England overpower Ireland at Twickenham
Jonny May scored two tries as England beat Ireland 18-7 at Twickenham.
It’s a second victory for Eddie Jones’ men in the Quilter Internationals as part of the Autumn Nations Cup, following last weekend’s 40-0 result against Georgia.
Ireland showed their intent to kick early on in the Test, peppering England’s 22 with a variety of high and low flights, but the hosts’ back three comfortably defused each aerial threat.
It took 17 minutes for the first points to be scored, and it was Jonny May who crossed. After a five-metre rolling maul was brought down short of the Irish line, Ben Youngs fed Owen Farrell, and the captain dropped a well-weighted kick toward the touchline and into the path of the onrushing May, who snatched it out of the air and dotted down.
May struck again just four minutes later. This time from inside his own 22 the winger stepped around Chris Farrell and broke into the Irish half before dropping the ball onto his boot, hacking it towards the try line and winning the race to ground it - Farrell’s conversion made it 12-0.
The two quick fire scores took the Gloucester man’s Test tally to 31, drawing him level with Will Greenwood and Ben Cohen, only Rory Underwood has more England tries.
Ireland rallied as half-time approached and threatened England’s line through a darting Keith Earl run, but the defence scrambled and brought him down short, before Billy Vunipola forced a crucial turnover as England held onto their lead at the break.
Ireland began the second half brightly in attack, but ill-discipline defensively from the men in green allowed captain Farrell two penalty opportunities and he duly converted both, stretching England’s lead to 18, inside the opening 10 minutes of the restart.
Ireland looked threatening on the hour mark, but each subsequent carry from their five metre attacking lineout was met by staunch defence, and eventually thwarted by a Maro Itoje turnover.
England were denied two clean sheets in two weeks when Jacob Stockdale crossed the whitewash seven minutes from the end. That score just a consolation though, as England saw out the game. They have now won 10 of their last 13 Tests against Ireland.
Teams
England Men
15. Elliot Daly, 14. Jonathan Joseph, 13. Ollie Lawrence, 12. Henry Slade, 11. Jonny May, 10. Owen Farrell (c), 9. Ben Youngs, 1. Mako Vunipola, 2. Jamie George, 3. Kyle Sinckler, 4. Maro Itoje, 5. Joe Launchbury, 6. Tom Curry, 7. Sam Underhill, 8. Billy Vunipola.
Finishers
16. Tom Dunn, 17. Ellis Genge, 18. Will Stuart, 19. Jonny Hill, 20. Ben Earl, 21. Dan Robson, 22. George Ford, 23. Max Malins.
Ireland Men
15. Hugo Keenan, 14. Keith Earls, 13. Chris Farrell, 12. Bundee Aki, 11. James Lowe, 10. Ross Byrne, 9. Jamison Gibson-Park, 1. Cian Healy, 2. Ronan Kelleher, 3. Andrew Porter, 4. Quinn Roux, 5. James Ryan, 6. CJ Stander, 7. Peter O’Mahony, 8. Caelan Doris.
Replacements
16. Rob Herring, 17. Ed Byrne, 18. Finlay Bealham, 19. Iain Henderson, 20. Will Connors, 21. Conor Murray, 22. Billy Burns, 23. Jacob Stockdale.
Fixtures & results
England 40-0 Georgia
England 18-7 Ireland
Wales v England | Saturday 28 November 2020 | KO 16:00 GMT | Parc y Scarlets
England v TBC | Sunday 6 December 2020 | KO 14:00 GMT | Twickenham Stadium
