England answer Ireland's defiance with second-half Six Nations blitz

RAN OUT OF STEAM: Ireland trailed England by two points at half time but England pulled away in the second half. Pic: Matt Browne/Sportsfile

Guinness Women's Six Nations: Ireland 5 England 49

England’s aristocrats showed their class in the second-half of this Six Nations meeting in Cork, the perennial champions eventually hitting a brave Ireland team for seven tries on their way to a 44-point win.

It’s a scoreline that masks a superb first-half effort from the Irish who took the lead midway through that opening period and showed yet again that this is a team going in the right direction as the summer’s World Cup approaches.

Ireland, without a win against England in a decade, and beaten 88-10 when the sides met in Twickenham 12 months ago, had been bullish about their chances of franking recent progress with what would have made for a shock win of epic proportions.

Head coach Scott Bemand had declared their intention to ‘fire shots’ and his players had echoed that. Talk is cheap but this team converted that into hard cash with a first-half display that utterly discommoded the best team in the world.

A solid foundation was paramount, so they started with that.

Out-half Dannah O’Brien kicked brilliantly from the hands, time and again turning England and pinning them deep inside their own 22. There were early mauls that came close to the first score, and they wouldn’t let the visitors get their attack going.

John Mitchell’s side had plenty of ball in the middle third of the opening half, and they kicked penalties to the corner time and again in an effort to break the home resistance, but they were finding it all a thankless task.

Ireland were rushing out brilliantly from the defensive line, jackling constantly and giving a record crowd of 7,754 plenty of opportunities to feed the bellows further. Slowly but surely, the team’s midweek belief spread around Virgin Media Park.

There were areas of concern.

England had four scrum penalties by the break and Ireland’s lineout wasn’t perfect. Funny then, that their opening try came from a botched throw from touch, O’Brien picking up the loose ball and kicking deep behind the onrushing D.

Amee-Leigh Costigan has over 200 tries in sevens rugby and that sort of speed and execution made her the perfect woman to latch on to that clever chip. O’Brien couldn’t convert but Ireland still led with 25 minutes played.

Some context here.

This team’s last try from open play against England had been recorded almost seven years earlier when Claire Molloy got the grounding in a 33-11 defeat in Coventry’s Ricoh Arena. So Costigan’s effort brought that drought to an end after 434 minutes.

England’s persistence finally paid off ten minutes later when Morwenna Talling responded off the back of their umpteenth lineout maul and Zoe Harrison’s kick gave them a 7-5 lead to take into the second-half.

That really should have ballooned in the opening exchanges after the break but Costigan did just enough to drag Jess Breach’s foot into touch just as she was dotting down, while world player of the year Ellie Kildunne knocked-on under no pressure in the in-goal area.

Those lucky breaks couldn’t dispel the sense of a home team living on borrowed time. That was only heightened when Niamh O’Dowd was sinbinned after the concession of a sixth scrum penalty. Were England shoving early? The ref didn’t think so.

England plundered two tries in her absence, the waves of pressure finally beginning to tell as they cut Ireland open in the wide channels with Zoe Harrison and Megan Jones stretching the lead to 21-5 towards the end of the third quarter.

The four-try bonus point followed just before the hour courtesy of replacement tighthead Sarah Bern and then the same Bristol Bears front row, Kildunne and Kelsey Clifford racked up tries five, six and seven as Ireland ran out of gas.

That’s 32 Six Nations wins on the spin now for England. Ireland go again in eight days’ time against Wales in Newport.

IRELAND: S Flood; A McGann, A Dalton, E Higgins, AL Costigan; D O’Brien, E Lane; N O’Dowd, N Jones, L Djougang; F Tuite, D Wall; B Hogan, E King, A Wafer.

Replacements: S McCarthy for Tuite (48-55) and for O’Dowd (57-67); G Moore for Tuite and A Reilly for Lane (both 56); V Elmes Kinlan for McGann, C Moloney for Jones and N Fowley for O’Brien (all 59); C Haney for Djougang and R Campbell for Wall (both 71).

ENGLAND: E Kildunne; A Dow, M Jones, T Heard, J Breach; Z Harrison, N Hunt; H Botterman, L Atkin-Davies, M Muir; M Talling, A Ward; Z Aldrcoft, S Kabeya, A Matthews.

Replacements: S Bern for Muir, K Ford for Atkin-Davies, A Cokayne for Botterman and L Packer for Hunt (all 52); R Galligan for Talling, M Feaunati for Kabeya and H Aitchison for Heard (all 62); H Rowland for Breach (67).

Referee: A Groizeleau (Fra).