SIX NATIONS: WIN IN DUBLIN KEEPS ENGLAND GRAND SLAM ON TRACK

IRELAND   6 - 12 ENGLAND

England became the only side to keep their unbeaten record in the Six Nations this year as they beat a spirited a Irish side in a rain affected game at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Both sides came into this game with a win under their belts after winning their first games against Wales & Scotland respectively. This game was described pregame as a Grand slam decider between the 2 nations.

The game didn`t live up to the the hype to be honest, As England dominated the first half with great play and also took full advantage of the handling errors by the Irish players as the rain driving down made the ball at times slippery and unplayable.


England won a penalty when Ireland was penalized for not moving away and Fly Half Owen Farrell carried on his great start to his young International career as he kicked the penalty to give the Away side a 3-0 lead.

Then a talking point in the game, Irish back Cian Healy stamped aggressively on Dan Cole ankle that was stuck out in a ruck, The stamp lead to emotions reaching boiling point as players got involved in pushing and shoving over the incident. Replays of the incident shows it was a vile stamp by Healy who has since been cited over the incident.



England got another penalty as Ireland were losing composure and getting frustrated. Farrell kicked the penalty over and extended the lead to 6-0 for England. To compound the misery for the Irish in the 1st half along with knock ons, They had to contend with their kicker Johnathon Sexton going off injured as he pulled his hamstring trying to kick the ball upfield, But overstretched and was replaced by Ronan O Gara.

Ireland did get a late penalty in the half before the break as O Gara kicked to make it a 3 point game and give Ireland a bit of hope as England were out working and punishing their mistakes.


Most would think England would try to push on and kill the game off, However the start of the Second half for Ireland looked a completely different side from the first.

 As they had the visitors rattled and England were starting to show signs of nerves as they too started knocking on and were being penned in their half by a resurgent Ireland side. The Irish had woken from their slumber and the roar from the crowd made the atmosphere electric as the men in Green shirts were taking over now.

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Haskell for England was sin binned as he failed to move away and he was adjudged to have kicked the ball away, leading the French ref to send him to the Sin Bin for 10 mins,Despite his protests England were down to 14 men for a while.

Ireland then won a penalty which O Gara dispatched for 6-6 scoreline, For the man advantage Ireland never took the game to England. They quelled the Irish attacks & that helped England out as the chance to use the extra man never came.

 Owen Farrell then gave England the lead back as he kicked 2 more penalties to make it 12-6 in the Red Rose nation favour.


Ireland had a couple of chances but couldn`t breach the England defences and with time counting down, they drew a penalty on themselves and with England captain Robshaw telling him to kick at goal, Farrell told his captain to kick to touch to eat up time. And resulted in them winning the line out and kicking the ball out for a famous win and their first win since 2003 in Ireland.

England will hope the winning run continues as they face France who are in a hole at the min!

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