EDDIE’S FINEST HOUR
Slade scores twice as underdogs England find their bite and it’s...
BY the time Jerome Garces blew his final whistle, there was no air left in the Aviva Stadium. A breathless 80 minutes which turned out to be England’s finest hour under Eddie Jones.
With the World Cup kicking off in 229 days, England sent out a statement that will reverberate from Dublin to Durban to Dunedin.
They inflicted on Ireland their first ever Six Nations defeat at home under Joe Schmidt with a crushing victory that has been three years in the making.
Built on tactical perfection, raw physicality in defence and a brace of tries for Henry Slade, England set the tone for 2019 as the underdogs found their bite.
England coach Jones afterwards hailed his players for sticking to their game plan. ‘We tried to execute a plan to find the space in the Ireland defensive line and I think we did that really well,’ he said.
Across the road before kick-off, local bookmakers commissioned an ‘Edxit’ billboard offering odds on Jones losing his job before the end of the year. In the Irish newspapers, 12 out of 12 pundits had predicted a home win. England, they reminded us, had not scored a try in Dublin since 2011.
That all changed inside 95 seconds. Maro Itoje manhandled Keith Earls from the kick-off and England went on the offensive.
Jamie George intentionally overthrew a lineout to Manu Tuilagi and, on his first start in half a decade, the powerful centre rumbled into the Irish danger zone.
In came the heavies. Next up, Billy Vunipola offloaded out of the tackle to Owen Farrell. The captain then fizzed a double miss-pass to Elliot Daly, who set up Jonny May to score. England had not read the morning papers.
All of a sudden, ‘ Swing Low’ belted around the Aviva Stadium but England seemed keen to undo their early work.
May kicked the ball straight out, Kyle Sinckler was penalised for not rolling away, Tom Curry was pinged at the breakdown and, moments later, Curry was sin-binned for a late tackle on Earls.
‘Timing is clearly wrong,’ said referee Garces.
Then Itoje was harshly penalised for taking out Earls once more, as Ireland skipper Rory Best called for a second yellow card.
Soon after, George was caught offside and, turning down a second three-pointer, Johnny Sexton kicked for the corner.
The hosts built through their phases — death by a thousand cuts — and Cian Healy gave the hosts the lead from short range.
The script seemed inevitable but Ireland coach Schmidt’s backstop gamble started to show signs of weakness. England found space with their kicks as Robbie Hen- shaw, playing for his national side at full- back for only the second time, was caught out of position.
On the stroke of 30 minutes, Daly prodded a grubber kick into the corner and Jack Nowell gave chase. Jacob Stockdale fumbled the ball like a hot potato and Daly pounced for England’s second try.
‘We go again, boys, we go again,’ rallied Billy Vunipola as the visitors set up for a scrum in the final play of the first half.
The No 8 picked and went from the base before his brother, Mako, was held up just short. England, however, had a penalty advantage and Farrell kicked them to a 17-10 lead on the stroke of half-time.
As the supporters flooded out to top up their drinks, the statisticians reminded us that Ireland had lost the last 20 games in which they had trailed by more than a point at the break.
Jordan Larmour replaced Earls in the Irish back-field, while England unleashed Courtney Lawes from the bench.
Moments later, Itoje injured himself tackling Best and — compounding a handling error by Slade and a high tackle by Sinckler — England were forced into makeshift lock arrangements.
Sexton edged Ireland back with three points but Tuilagi pinned the Irish in their half with his heavyweight tackling in midfield.
Since Tuilagi’s last start in 2014, he has been injured, arrested, seen a witchdoctor, missed a World Cup, become a father, been injured again. And again.
In the meantime, England have used 20 different midfield partnerships, including the likes of Sam Burgess, Kyle Eastmond, Billy Twelvetrees and Brad Barritt. Tuilagi played like a man making up for lost time.
Once again, he smashed the ball up in midfield and won a penalty. This time, Farrell’s kick was wide
of the mark but England kept their foot on the throat.
Switching play off the back of a scrum, Slade ran from right to left to trigger a strike move. He fed the ball to May, before chasing the winger’s left-footed hoof to score England’s third after 66 minutes.
Four minutes later, Curry made amends for his yellow card with a turnover penalty. Farrell re-calibrated his range and moved England 12 points ahead.
England were in dreamland. The team of the year were on the ropes and, after 76 minutes, their player of the year, Sexton, threw a loose pass t hat was i ntercepted by Slade.
The centre stumbled over the line to score another, while the Irish fans filed out the exits in disbelief. John Cooney provided a late riposte for Ireland but, in the grand scheme of things, it was no consolation.