travesty.
There will also be plenty to digest around the Farrell kitchen table. Andy Farrell has a CV stuffed full of big-game success but there were uncomfortable flashbacks here to the latter days of the Joe Schmidt era. Having won their opening two games, Ireland had flown over eyeing a triple crown and a possible title surge. Instead, until the final quarter, they were flatter than Farrell
Sr’s oft-broken nose, unable to match their hosts for power, control, energy, pace and every other quality that wins international games.
Before kick-off England would have taken a victory of any description. Within 25 minutes, however, all that pent-up tension had pretty much disappeared, courtesy of two clever kicks by Ben Youngs and George Ford which yielded soft tries for Ford, then Elliot Daly respectively. Thereafter, with Ireland under frequent forward pressure and increasingly short of composure, a sizeable home win was never in doubt.
It took only eight minutes for England to strike. Youngs rolled a well-judged grubber into the Irish 22 and, with Jordan Larmour caught fractionally out of position, Sexton came scrambling back to help out his fullback. To the visiting captain’s horror the ball bounced up and away from him and fell into the path of Ford who duly touched it down.
When Sexton also pulled a straightforward penalty effort wide, it completed a grim start for the Irish fly-half on the ground where his side clinched their famous grand slam in 2018. As with Scotland’s captain, Stuart Hogg, caught out by a similarly awkward low, bobbling kick at Murrayfield, it did absolutely nothing for his side’s morale.
The next hammer blow was not long in coming. Again a chip , by Ford, found space in the Irish in-goal area, again the defence failed utterly to defuse the danger. This time it was Jacob Stockdale who hesitated momentarily, allowing Daly enough time to nip past him and touch the ball down just inside the dead-ball line.
Farrell’s conversion made it 14-0 and Ireland’s day went from bad to worse when the vastly experienced Cian Healy had to limp out of the fray prematurely. Sexton temporarily lost his right boot and was struggling even to stay upright. With England cranking up the pressure on almost every front, his team were looking similarly unsteady and a Farrell penalty awarded for offside in the shadow of the Irish posts widened the gap further.
With the wind slightly more in their favour after the interval Ireland could only cling to the memory of England’s second-half collapse from 31-7 up against Scotland last March. Sexton has also been involved in some fine comebacks as a Leinster player, not least against Northampton in the 2011 Heineken Cup final when the Irish province recovered to win from 22-6 down.
There was a brief flicker when Robbie Henshaw drove between Tom Curry and Farrell to put Ireland on the scoreboard after 50 minutes but Sexton again scuffed the conversion attempt and the arrival of Luke CowanDickie gave England fresh energy. The Exeter hooker, increasingly prolific at all levels, drove over for his side’s third try after 62 minutes but instead of a try bonus point there was only a late Irish consolation for the replacement Andrew Porter. While it slightly massaged the final score, the gap between the sides on the day was considerable.