England battle past Ireland to conclude their warm-up matches in splendid way - Rugby News
England sailed over the rusty Ireland squad in their last warm-up match by a handsome total of 20-9 in Dublin on August 27. Ireland failed to clinch a victory before the start of the Rugby World Cup and lost the second consecutive match in this regard. The
motivated English side took the Irish for a ride as pay back for the Six Nations defeat. Ireland had shattered the dreams of England to grab a grand slam in this years’ Six Nations tournament by a huge difference of 24-8.
England initiated their campaign with a lofty try by Manu Tuilagi to put the opponents in the defensive mode. Jonny Wilkinson helped his side with a successful conversion kick and extended the lead to 7-0. The game was going at a rapid pace from the starting
whistle as the sides made repeated attacks own each other’s goals.
Ronan O’Gara was successful in scoring a three pointer in the match to open the account for Ireland in the ninth minute. Wilkinson, who had a wonderful day with his boots, extended the English lead to 10-3 with a three-pointer.
The Irish side was in a chasing mode and narrowed the lead as O’Gara made the score 6-10 with the help of a second plenty goal for his team. England ended up the first-half with 13-9 lead over Ireland and a close contest was expected in the second part of
the match.
However, Ireland failed to increase their total in the second-half, despite having been offered a number of chances. On the other hand, England bagged a try and converted a goal to ensure their victory over Ireland. On the whole, English captain, Mike Tindall
and Chris Ashton, did not do much to make an impression in the match.
Ireland: 15 Geordan Murphy, 14 Tommy Bowe, 13 Keith Earls, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 11 Andrew Trimble, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 9 Eoin Reddan, 8 Jamie Heaslip, 7 David Wallace, 6 Stephen Ferris, 5 Paul O'Connell, 4 Donncha O'Callaghan, 3 Mike Ross, 2 Jerry
Flannery, 1 Cian Healy.
Replacements: 16 Rory Best, 17 Tom Court , 18 Donnacha Ryan, 19 Denis Leamy, 20 Conor Murray, 21 Jonathan Sexton, 22 Fergus McFadden.
England: 15 Ben Foden, 14 Chris Ashton, 13 Manu Tuilagi, 12 Mike Tindall (capt), 11 Mark Cueto, 10 Jonny Wilkinson, 9 Richard Wigglesworth, 8 James Haskell, 7 Hendre Fourie, 6 Tom Croft, 5 Courtney Lawes, 4 Louis Deacon, 3 Dan Cole, 2 Steve
Thompson, 1 Andrew Sheridan.
Replacements: 16 Dylan Hartley, 17 Matt Stevens, 18 Simon Shaw, 19 Tom Palmer, 20 Joe Simpson, 21 Toby Flood, 22 Delon Armitage.
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