England A too strong for injury-hit Ireland A
England's Ollie Hassell-Collins is tackled by Ireland's Shane Daly. Pic: Adam Davy/PA Wire.
Ireland’s second string succumbed to defeat by their English counterpart on a miserable Sunday afternoon at Ashton Gate as Mike Prendergast’s side failed to overcome a string of in-game injuries.
Ireland A lost the spine of their team over the course of the first hour, with hooker Diarmuid Barron, full-back Shane Daly and both fly-halves, Ciaran Frawley and his replacement Harry Byrne, failing to finish a contest undermined by terrible conditions in front of a hardy crowd of 9,500 supporters.
It was difficult scenario to impress the Irish management as England’s power proved as difficult to handle as the slippery ball. Test-capped Englishmen Ollie Hassell-Collins and skipper Jack van Poortvliet had given the home side a 14-5 interval lead with converted tries either side of an unconverted Irish score from wing Shayne Bolton.
Ireland managed to hold out an English onslaught for much of the second half before a trio of late tries saw the game decided in the home side’s favour, Greg Fisilau scoring on 74 minutes, Hugh Gavin replying for Ireland before England made sure with a late penalty try.
Ireland’s resources had been stretched early, with hooker Diarmuid Barron removed for a Head Injury Assessment that would become permanent after five minutes before his Munster team-mate, full-back Shane Daly sustained a game-ending injury making a try-saving tackle on English wing Ollie Hassell-Collins as he attempted to score his second try of the opening half on 20 minutes.
Hassell-Collins had opened the scoring on 13 minutes with a try converted by Charlie Atkinson after England A had survived an opening assault and twice held up Irishmen, props Jack Aungier and Tom O’Toole, over their tryline.
Ireland had been positive with ball in hand from the off, forsaking easy three-pointers from the tee in favour of kicks to the corner from the boot of Ciaran Frawley and they struck back from a lineout after England had been caught offside inside their own 22. Frawley took over after a well-defended maul by changing the point of attack with a pass out the back of the Irish line from where the ball was sent left of the posts to captain Max Deegan, whose long pass to the edge found Shayne Bolton, the Connacht wing served up a simple run in for the try on 17 minutes.
On a windy, rainy day in Bristol, Frawley failed to land his touchline conversion and further disappointment would follow with Daly’s injury, the full-back carried off the pitch and leaving the field on a stretcher cart at the end of the opening quarter.
The enforced change switched Frawley to full-back as Harry Byrne entered off the bench at fly-half on his temporary home ground as a Bristol Bears loanee from Leinster. England, however, were starting to make inroads through their big ball carriers and Byrne came off worst in contact to leave Frawley alone in the Irish backfield. English captain Jack van Poortvliet eyed an opportunity and exploited it, surviving a covering tackle from Bolton to slide in for England’s second try on 24 minutes.
As Atkinson converted for a 14-5 England A lead, Byrne was forced off, just five minutes after his introduction as Ireland A were subjected to another backline reshuffle with Frawley returning to fly-half, Tommy O’Brien moving from the wing to full-back as scrum-half Fintan Gunne, their last remaining replacement on a six-two bench, was sent on as an auxiliary left wing.
England took their 14-5 lead into the half-time break and turned the screw further at the start of the second half as the wind and rain grew heavier and gustier. Ireland managed to withstand the pressure as handling became a lottery and the game descended into a series of scrums, all inside the visitors’ 22.
There was another blow for Ireland when Frawley was removed for an HIA on 55 minutes, back-rower Brian Gleeson his replacement as Nathan Doak moved from scrum-half to 10, Gunne stopped off the wing into his customary position as a nine and blindside flanker Deegan spent spells on the wing.
Somehow, Ireland worked themselves free from their third-quarter siege without conceding but it continued to be an attritional, stuttering contest.
When Ireland finally found some fluency after the hour-mark it had threatened to be undone by an interception breakaway from England replacement back George Hendy, the Northampton Saints wing racing from his own 10-metre line to and managing to control the skidding ball with his boot to slide in for what the Ashton Gate crowd thought were the first points of the second half on 66 minutes.
Referee Ben Breakspear had a different perspective having seen a knock-on from an English tackler that had freed the ball for Hendy to strike but Ireland soon found themselves back on their line and forced to defend, compromised once more by injury as tighthead prop replacement Oli Jager became the third Munster player to be forced out of the action, limping out on 69 minutes, as Aungier returned to the fray.
Finally the dam broke, replacement backrower Greg Fisilau securing the English win with a 74th minute try, converted by Jamie Shillcock to open up a decisive 21-5 lead six minutes form full-time.
Ireland stuck to their task, however, and were rewarded with a late try through centre Hugh Gavin from close range, converted by Doak to make it 21-12, only to concede a penalty try at the death as skipper Deegan was sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on.
A disappointing end to a dispiriting afternoon.
J Carpenter; T Elliott (G Hendy, 49), M Ojomoh, W Butt, O Hassell-Collins; C Atkinson (J Shillcock, 59), J van Poortvliet (W Porter, 67); P Brantingham (T Haffar, 49), C Langdon (G Oghre, 49), G Kloska (L Green, 49); H Tizard (R Capstick, 57), T Lockett; J Kenningham, A Balbeary, G Fisilau, 25-36 – HIA & 57)
S Daly (H Byrne, 20; F Gunne, 25); T O’Brien, J Postlethwaite, H Gavin, S Bolton; C Frawley (B Gleeson, 55 - HIA), N Doak; T O’Toole (P McCarthy, 55), D Barron (S Smyth, 5 - HIA), J Aungier (O Jager, 45-69); E O’Connell (C O’Tighearnaigh, 45), D Murray; M Deegan, A Kendellen, S Jansen (A Soroka, 69).
M Deegan 78-
Referee: Ben Breakspear (Wales)
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