England 21

Ireland 13

IRELAND SUFFERED A traumatic 21-13 defeat against a fired-up England side at Twickenham.

Paul O'Connell scored a second-half try but Ireland came up short. Billy Stickland / INPHO Billy Stickland / INPHO / INPHO

England’s intensity , width and invention shocked Ireland during a frenetic opening 40 minutes as Jonny May and Anthony Watson crossed for well-worked early tries.

Ireland conceded 12 turnovers in the first half as the home side’s line-speed and breakdown intensity disrupted their opponents time and again.

Following a first half battering, Ireland recovered with Paul O’Connell powering over in the 53rd minute following a superb lineout move involving Devin Toner and Jamie Heaslip.

Replacement fly-half Owen Farrell secured the result for England with two late penalties.

A raft of replacements in the 60th minute upset the flow of the contest, but Ireland will not forgot a harrowing first-half in London any time soon.

The pre-match rendition of  ‘Ireland’s Call’ was wasn’t the only thing that was off-key as Joe Schmidt’s side made a sluggish start to the contest.

England came firing out of the blocks and were rewarded with their first five-pointer with less than four minutes on the clock.

Tommy Bowe will not be looking forward to Monday’s video review session following his missed tackle on opposite number Jonny May, who skipped over the left corner after an impressive spell of ball retention.

Jared Payne shows his dejection at the final whistle. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

The Gloucester winger benefiting from a deft, floating pass from Ben Youngs in the build-up.  George Ford fired over the touchline conversion to make it 7-0 with less than four minutes on the clock

Sexton’s penalty effort bounced off the bar to get Ireland back into the game in the seventh minute after try-scorer May was penalised for tackling Dave Kearney in the air.

It was all one-way traffic  as Bath fly half Ford launched a pin-point cross-kick into the right corner with Watson rising above the back-tracking Zebo to touch down for England’s second. Ford could not make it two touchline conversions in a row, but, it mattered little, as Stuart Lancaster’s fired-up outfit established an early 12-3 lead with just 15 minutes played.

Ireland’s nightmare start continued as Joe Marler burst through the Irish defence before play was stopped after Conor Murray was knocked out making the cover tackle. Eoin Reddan replaced Murray who did not reappear from the bench after undergoing a head injury assessment. In the stands, Ian Madigan, was beginning to twitch.

The visitors first meaningful attack of the game ended in bizarre circumstances as Redden sent up a high kick after the Irish pack set up a turgid maul on the English 22.

Sublime handling from Mike Brown, Ford and Tom Youngs sent May galloping over the corner once more but, after a lengthy deliberation between referee Nigel Owen and the TMO , the Leicester hooker’s final pass was ruled out to be foreard. A huge let-off for Ireland after a nightmarish opening 25 minutes. England were full value for the lead.

The first half ended with Sean O’Brien knocking on a switch pass with Sexton near the English line, It summed up Ireland’s problems in the first half as England headed for the sheds with a deserved 12-3 lead.

After Sexton had bounced a penalty effort over the post in the first half, Ford repeated the trick in the 47^th minute to increase England’s lead to 15-3.

Henshaw and Murray both went off injured. Dan Sheridan / INPHO Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO

Ireland found space hard to come by for the opening 50 minutes but their best attacking phase of the game yielded a penalty in front of the posts which Sexton duly converted.

Ireland’s resurgence continued with a try straight out of Simon Easterby’s play book. Toner rose high to claim the lineout before feeding Heaslip on the peel and O’Connell was on hand to seize on the quick recycle  to muscle his way over despite the attention of Marler, Ben Morgan and Chris Robshaw. Sexton made no mistake with the conversion.

Both coaches cleared their benches on the hour mark with Slammin’ Sam Burgess getting a chance to impress in the No 12 shirt as the solid and aggressive Brad Bararitt made way . Opposite the former South Sydney Rabbitohs star was Ian Madigan who replaced Henshaw, who put in an enormous shift in difficult circumstances.

Ireland were now looking at chasing the result in the final quarter with no fit half-backs on the bench.

Brown looked odds-on to sneak in at the corner but Farrell, who had replaced Ford, made a mess of the final pass before his Saracens team-mate and fellow replacement Richard Wigglesworth was then disallowed after another intervention from the TMO whoruled that man of the match Tom Wood had taken a forward pass from Robshaw two phases earlier.

Ireland were forced to replace Simon Zebo with Tadgh Furlong as their resources were stretched to the limit forcing Chris Henry to cover the left wing spot.

The final quarter descended into a frantic contest devoid of structure but Farrell put the result beyond doubt with a brace of penalties in the 74^th and 77^th minute.

Fittingly, the contest ended with an Irish player getting smashed back in the tackle as Burgess cleaned out Madigan in midfield. It was that kind of a day.

England scorers:

Tries: May, Watson

Conversions: Ford

Penalties: Ford, Farrell (two)

Ireland scorers:

Tries: O’Connell

Conversions: Sexton

Penalties: Sexton (two)

Waikato scored a ridiculously good coast-to-coast try against Auckland

Munster’s visit to Ospreys next weekend will be an incredibly poignant one