England U21 narrowly beat Ireland - report

England Under-21s 27 Ireland Under-21s 19

England Under 21s made it three wins out of three in the Six Nations championship after a hard-earned but well deserved nail-biting victory over Ireland at Gloucester’s Kingsholm ground.

A record-breaking crowd of 7,357 were treated to an enthralling game in which Ireland drew first blood with an early penalty from the boot of fly-half Gareth Steenson.

However, the home side, with victories over Scotland and Italy already, replied with their first try just seven minutes into the game through Harlequins centre Andy Reay after good work by skipper Clive Stuart-Smith, of Leeds Tykes, and his club-mate Adrian Jarvis, who missed the conversion.

England stretched their lead to 10-3 15 minutes later when they capitalised on a Jarvis grubber kick, pressurised the Irish defence and set up Saracens’ Ben Russell to touch down.

This time Jarvis hit the upright with his conversion attempt.

The visitors clawed their way back into the game on the half-hour when centre Glen Telford muscled his way over the line and Steenson’s conversion levelled the scores at the break.

Steenson’s early second half penalty edged Ireland ahead but England replied immediately with a try from Harlequins’ Chris Bell. Jarvis not only converted but added a penalty to put his side 20-13 up.

Two further penalties from Steenson cut the deficit to one point with 20 minutes to go but two attempted drop-goals from the Irishman, one in the 78th minute, were both unsuccessful.

England then dramatically broke away for Bell to score the crucial try with replacement Brad Davies converting the kick.