England 36 Ireland 21:IRELAND'S U-20S came up short in their second group game against a powerful and pacy English outfit in Rosario yesterday.
The Six Nations champions gave a nervy performance which contained plenty of effort, but their inability to deal with the English side’s strength in contact saw them come up short.
Allen Clarke’s men now go into Saturday’s final Pool B game against Argentina looking for a win to put them into the play-off for fifth place.
The Irish coach shuffled his pack before kick-off with three switches in the backline. Andrew Conway lined out in his usual fullback berth with Noel Reid at inside centre and Nevin Spence on the wing.
The opening quarter of an hour was littered with poor handling errors as England’s Tom Homer and Ireland’s James McKinney exchanged two penalties each.
England were powerful in the tight and looking dangerous when moving the ball wide with Simon Zebo doing well to intercept what looked like a try-scoring pass from Andy Forsyth, while at the other end a huge hit from the wing forced Homer into a knock-on that led to one of the penalties.
But it was England who made the first decisive move. Reid’s clearing kick was good but the Irish pack failed to retreat and as England opted for the scrum their blindside Jamie Gibson went through the tackle of Dominic Ryan and powered over despite Reid’s best efforts.
Homer converted, and although a booming Conway clearance gave Ireland some relief, their inability to stop the huge English forwards crossing the gainline was proving problematic.
Homer extended his side’s lead with a penalty, but Ireland finally found some room in midfield as Zebo came off his wing, seared through a gap, ran over Homer and powered to five metres short of the line.
He possibly should have passed, the English covering defence did a fine job of slowing the ball down and Brendan Macken knocked-on in midfield giving England a chance to clear.
It proved there was room to manoeuvre in the backline and they finally found a way through on the cusp of half-time from a scrum deep in English territory. McKinney started the move and the ball moved through Macken and Zebo before Conway added to his impressive tally against England in the corner.
England went close before the break, with Forsyth knocking-on on the line and Ireland went in 16-11 down. Homer and McKinney again exchanged kicks, but Ireland couldn’t contain the English threat as substitute Freddie Burns stepped inside the cover to score, Homer converting.
He added a penalty to make the difference more than two scores, and as Ireland pushed to close the gap, Burns intercepted a David McSharry pass to run in unopposed and ice the English cake.
Eoin Griffin pulled a late consolation back as Ireland battled a hopeless situation to the end.
IRELAND: A Conway; N Spence, B Macken (E Griffin 75), N Reid, S Zebo; J McKinney (D McSharry 70), J Cooney (M Heaney 70); J O’Connell (B Cagney 59), N Annett (D Doyle 70), S Maguire, D O’Callaghan, B Hayes (B Marshall 44), R Ruddock, D Ryan (B O’Hara 59), P Butler.
ENGLAND: T Homer; C Wade, A Forsyth, T Casson (J May 72), S Smith; R Clegg (F Burns 62), C Davies (S Harrison 58); L Imiolek, J George (R Buchanen 79), M Vunipola (J Marler 50), G Kruis (C Green 50), C Matthews, J Gibson, J Rowan (capt), A Gray.
Referee: G Williamson (New Zealand).
Also: France 31, Argentina 23.
