England 33-10 Ireland
Sat 15 March, 2008
Twickenham, London

Both national coaches needed to see their teams perform well this afternoon, but while Brian Ashton will be breathing a sigh of relief after this result, Ireland coach Eddie O’Sullivan is left with an uncertain future after a lack-lustre campaign, and an early exit from the World Cup last year.

Ireland drew first blood after 4 minutes, with Kearney grabbing an early Try after a quick restart found Geordan Murphy free to break through, and make the pass to Kearney. O’Gara converted, and then added a penalty three minutes later to make it 0-10 to the visitors.

With 20 minutes gone, though, England drew level after some intense pressure ended with a Sackey Try, and a Cipriani conversion. England then took the lead on the half hour mark, when Cipriani kicked an easy penalty to make it 13-10.

Ireland’s Murphy went off with a bad leg injury a few minutes later, but neither team were able to score again before half time.

Into the second half and Cipriani made it four from four successful goal kicks, to make it 16-10 on 45 minutes. Ireland had a great chance to pull the score back, but missed his kick at goal.

England removed Toby Flood from play and brought on dropped kicker, Jonny Wilkinson, much maligned after his poor performance last week in Edinburgh.

After 58 minutes blood replacement Tait raced over the line to score a Try, and was then promptly swapped off again. Cipriani converted, and took the score line to 23-10 for the home side.

England were always the more dangerous outfit in the second half, and with 11 minutes remaining, Noon won the game by fighting through two tackles to force his way over the line to score Try number three. Cipriani converted, and made the score 30-13, before kicking a penalty shortly after, to finish the game.

Teams

England
Balshaw, Sackey, Noon, Flood, Vainikolo, Cipriani, Wigglesworth, Sheridan, Mears, Vickery, Shaw, Borthwick, Croft, Lipman, Easter.

Replacements: Tait for Sackey (48), Wilkinson for Flood (53), Hodgson for Wigglesworth (75), Chuter for Mears (76), Stevens for Vickery (60), Kay for Shaw (61), Haskell for Lipman (64).

Ireland
Murphy, Bowe, Trimble, Horgan, Kearney, O’Gara, Reddan, Horan, Best, Hayes, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, Leamy, D. Wallace, Heaslip.

Replacements: Fitzgerald for Murphy (35), P. Wallace for Horgan (77), Stringer for Reddan (71), Buckley for Horan (67), Jackman for Best (71), Easterby for Leamy (12), O’Driscoll for D. Wallace (67).

Statistics and Info

England
Tries: 3
Cons: 3
Pens: 4

Ireland
Tries: 1
Cons: 1
Pens: 1

Man of the Match: Jamie Noon (ENG)
Referee: Stuart Dickinson (AUS)