Ireland took full advantage of a record-breaking red card for England lock Charlie Ewels 82 seconds into their Six Nations clash at Twickenham after less than two minutes to claim a bonus-point 32-15 victory that keeps them in the hunt for the Six Nations title.
Ewels was sent off for a head-on-head tackle on Ireland second row James Ryan on Saturday after just 82 seconds and Ireland led 15-9 at halftime after tries for James Lowe and Hugo Keenan.
England hit back superbly to level the match via Marcus Smith’s boot in an amazing atmosphere but Ireland finished strongly as tries by Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham earned a potentially key bonus point.
France top the standings on 18 points after winning their first four games and will take the Grand Slam with victory over England next week.
Ireland have 16 and could still take their first title since 2018 with victory or possibly even a draw against Scotland in Dublin if England can upset France in the final game of the championship.
A French draw could also be enough for Ireland to top the standings with a win.
“We showed today how much it means to be part of this team. We didn’t give up for a second,” said England captain Courtney Lawes.
“We knew it was going to be tough from minute two. As soon as the red card went up the energy went up – but we were pretty tired at the end.”
The eagerly-awaited showdown appeared to be effectively decided when Ewels’ upright tackle on opposite number James Ryan gave the officials no room for “mitigation”.
It was the earliest sending off for any team since the championship began in 1883 as Ewels became the seventh England player to be sent off in a Test.
After a Johnny Sexton penalty, the dangerous Lowe was given way too much space and crossed for the opening try to give the visitors an 8-0 lead.
England regrouped well forcing a series of penalties enabling Smith to get it back to 8-6, only for a great running line by fullback Keenan to stretch the lead, which was 15-9 at halftime after another Smith penalty.
England regularly demolished the Ireland scrum after the break as Twickenham scented a victory for the ages as Smith clipped over two penalties to level the scores after an hour.
They exploded again when Freddie Steward grabbed an interception on his own line and galloped clear for a certain try, only for play to be called back for an Ireland penalty.
It proved the turning point of the match as Sexton knocked it over before Ireland piled on the pressure, eventually forcing England’s goalline defence to crack when Conan crossed in the corner and Bealham then bundled over for the potentially key fourth try.
England now go to Paris seeking to avoid three championship defeats for the second year in a row, while Ireland will need to do a job on Scotland then sit back and, if they can, cheer England on in Paris.
England coach Eddie Jones said the match was a great learning experience for his side, but they suffered for inexperience and over exuberance.
“I thought we were in a position to win the game,” said Jones. “Our inexperience and exuberance is fantastic for the team but it cost us a bit at the end.
Jones said his side “opened the field up for Ireland” in the latter stages as Jack Conan and Finlay Bealham made it over the tryline to end England’s chances of winning the title.
“It’s just experience, knowing what to do at the right time,” he continued. “All young players go through that.”
Jones said he had no issue with the red card because “the safety of the players is paramount”.
“It’s just something you’ve got to adapt and respond to,” he added.
Jones’ side travel to Paris to take on France, who are chasing a Grand Slam after dominating the first four rounds of the tournament.
“We’ll be right,” Jones said.
“We don’t have a shortage of spirit. We’ll get ourselves right and rip into France. You’ve got to set-piece well against them. The way they attack gives you opportunities to attack against them.”
England full-back Steward was as hopeful about England’s final game as Jones, but admitted losing any chance of wining the title was “devastating”.
“The Six Nations is always a tournament we want to win and that’s not going to be possible,” he said.
“This team is one that is not going to give up. We’ll review the game and we’ll attack the France game as we would any other. It’s a really exciting prospect to go to that atmosphere and put on a show.”
Meanwhile, Centre Chris Harris scored a brace of tries as Scotland edged to a 33-22 bonus-point victory over Italy in their Six Nations encounter at the Stadio Olimpico, inflicting a 36th successive defeat in the competition on their hosts.
Centre Sam Johnson, wing Darcy Graham and fullback Stuart Hogg also crossed for tries as Scotland came out on top in a game that was more of a street fight than an arm wrestle, with both teams playing some loose rugby compounded by errors.
Italy had managed only a single try in the Six Nations coming into the game, but got three in Rome as scrumhalf Callum Braley and debutant Ange Capuozzo, with a brace, crossed to score.
Capuozzo’s first try gave the home side their first second-half points in this year’s competition.
Scotland move into fourth in the table with 10 points from their four games, while Italy remain marooned at the foot of the standings, having yet to break their duck and with a game to come in Wales next weekend.
Italy had scored only 16 points in their three games before this one, so their haul against Scotland is another sign of their slow, but visible, improvement under coach Kieran Crowley.
