Irish crack under England pressure

England 42 Ireland 15

As expected England’s greater physicality was central in determining the outcome and try as hard and as enthusiastically as they did, Ireland were no match for an English side set to contest their third final in four years.

Ireland did extremely well to reach the semi-finals given that their two original choices as captain, Dan Leavy and Sean O’Brien, missed out because of injury while Waterford’s Jack O’Donoghue, who took over the responsibility with admirable success, took a heavy knock just before the interval and was forced off.