Triumph at Twickenham!

By David Best

It’s everyone’s favourite time of the year, Ireland vs England in the Six Nations! And holy %^&£ was it a good game.

Ireland came to the recently renamed Allianz Stadium as, if we’re being honest, not necessarily favourites to win on the day. Following an abysmal start to our Six Nations campaign, losing catastrophically to France 36-14, scraping a 20-13 win against Italy, things weren’t exactly looking bright for Andy Farrell’s side. However, that all changed at Twickenham.

First half

The game started relatively tame with Ireland’s Jack Crowley scoring a penalty in the 8th minute. Following this, Ireland seemed in relative comfort without really being tested by the English offence. Things began looking south for the away side when James Lowe went down injured and was forced to be substituted off in just the 18^th minute for the relatively unproven at international level Tommy O’Brien. Fortunately for us, Jamison Gibson-Park was not allowing this setback to have any effect on his performance as the adopted Irishman pulled out a lovely play close to the English try line and got the ball over the line for our first try of the afternoon, converted neatly by Crowley. It took just 6 minutes for the English to concede again with a lovely play out wide leaving the ball in the hands of Robert Baloucoune who sliced through what was left of the English defense to plant our second try and another Crowley conversion. Just a minute later, Ireland had more good fortune when England’s Freddie Steward was sent to the sin bin for 10 minutes after a yellow card for a poor challenge. Minutes later Tommy O’Brien made a fantastic run through the English line putting down our third of the day, converted as usual by Crowley. Upon returning to play, sinbinned Freddie Steward was subbed off in the 39^th minute, followed immediately by a Fraser Dingwall try at 40 minutes, giving England a glimmer of hope at the break.

Second half

Ireland came flying out of the traps in the second half scoring another try in the 42^nd minute, courtesy of Dan Sheehan and conversion again by Crowley. Farrel made three subs before 50 minutes, taking off Furlong, Loughman and Van Der Flier for Bealham, O’Toole, and Timoney respectively. This was followed minutes later with two English substitutions – replacing Genge and Curry with Rodd and Pepper. These changes made a positive impact, as the 53^rd minute Ollie Lawrence brought England back into the contest with a try and an Irish yellow card for Jamie Osborne. What followed was an absolute defensive collapse from England, with Borthwick’s team conceding two penalties (both scored by Crowley) and a try from Jamie Osborne, another accurate kick from Crowley to convert. In the dying minutes England managed a consolation goal with a try and conversion from Underhill and Ford. The game ended 42-21 in Ireland’s favour, with Farrell’s men setting a record for points scored by Ireland at Twickenham, beating the previous record by 10 points.

The match was marked by a defensive masterclass from Ireland, with several important try-stopping tackles and swift, intricate passing plays that sliced through a poor, defensive line form England. England never really appeared in control of the game. Personally, man of the match must go to Rob Baloucoune. My word, what a performance from that man. Fantastic try, several yard gaining runs and a few try-stopping tackles to top it off.