Bowe ties England in knots

IT speaks volumes for the character of any side asked to put in a hundred tackles, makes all but one of them, and comes out at the right side of the result against a very hungry and aggressive England side performing in front of their own supporters at Twickenham.

To their eternal credit, that’s just what Ireland managed to do in achieving their sixth victory in seven games against the English and keeping alive their hopes of a fifth Triple Crown in seven seasons. On Saturday, he scored three terrific tries through their back line whereas England got theirs courtesy of the Italian TMO who decreed that prop Dan Cole had grounded the ball after a series of rucks under the Irish posts.

In many ways, it is difficult to explain why Ireland won this match considering their relative lack of possession for long stretches of a game that rarely rose above the ordinary but was edge of the seat throughout. England’s beleaguered coach Martin Johnson put it down to “not taking our chances” and silly penalties. On the latter count, he must have been furious with scrum-half Danny Care who for the second successive year let his side down badly.