England steamroll Ireland in Euro final

England 36 Ireland 12

Ireland trailed England’s Super League youngsters 24-0 after 24 minutes but rallied bravely to make a game of it in front of a 3,582 crowd at Warrington’s Halliwell Jones Stadium yesterday.

Man of the match Paul Reilly gave England a dream start with two tries in the first 17 minutes thanks to some superb support play and strong finishing by the Huddersfield full-back.

When hooker Rob Burrow raced 50 metres to finish off a break by scrum-half Luke Robinson and centre Ben Westwood created a try for winger Mark Calderwood, England looked set for a runaway win.

But the Irish got their defence together to stem the onslaught and fashioned a couple of tries of their own in the second half to make the final score respectable.

Former Great Britain prop Barrie McDermott fended off a weak challenge from Andy Coley to crash over six minutes after the break and fellow front rower David Bates took Pat Weisner’s short pass to score a second on 67 minutes.

Weisner improved both tries while Burrow converted England’s second-half tries by skipper Rob Parker and substitute prop Nick Scruton.

Scruton was one of England’s most impressive performers while Ireland front rower Martin McLoughlin caught the eye with some powerful runs playing out of position at centre.