England 23-22 Ireland
By David Nicholson
at Twickenham

ENGLAND won a titanic arm-wrestle on Saturday at Twickenham to break Irish hearts and end the visitor’s hopes of a second successive Grand Slam.

Magnanimous Ireland skipper Peter O’Mahony paid tribute to how well the men in white played and explained that the game “was a savage battle.”

The veteran forward had been sent to the sin bin in the 57th minute and England eschewed the three-point penalty in search of a try. Man-of-the-match Ben Earls duly burst over to punish the Irish and his side retook the lead.

But the reason Ireland are so hard to beat is their discipline in holding onto the ball and winger James Lowe went over for his second try of the game to edge his team into a two-point lead with just eight minutes remaining.

The mark of how England’s game is progressing was shown as the clock was in the red and the home side needed to retain possession for one final attack. The men in white did not panic and centurion scrum-half Danny Care dug the ball out of a ruck under the Irish posts and slung it to Marcus Smith who duly struck the drop goal to give England victory by one point.

England head coach Steve Borthwick will be pleased at how his side married their aggressive defence with more accuracy and potency in attack.

To score three tries against Ireland is no mean feat and this will give this England team the confidence to go to Paris next weekend and seek to win the championship.

A jubilant Ben Earl said: “We answered some of the rubbish that has been thrown at this team in the past week, apparently we are the worst England team ever.

“We knew from the beginning if we played our best game we would have a chance. Everything came together today.

“Playing the best team in the world it brings the best out of you, credit to Ireland and credit to the fans,” Earl said.

Irish head coach Andy Farrell said: “I thought we deserved to win after fighting back against the run of play.

“We will have to dust ourselves down and try to win our next game and the championship.”

Ireland host Scotland in their final game and a victory will give the men in green the Six Nations championship.

“We still have an opportunity to win the competition on the last day,” Farrell said.

England skipper Jamie George said he was proud of his team after the criticism they had losing to Scotland.

“We have a tough challenge going away to France. If we cannot take belief from that performance than we will never be able to — that was special,” George said.

“We talked about making Twickenham great again and how good is this. We have known that something special was coming, we had a huge amount of belief.”

Next up for England is France which will be a tough game, but one that is now winnable for the men in white.

If Ireland slip up against Scotland then England could still win the championship.

Coach Steve Borthwick said: “They enjoyed being in front of the supporters, to get the result and everybody goes home happy — we take a lot of satisfaction with that.

“Firstly, we will enjoy tonight, it’s important the players enjoy it and in seven days time we have another big Test match in France.

“But right now let’s enjoy this, Danny Care got his 100th cap for England and we will make sure we mark that,” Borthwick said.

The coach said England will watch Les Bleus play against Wales before travelling to Lyon for “what will be a tough battle.”