Ireland lose heavily in Twickenham

England 33 Ireland 10

Danny Cipriani quite possibly saved England head coach Brian Ashton’s job by inspiring them to a deserved RBS 6 Nations victory at Twickenham.

Cipriani, dropped last week for his late-night visit to a Mayfair club, pulled on the number 10 shirt of Jonny Wilkinson and followed in the footsteps of the fly-half legend.

Seven goals from seven attempts, a haul of 18 points, was the sort of perfection for which Wilkinson was renowned.

But it was the manner in which 20-year-old Cipriani led England to the sort of structured and enterprising triumph which had been sadly lacking of late which was most impressive.

Tries from Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait and man-of-the-match Jamie Noon all gave the scoreline a comfortable look and Ashton even had the luxury of bringing on Wilkinson in the second half to a moon-rocket type roar from the Twickenham crowd.

It means England finish third in the Six Nations table, not exactly a triumph for the World Cup finalists of four months ago but at last they finished the campaign with hope and some style too.

For Ireland, defeat consigned them to fourth place and their worst championship finish since 1999.

It also cast serious doubt over the future of head coach Eddie O’Sullivan, who signed a four-year contract before a World Cup in which Ireland were one of the big disappointments.

More failure in this tournament was the last thing he needed.

England could hardly have made a worse start. They were slow to the ball, ponderous in defence and paid the price after just four minutes when the ball fizzed through the Irish threequarters.

The ball reached Robert Kearney, via a raking delivery from Ronan O’Gara, and the Leinster wing corkscrewed his way over the line.

O’Gara, wearing the captain’s armband for the first time, added the conversion and the lines on Ashton’s forehead formed a deep riverbed of a frown.

It got worse when O’Gara slotted a penalty.

After Cipriani slotted over a penalty to record his first points for England at last they began to show some long-awaited creativity.

Some fire too, especially from captain Phil Vickery and Michael Lipman, the latter making hard yards to set up a three-quarter move which saw Iain Balshaw supply Sackey with the pass for England’s first try.

In the next 20 minutes there were little chip kicks from Cipriani and Toby Flood and one runaround break from Noon which required try-saving heroics from Tommy Bowe and Geordan Murphy.

England were trying things, desperate to break free of the tactical torpor of the past few weeks. And while much of it broke down due to the lack of confidence in a struggling side there were, at least, signs of improvement.

A 13-10 lead at the interval became 16-10 when Cipriani landed another penalty soon after the break.

Enter Wilkinson for centre Flood.

His arrival, however, was swiftly followed by England’s sceond try, again the ball spinning through a series of hands, including those of Cipriani and Wilkinson, to allow Tait, on as a blood replacement for Sackey, to race in at the corner.

Again the try was converted, this time at the third attempt by Cipriani, who had trouble keeping the ball on the kicking tee and even then slipped over in the act of slotting the ball through the posts.

It was Cipriani’s day and he was again instrumental when Noon burst through for England’s third touchdown to complete their victory.