The sun greeted the kick-off at Lansdowne Road (to me, irrespective of sponsorship deals, it will always be Lansdowne Road). Ireland, unconvincing in their warm-up games so far, welcomed England, unconvincing in their warm-up games so far. Injury concerns on both sides of the tape, and Hendrie Fourie went straight into the side having been out of the World Cup 30 earlier in the week. England's Grand Slam dreams had been dashed in this very stadium 5 months previously, when they gave their least convincing performance in some time, but Ireland sensed blood that day and there was something at stake then.
After the Irish version of the Haka, a rendition of the uniting Ireland's call, England started ominously. 2 minutes of possession, Fourie to the fore on three occasions, before a series of big Irish tackles drove them back to such a disorganised extent that Wilkinson tried a drop from near halfway. England were buoyed by this though, and took the lead on 5 minutes, before Ireland had been out of their half. Haskell picked up and hit the blind side from a scrum, quick ball for once allowed England to ship it wide through Wilkinson and Tindall, where Tuilagi exploited the gap with great pace and power to stroll home untouched. Wilkinson added the conversion, and England had a deserved 7-0 lead.
Ireland seemed to wake up with this though, and twice earned penalties in England's half. The first they tried the corner route, but a bad line-out thwarted this. The second was nearer to the posts, following a late charge on Murphy, and O'Gara slotted this between the sticks to get the Irish on the board at 3-7. No sooner this though, than England's tight 5 put a huge squeeze on in front of the Irish posts, and the Irish had to stand up and concede an easy penalty for the metronomic Wilkinson to stretch the lead to 7 once more.
Ireland continued to push for the try, spurning 2 more kicks at goal and Redden somehow finding Cueto when with a little care, the corner was begging. Cueto's interception was the only way England could have avoided conceding, but Redden really should have done better. On 18 minutes, England were pinged bizarrely by touch judge Poite for a forward pass. Poite is an up and coming official, who referees the scrums as well as anyone, but his vision was somewhat errant on this occasion. Ireland got another penalty under the sticks for a breakdown infringement. Advantage was played before the penalty was given, and the bad news for Ireland was that David Wallace, the influential back row forward, was seemingly severely injured in the advantage play; another victim of a last minute injury?
O'Gara kicked the penalty, and Wilkinson retorted following a high tackle on the Irish 22 to make it 13-6 to the English, who looked far more incisive, probably due to the combination of quicker ball and Tuilagi's presence. Tuilagi was making his presence felt at both ends of the pitch and only a great last-ditch tackle by Murphy prevented a 3rd try in a game and a half in an England shirt. A little bit of chess followed, with the only incident of note being the precautionary removal of Heaslip with a slight injury, before O'Gara slotted a 3rd penalty following another England penalty, after which referee Nigel Owens gave the England captain the traditional warning of 'next cynical one goes for 10 minutes'.
A fired-up Croft and Healy exchanged pleasantries on the floor a couple of minutes before the half-time break. Healy lost a contact lens, England didn't lose Croft. Ireland pushed hard during the last 90 seconds, but solid scrambled defence from the away side saw them take the changing rooms with a 4 point lead. 3 important players, 2 Irishmean (Wallace and Heaslip) and 1 Englishman (Cueto), plus the back-up England flanker Fourie, had limped off during a tough first half in Dublin.
Half time Ireland 9 England 13
One minute into the second half, and Chris Ashton was the man who paid the penalty for England's persistent infringement at the breakdown, as he received a yellow card from Mr Owens before O'Gara hit the post with the subsequent penalty. England's 14 men did what short-handed sides need to do. They kept the ball in hand and shared the workload amongst themselves. Tindall, captain for the day, weighted a kick through perfectly for Delon Armitage who dropped over for England's second try to provoke strains of Swing Low Sweet Chariot... strains which were booed and whistled down by the home fans. Wilkinson had the last word from the touchline to make it 9-20.
The usual raft of second half changes, along with a torrential downpour, made continuity difficult in the second half, and both sides seemed pretty niggly meaning lots of penalties. With the rains come Flood, but not here as Wilkinson remained on the field with Wigglesworth who had a quietly efficient game. As usual in such circumstances, the kicking game comes to the fore, and Sexton, who had replaced O'Gara, and Armitage, both put in a couple of magnificent kicks. Inspirational moments were few and far between in a messy second half though, and with the ball more and more resembling a bar of soap, errors killed most positive intentions. It had become a game for the grafters, and the rise to prominence of O'Connell in green and Tindall in white was evidence of that. 2 of the doughtiest scrappers had big second half impacts.
As the last ten minutes arrived, and with the conditions not improving, Armitage badly sliced a kick from his own 22 allowing the solid Ireland line-out a good position from which to build an attack. Clean ball came, and Ireland went through the phases, but all was a little slow due to both excellent defence in midfield and the rain, and the attack petered out in an England line-out on the other side of the field. Any semblance of Irish penetration had completely gone now, as they missed D'Arcy and O'Driscoll (who wouldn't) and the game finished in a straightforward England win. A game which clearly lacked the intensity of this morning's battle in Brisbane, but then there was nothing on this one.
Final Score Ireland 9 England 20
Men of the Match - Manu Tuilagi and Mike Tindall. An early try, some destructive tackling, a finely placed kick and the required penetration in midfield. Impossible to split these two, who give England a promising partnership in their problem position at last. They're not Carling and Guscott, they're not O'Driscoll and D'Arcy, but they're a good unit.
Thoughts
Ireland finish their World Cup warm-up matches with a record of Played 4, Lost 4. Any forward momentum, any optimism, any warm feeling has been completely dispelled by a dreadful August. Admittedly, they missed O'Brien, O'Driscoll, D'Arcy and were further reduced during the game with the loss of Wallace and Heaslip. Their performances have left them thankful that they are in a pool that shouldn't cause too many problems (Australia aside, they should beat Italy, USA and Russia). There is no way though that they can compete with the probable Quarter Final opponents, South Africa. Let's not get ahead of ourselves though here. Declan Kidney is a shrewd coach, and assuming all his big names come through their various trials and tribulations, I'm sure he'll have picked them up by the time they land in New Zealand.
England however will bounce toward the plane after recording their first win in Dublin since they were crowned World Champions in 2003. I was a little nervous going into this game given the result in Cardiff 2 weeks ago, but another solid performance up front, where there are options across the board now for England, allied with improved performances at half back and the emergence of a centre partnership worthy of the name, means Martin Johnson can look forward to his World Cup with a little more confidence than he otherwise would have.
I hope you've enjoyed my take on today's two big Internationals. I will be back with the Pool C and D previews during the week. Keep the comments coming and follow me on twitter for more succinct comment and views.
No comments:
Post a Comment