England’s power show ends Ireland’s World Cup dream

IRELAND’S U20s could do little to stop an English side boosting their World Championship credentials in Rosario as their hopes of claiming a semi-final spot were blown away.

Mark Mapletoft’s English side produced a performance based on pure, brute strength that the Six Nations champions failed to deal with.

Allen Clarke’s men now go into Saturday’s final Pool B game against Argentina looking for a win to put them into the play-off for fifth.

The Irish coach shuffled his pack before kick off with three switches in the backline. Andrew Conway lined out in his usual full-back berth, with Noel Reid at inside centre and Nevin Spence on the wing.

England’s Tom Homer and Ireland’s James McKinney exchanged penalties as the game opened with a plethora of handling errors.

The English were keen to reverse the defeat by Ireland in Kingsholm in February and looked strong in the tight and dangerous out wide as Simon Zebo’s timely intervention denied Andy Forsyth an offload that looked like setting up the first try.

But they didn’t have to wait much longer. Ireland failed to retreat for Reid’s clearing kick and England opted for the scrum, allowing blindside Jamie Gibson to power over despite the tackles of Dominic Ryan and Reid.

Homer converted, and although a Conway clearance gave Ireland some relief, their inability to stop the English forwards crossing the gainline was proving problematic.

Homer extended his side’s lead with a penalty, but Ireland found some room in midfield as Zebo came off his wing, split the English rearguard and bounced off Homer before being held up short. The English covering defence did a fine job of slowing the ball down and Brendan Macken knocked on in midfield giving England a chance to clear.

That chance gave Ireland an idea of where they could hurt their opponents and they took advantage before the break. From a scrum in the English 22, McKinney moved the ball to Macken who gave it to Zebo and looped to find Conway on the wing and he added to his impressive tally against England in the corner as Ireland went in 16-11 down.

Homer and McKinney again exchanged kicks, but England exerted pressure through the phases before sub Freddie Burns stepped inside the cover to score, Homer converting.

He added a penalty to make the difference more than three scores, and as Ireland pushed to close the gap, Burns intercepted a David McSharry pass to run in unopposed.

Eoin Griffin pulled a late consolation back but it was not enough.

Scorers for Ireland: A Conway, E Griffin 1t, J McKinney 3p, N Reid 1c. England scorers: F Burns 2t, J Gibson 1t, T Homer 3c, 5p.

IRELAND: A Conway; N Spence, B Macken (E Griffin 75), N Reid, S Zebo; J McKinney (D McSharry 70), J Cooney (M Heaney 70); J O’Connell (B Cagney 59), N Annett (D Doyle 70), S Maguire; D O’Callaghan, B Hayes (B Marshall 44); R Ruddock, D Ryan (B O’Hara 59), P Butler.

ENGLAND: T Homer; C Wade, A Forsyth, T Casson (J May 72), S Smith; R Clegg (F Burns 62), C Davies (S Harrison 58); L Imiolek, J George (R Buchanen 79), M Vunipola (J Marler 50); G Kruis (C Green 50), C Matthews; J Gibson, J Rowan (capt), A Gray.

Referee: G Williamson (New Zealand).

* Other Pool B result: France 31, Argentina 23.