Under-21 international, Ireland v England: The scoreline flatters Ireland who finished a distant second in this encounter at Donnybrook.
To use the word contest would be a misnomer because it simply wasn't one. England were appreciably superior in all facets of play despite only occasionally elevating the tenor of their game above mediocre.
If the visitors had maintained the intensity with which they started the match for longer periods then the mauling on the pitch would have been reflected on the scoreboard. England were also handicapped by the ineptitude of outhalf Toby Flood's place-kicking: one success from nine attempts needs little elaboration.
It didn't matter though nor did an irritating, overly fussy, whistle-happy display from Welsh official Tim Hayes. His intrusive presence rescued Ireland on half a dozen occasions as he elected to penalise the home side, allowing them to regroup, rather than permitting England to dole out their own justice at ruck-time.
England just needed to recycle the ball four or five times to create a numerical advantage; required to inject a modicum of speed and precision and this would guarantee the chance to score a try against a labouring Irish defence. They managed this on a half a dozen occasions and that yielded five tries. In essence this was no more demanding for the visitors than an opposed training session.
Physically superior, they dominated the contact areas and were able to turn over Irish ball almost at will. If the midfield distribution had been a little more assured then Ireland's discomfort would have been even more pronounced.
Ireland's set-piece play was abject. They lost more than half of their own lineouts, the scrum was a mess and gave up several penalties, while there were few discernible patterns in general play. The primary objective appeared to be to kick possession away in pursuit of territorial respite. It was rarely well enough directed.
The home side played a quarter of the match with 14 men, having two players binned at different stages. It would be churlish not to acknowledge the application and work ethic of most of the team, notably the backrow trio of Brent McNamee, Stephen Ferris and in particular Oisin Hennessy and the obvious ability of Andrew Trimble and Tommy Bowe behind the scrum. The latter in particular made a couple of decent breaks and along with Trimble looked a class apart.
England outhalf Toby Flood got his catalogue of misses started after just 43 seconds when missing a penalty from 28 metres but Ireland's respite was shortlived. Flood's superb long pass allowed Tom Biggs to send the supporting loosehead prop Michael Cusack over in the corner.
Irish outhalf Barry Keeshan responded with a penalty but the home side were undone a couple of minutes later by some brittle tackling and Olly Morgan's sleight of hand that led to a try for the strong running Tom Varndell.
England kept the scoreboard ticking along with a third try on 19 minutes with a traditional and uncomplicated move from a five metres scrum. Number eight Mark Hopley fed scrumhalf Ben Foden who in turn put Morgan over in the corner. Somehow Ireland managed to go in at the interval trailing only 15-6, Keeshan having kicked a second penalty.
The Irish outhalf missed a couple of similar opportunities that might have made their opponents a little jiggy but England cranked up their game a notch or two with Varndell adding a second try, again profiting from insipid tackling. Flood amazed the crowd by landing a penalty to make it 23-6 and the match fizzled out under a welter of errors.
England emptied the bench and as Ireland sought to move the ball in desperation, deep into injury time a turnover allowed Morgan to canter over for his second try.
SCORING SEQUENCE: 3 mins: Cusack try, 0-5; 6: Keeshan penalty, 3-5; 8: Varndell try, 3-10; 19: Morgan try, 3-15; 24: Keeshan penalty, 6-15. Half-time: 6-15. 52: Varndell try, 6-20; Flood penalty, 6-23; 81: Morgan try, 6-28.
IRELAND: M Kettyle (Belfast Harlequins); T Bowe (Belfast Harlequins), A Trimble (Ballymena), G Stafford (UCD), P McKenzie (Belfast Harlequins); B Keeshan (Cork Constitution), D O'Leary (UCC); M Diffley (Buccaneers), S Philpott (Saracens), J Andress (Belfast Harlequins); L Stevenson (Belfast Harlequins), R Caldwell (Dungannon); B McNamee (Northampton, capt), O Hennessy (Dungannon), S Ferris (Dungannon). Replacements: E Bracken (Buccaneers) for Ferris 29-41 mins; K Geraghty (London Irish) for Kettyle 53 mins; J Merrigan (Corinthians) for Philpott 61 mins; C Henry (Malone) for Hennessy 68 mins; Bracken for Andress 76 mins.
ENGLAND: O Morgan (Gloucester); T Biggs (Leeds Tykes), M Cornwell (Leicester Tigers), R Davis (Bath), T Varndell (Leicester Tigers); T Flood (Newcastle Falcons), Ben Foden (Sale Sharks); M Cusack (Leeds Tykes), N Briggs (Rotherham); A Croall (Saracens); R Blaze (Worcester), T Ryder (Leicester Tigers); J Haskell (London Wasps), D Seymour (Saracens), M Hopley (Worcester). Replacements: M Hampson (Leicester Tigers) for Cusack 48 mins; T Ojo (London Irish) for Varndell 64 mins; S Cox (Sale Sharks) for Ryder 70 mins; S Mackie (Newcastle Falcons) for Briggs 73 mins; L Dickson (Newcastle Falcons) for Foden 73 mins; S Whatling (Worcester) for Davis 76 mins; R Thorpe (London Irish) for Hopley 76 mins.
Referee: T Hayes (Wales).
Yellow cards: M Diffley (Ireland) 29-41 mins; S Ferris (Ireland) 50-62 mins; R Blaze (England) 59-70 mins.
