England begin brighter future as Smith drop goal halts Ireland Grand Slam hopes
England 23-22 Ireland
Marcus Smith’s drop goal in added time sent Twickenham into delirium and opened a window to a brighter, brasher future for England, while derailing Ireland’s hopes of rewriting the history books.
Ireland will almost certainly be Six Nations champions by the end of the fifth and final round of matches next Saturday as they have a four-point lead going into the meeting with Scotland in Dublin.
But they were chasing the higher prize of the first back-to-back Grand Slams in the Six Nations era – and this result maybe showed why it is so difficult to achieve.
“We knew from the beginning of the game if we played our best stuff we’d have a chance,” said Ben Earl, the No 8 who scored one of England’s three tries, and his team had done enough of that for enough of the 80 minutes to claim a victory that made a nonsense of the pre-match odds of 4-1 against.
“All the crap that’s been thrown at this team, apparently we’re the worst England team ever, so we’ve done pretty well for that accolade,” Earl said.
England also retain an outside shot at the title if they beat France in Lyon next week.
Chastened by a bunch of errors in their loss to Scotland last time out, Jamie George’s men roared into the Irish with a fourth-minute try by Ollie Lawrence and, give or take the odd lean patch, kept enough of their focus and intensity through to the final whistle to upset the team George and his head coach Steve Borthwick had built up as “the best in the world”.
England had sustained a red card in each of the last three meetings between the teams, but this time it was Ireland wounded by being a man short when Peter O’Mahony went to the sin bin in a second-half turning point.
With 57 minutes played, and Ireland leading 17-13, a line-out stolen by Ollie Chessum led to a lovely line break by Earl, and O’Mahony dived over a ruck to stem the flow.
Two minutes later, Earl crossed exultantly for England’s third try, in phase play expertly guided by substitute fly-half Marcus Smith after a line-out set up by the O’Mahony offence.
England’s success in getting among the Ireland line-out, a source of 13 tries in this Six Nations to date, is one of many feathers in Borthwick’s cap after this thrilling win.
Smith’s conversion then had England 20-17 up.
And although Ireland did score from a line-out just after being restored to 15 men, with James Lowe nabbing his second try in the left corner, there were eight minutes to turn it around and the will and skill in home ranks to do it.
Elliot Daly’s penalty shot from inside his own half drifted wide.
But surges of England’s attack in which Immanuel Feyi-Waboso – the newby wing who just loves attacking the gainline – helped drive forward, gaining a penalty advantage before Smith popped over the drop, anyway.
England had started with an intention to be quick, brave, decisive and accurate. Pressure on Lowe meant the wing failed to get his clearing kick off the field and the England counter-attack was excellent.
George Furbank ran diagonally right to left and linked with his Northampton club-mate, who crashed with a shudder into the onrushing Calvin Nash but crucially held onto the ball, and took a straightening step.
That gave England a four-on-three with a bit of space and George Ford and Furbank made it stick with good hands, before Henry Slade gave the final pass for Ollie Lawrence to saunter over at the corner.
Ford missed the conversion and would fail with a long-range penalty while Jack Crowley nailed four penalty goals for Ireland for the favourites to lead 12-8 at half-time.
Ford’s other points had come with a penalty on 16 minutes after another promising attack by England, carried into the guts of the Irish by Feyi-Waboso, Earl, George and Chessum.
Chessum’s fellow Leicester forward George Martin also made his mark with clattering tackles on second rows Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne.
But Beirne had also kept England out with a wonder steal from a ruck near the Ireland goalline on 22 minutes, and when the subsequent attack ended in a knock-on by Furbank, there was a concern at England again missing chances in the red zone.
A pass from Feyi-Waboso, spilled by Furbank, was an echo of the errors in the loss in Scotland two weeks ago. And Furbank made another marginal error, stepping into touch as he caught another long Lowe kick – it led to Crowley’s fourth penalty.
Then a problem with England’s new defence system resurfaced, three minutes into the second half, as Slade shot out of the line, and an unperturbed Crowley ushered the move to the left corner where Lowe administered a cool, diving finish: 17-8 to Ireland.
Furbank was happier attacking, and finishing, in the 48th minute after great handling by Sam Underhill and Maro Itoje, started by a short charge by Feyi-Waboso, who on his first Test start was quickly endearing himself to a Twickenham crowd beginning to revel in a possible upset.
From the 21-year-old Exeter wing to the scrum-half Danny Care, surrounded by his family after he came on from the bench for his 100th cap, the smiles were back on England faces.
