Six Nations: England 21 Ireland 42
Ireland are back. Maybe they never went away, or perhaps more to the point they went back to being themselves. This was a proper storming of England’s HQ, and was almost like a step back in time, to the vintage highs of 2022 and 2023.
Oozing belief from the very first minute, Ireland’s cohesion in attack and discipline in defence was exceptional in what Andy Farrell hailed as a special day, and it truly was. In front of at least 20,000 supporters clad in green, this was a five-try, five-star win, Ireland’s biggest ever away to England.
Nothing epitomised the team’s desire better than the brilliant Stuart McCloskey leading a posse of three players chasing down Marcus Smith after he raced away from an intercept with game long won. Farrell, whose every selection was utterly vindicated, cheered that as much as anything. He loved it.
At the beating heart of Ireland’s win was a performance for the ages by Jamison Gibson-Park, who seemed to execute everything he did at a ridiculously high tempo and a step ahead of everyone else on the pitch.
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Not far behind were Caelan Doris, back to his world-class, rampaging best on both sides of the ball, as well as Josh van der Flier and Tadhg Beirne. Jack Crowley missed a couple of kicks and wasn’t perfect, but he pulled the strings and defended bravely, while McCloskey shredded the English midfield.
And what a difference pace makes on the edge, as even selecting Tommy O’Brien on the bench led to him being the ideal replacement for an injured James Lowe. In tandem with Robert Baloucoune, for the remaining hour this might just have been Ireland’s quickest combination ever on the wings.
After the anthems and pre-match fireworks, a second minute rendition of Swing Low subsided, followed by a swift response by the huge Green Army in attendance as The Fields reverberated around Twickenham. However many were present, they had already outsung the Aviva.
That exchange had come while everyone was steadying for the game’s first scrum, which Ireland survived on their own put-in. After Beirne gratefully accepted a mistimed English lineout, Gibson-Park sniped to link with Crowley and Jeremy Loughman, before the scrumhalf went blind to Dan Sheehan but Lowe knocked on.
Despite Ireland being pinged at the next scrum, Joe McCarthy knifed through the middle of an English maul to win a turnover and another carry by Gibson-Park led to Crowley tapping over a penalty for offside.
George Ford missed a penalty to the corner, and would later kick another dead, while Ireland survived an attack in their own 22 in which they were grateful for McCloskey’s tackle on Henry Pollock. Ireland were playing plenty of rugby in their half and were again grateful when Ford failed to link with Ellis Genge for Garry Ringrose to drop on the loose ball. Lowe injured his calf in clearing, which vindicated the decision to choose O’Brien in a 5-3 split.
But then Ireland’s attacking policy exploded into life with three tries in 11 minutes. From a scrum inside their own 10-metre line, McCloskey hit Baloucoune on the edge and he linked with O’Brien on his outside. When Ireland went back wide left off the recycle, Crowley wrapped around McCloskey and McCarthy carried hard, before Gibson-Park quick-wittedly tapped a penalty and beat Joe Heyes on his outside to slide over the line.
Crowley landed a fine conversion before shanking a 45-metre penalty and Gibson-Park was denied another try when referee Andrea Piardi pinged O’Brien for making negligible contact with Freddie Steward in the air.
Even so, O’Brien athletically retrieved a Gibson-Park box kick and McCloskey fended Ollie Lawrence to break clear and barrel into a couple of men in white. Despite being illegally tackled from the ruck by Steward, Gibson-Park stayed strong, broke free and, in typically heads-up style, skip passed to Baloucoune for an easy finish.
Steward was binned and though Crowley missed the conversion, how Ireland made hay, doubling down on their attacking intent. Van der Flier made a huge break up the middle from a tip-on by Beirne before Ireland worked the ball wide left. Doris skilfully moved the ball on to Baloucoune on his opposite wing to dummy Freeman deftly, draw the last man and put O’Brien away to make it 22-0.
Helped by an Irish overthrow, England did build up a head of steam to score a converted try for Fraser Dingwall with the last play of the first half. A thunderous Swing Low greeted their re-emergence after the break but a superb take in the air by Jamie Osborne soon stifled that.
What’s more, after a brilliant break by Doris and another snipe by Gibson-Park, Pollock was binned for killing the ball under his own post. From the tap penalty and good carries by Tadhg Furlong and McCloskey, Sheehan plunged over for the bonus-point try.
A needless offload by Jeremy Loughman conceded a scrum with Ireland on the front foot again and the ensuing changes at prop led to the scrum penalties returning, with Finlay Bealham ultimate pinged three times. England also engineered a try for Lawrence with an unrelenting power play, with Osborne also yellow carded.
Even so, Crowley landed a steadying penalty, and the combined pace of O’Brien and Baloucoune denied Freeman, before Beirne won a trademark penalty for Crowley to make it 35-14.
Gibson-Park was still far from done, chasing his own sharp kick into space off turnover ball in tandem with Nick Timoney to win a penalty which Ireland kicked into the corner. Eventually, after a big carry by Timoney, Beirne’s swivel pass enabled Crowley to pick out Osborne amid the many runners available for the fullback to finish very well.
Crowley converted and though Sam Underhill powered over after Smith was chased down by McCloskey, thanks to another muscular intervention by the magnificent McCloskey, Ireland kept England at arm’s length in their pursuit of a bonus point.
That sealed it. At the end, the celebrations were almost muted, as this was something of a bloodless coup against the auld enemy. The green-clad invaders and ex-pats present were not of a mind to leave, and they were rewarded when the Irish players returned for a lap of appreciation.
SCORING SEQUENCE – 9 mins: Crowley pen 0-3; 20: Gibson-Park try, Crowley con 0-10; 27: Baloucoune try 0-15; 30: O’Brien try, Crowley con 0-22; 42: Dingwall try, Ford con 7-22; Half-time 7-22; 43: Sheehan try, Crowley pen 7-29; 54: Lawrence try, Ford con 14-29; 59: Crowley pen 14-32; 66: Crowley pen 14-35; 70: Osborne try, Crowley con 14-42; 76: Underhill try, Ford con 21-42
ENGLAND: Freddie Steward; Tommy Freeman, Ollie Lawrence, Fraser Dingwall, Henry Arundell; George Ford, Alex Mitchell; Ellis Genge, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Joe Heyes; Maro Itoje (capt), Ollie Chessum; Tom Curry, Ben Earl, Henry Pollock. Replacements: J van Poortvliet for Mitchell (25 mins) J George for Cowan-Dickie (30), M Smith for Steward (40), T Curry for Pepper, B Rodd for Genge (both 52), A Coles for Itoje (55), S Underhill for Earl (71) T Davison for Heyes (73).
Yellow card: Steward (28 mins), Pollock (42).
IRELAND: Jamie Osborne; Robert Baloucoune, Garry Ringrose, Stuart McCloskey, James Lowe; Jack Crowley, Jamison Gibson-Park; Jeremy Loughman, Dan Sheehan, Tadhg Furlong; Joe McCarthy, James Ryan; Tadhg Beirne, Josh van der Flier, Caelan Doris (capt). Replacements: T O’Brien for Lowe (19 mins), F Bealham for Furlong, T O’Toole for Loughman (both 47), N Timoney for van der Flier (50), C Frawley for Ringrose (55), R Kelleher for Sheehan (56), C Prendergast for McCarthy (62), C Casey for Gibson-Park (71).
Yellow card: Osbourne (54 mins).
Referee: A Piardi (ITA), P Brousset (FRA, from 30 mins).
