Women’s Six Nations: Ireland 5 England 49
The dam burst shortly after half-time and for 40 minutes Ireland were tossed on wave upon tide of England attacks. Their resistance was unflinching and fruitless. The overbearing context was the 78-point hammering in Twickenham a year ago, and by that blunt metric Ireland’s improvement was obvious and significant. But in a World Cup year, they cannot afford to take comfort in a 44-point beating.
Ireland trailed by just two points at the break, having squared up to England without deference. They scored first and nearly scored again while England were stuck on zero. Apart from the scrum, Ireland’s fundamentals were good, and many of England’s errors were forced. At half-time it felt like a contest between peers. That was unsustainable.
It was over 10 minutes after the restart. After a sixth scrum penalty was called against Ireland, Niamh O’Dowd was sent to the sin-bin, and while Ireland were reduced to 14 players England ran in two tries.
In the second half Ireland didn’t make their first entry into England’s 22 until two minutes from the end and by then they had been bombarded and battered. The unblinking courage of Ireland’s tackling was astonishing, but England’s power was overwhelming.
“Initially, it’s disappointing to see a game go away from you in the second half,” said Scott Bemand, the Ireland coach. “As we pick through the bones of it, there were questions asked of an English team that have not been asked of them recently. We got them under pressure. They’ve had to go back to the dressing-room and rediscover how they play the game because we had them under pressure.
“It’s a step forward from where we were a year ago, but there’s more to come. I said to the players at the end, this isn’t the end of the Six Nations. There are two massive games to come.”
In the first half England had no rhythm behind the scrum; the tempo, though, changed dramatically after the break. Once they got the ball to the edges, they repeatedly generated overlaps.
Ireland’s scramble defence was valiant and just after half-time Amee-Leigh Costigan denied Jess Breach with a flying tackle less than a yard from the try line. The pressure, though, was relentless. By the end England had run in seven tries, six of them in the second half.
It is rare for a tight head prop to be named player of the match, and rarer still in a game that contained 54 points, but it was significant that the award was given to Maud Muir. Ireland’s scrum was a straw house from the start and ultimately it collapsed.
Their lineout went the same way. In the first half Ireland lost just one lineout on their own throw, but in the third quarter they lost four, and England’s third try came directly from one of those turnovers.
The huge crowd of 7,754 – a record for a home fixture - never deserted them. With 10 minutes to go there was another heartfelt rendition of The Fields of Athenry, and half an hour after the final whistle Irish players were still signing posters and posing for selfies.
At half-time Ireland left the field to a standing ovation. A year ago, there were 38 points between the teams at the break, but, until then, everything about this game had been different. Ireland were smart and bolshie and refused to bow to the best team in the world.
England were forced to wait 35 minutes for their first score, and for most of that time Ireland were able to absorb whatever pressure the visitors could muster. Ireland, though, weren’t camped in the last ditch. They were terrific at the breakdown, spiking England’s momentum with a handful of turnovers, and Dannah O’Brien managed territory with a series of fine kicks.
Ireland’s driving maul had produced three tries against France, and it nearly produced another after just 10 minutes. England were marched back 15 metres towards their own line and only barely kept Ireland out.
Ireland’s breakthrough came soon afterwards. They gathered the ball on the ground at the back of a messy line-out, O’Brien played a terrific kick into space behind the Abby Bow, and Costigan exploded past her opposite number to touch down in the corner.
Ireland held the lead for just 10 minutes. Morwenna Talling touched down after a lineout maul, the excellent Zoe Harrison landed the conversion and England led 7-5 lead at the break. After that, the second half was nothing like the first.
Scoring Sequence: 25 mins Costigan try, 5-0; 35 mins Talling try, Harrison con, 5-7; Harrison try and con, 5-14; Jones try, Harrison con, 5-21; Bern try, Harrison con, 5-28; Bern try, Harrison con, 5-35; Kildunne try, Harrison con, 5-42; Ford try, Aitchinson con, 5-49
IRELAND: S Flood (Railway Union); A McGann (Railway Union), A Dalton (Old Belvedere), E Higgins (Railway Union); A-L Costigan Railway Union, capt); D O’Brien (Old Belvedere/Leinster), E Lane (Blackrock College); N O’Dowd (Old Belvedere/Leinster), N Jones (Gloucester-Hartpury), L Djougang (Old Belvedere/Leinster); F Tuite (Old Belvedere), D Wall (Exeter Chiefs/Munster); B Hogan (Old Belvedere/Ulster), E King (Old Belvedere), A Wafer (Blackrock College/Leinster). Replacements: S McCarthy (Railway Union/Munster) for Tuite 48 mins; A Reilly (Blackrock College/Connacht) for Lane 55 mins; G Moore (Trailfinders Women/IQ Rugby) for Tuite 55 mins; N Fowley (Galwegians/Connacht) for O’Brien 59 mins, V Elmes Kinlan (Wicklow) for McGann 59 mins; C Moloney (Exeter Chiefs) for Jones 59 mins; C Haney (Blackrock College /Leinster) for Djougang 72 mins; R Campbell (Old Belvedere/Leinster) for Wall 72 mins. Yellow card: N O’Dowd, 45 mins to 55 mins.
ENGLAND: E Kildunne; A Dow, M Jones, T Heard, J Breach; Z Harrison, N Hunt; H Botterman, L Atkin-Davies, M Muir; M Tallinn, A Ward; Z Aldcroft capt, S Kabeya, A Matthews. Replacements: A Cokayne for Botterman 53 mins, L Packer for Hunt 53 mins, S Bern for Muir 61 mins, R Galligan for Talling 61 mins M Feaunati for Kabeya 61 mins; H Aitchson for Heard 61 mins;, H Rowland for Breach 67 mins.
Referee: Aureilie Groizeleau (FFR).