It is hard to argue with a five-try win, though the visitors will be unhappy with some aspects of their play, particularly how they gave up possession with unforced errors.
It took Scotland almost a quarter of the game to string together some phases and enter the Italy 22, with their attack launched by the unlikely sight of hooker George Turner bursting down the right wing. The move was finished in the opposite corner by Johnson.
One quickly became two as Scotland went coast to coast from their own 22 after an intercept from scrumhalf Ali Price, who fed wing Kyle Steyn.
The latter’s kick towards the posts was collected unopposed by Harris to canter home.
Italy got their reward for a bright first half-hour when they found some space outside, wing Pierre Bruno showing excellent feet to stay in the field as he released the ball inside for Braley to score.
Harris scored another as the visitors led 19-10 at halftime, and they claimed their bonus-point try eight minutes into the second period when Finn Russell passed inside to Graham, who zig-zagged his way across the tryline.
Hogg cantered in for the visitors’ fifth try with 20 minutes remaining, but the last two scores in the game went to the lively Capuozzo as Italy finished the stronger.
Guess
Roar Rookie
Worth all the games "ruined" by red. Also sometimes a game only become more balanced and entertaining when a stronger team gets red carded
FunBus
Roar Rookie
'Too many overhyped players, as per usual!' That did make me giggle a little bit, NB, given that you seemed to have announced that every Welsh player who has put on the '7' shirt since John Taylor, was going to bestride the world stage like a colossus. I think Ellis Jenkins was the last one, although I presume I've missed your article on Basham. :happy: You can't have read much of the 'English' rugby press for 12 months if you think the backline is being over-hyped. I suppose the questions that arise are: 1. Is it a lack of cattle, and specifically, will the return of May, Watson, Farrell and (possibly if miracles occur), Tuilagi and Cosakasiga, with maybe Radwan, Hassell-Collins and a couple of others who might kick on, solve the issues? 2. Is it a 'systems' issue, and will this be solved once the new system beds down? 3. Is it a lack of gainline dominance in general that requires tweaking as much in the pack as the backline. The Aussie tour is shaping up to be very important.
FunBus
Roar Rookie
Would that be the England that Wilkinson led to a RWC in 2003 where, for the two years before that, they had about the same number of average tries per game as the ABs? Teams tried to kill momentum against them at the breakdown, so Wilkinson kicked the penalties on offer. When that didn’t work Australia announced to the world they were going to run ‘Dad’s Army’ off their feet in Oz in June 2003 (because England can’t score tries) and were promptly run off the pitch themselves with three backline tries from flowing moves. The idea that a team containing Jason Robinson, Lewsey, Cohen, Greenwood, and Catt can’t ‘score tries’ is laughable, and just shows how much that team got in the head of Aussies and Kiwis.
scrum
Roar Rookie
And bingo you are back- the one who claimed to be past his threshold. And it’s not my fault if you are incapable of admitting error regardless of the facts. It’s the sort of stuff that goes on in a primary school playground
Tom G
Roar Rookie
And bingo you’re back
scrum
Roar Rookie
You were the one questioning every post. When you mature a bit you may come to realise that admitting you were wrong is not that hard. You asked for proof Got it but still carried on denying the obvious. But never mind it’s all my fault
Tom G
Roar Rookie
My threshold for boredom peaked on Monday mate.. go bore someone else with your cut and paste articles. Must be good to have all that time on your hands.
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
George Kruis may well have been the best foil for Maro Itoje with England, just like Johnny Hill, but he was not in the highest class of second row - the Itoje, Etzebeth, Retallick, Whitelock, AWJ class. We all know that to be true, I think. Joe Launchbury on the other hand, prob would have made that class without his run of injuries. Eddie prob needs a win v France to save his job - as his desperate comments after the Ireland game imply. Two losing 6N seasons in a row would not be acceptable at HQ.
Neil Back
Roar Rookie
One mans excuse, another man's observation of the bleeding obvious. I think you'll find a lot of people consider Kruis to be/have been in a different class to Hill. Including your mate Harry. I guess we're all wrong. But there's time for Hill to grow into it. And a lot of people consider Hill a lucky Lions pick (but good on him) as indeed did a lot of people question Gatland's selections in particular last time around. With Ryan strangely off form, Launchbury injured and Gray seemingly one Scot too many for Warren's sensibilities etc, someone like Hill gets in almost by default. Anyway. Bring on the French. I'm still not sure they've properly hit their straps yet this tournament. How much worse can it get for Eddie's England?
scrum
Roar Rookie
Ok I will break my decision- below is a cut and paste from the report Preventing injury around the world Influenced by the research findings, South Africa trialled the revised scrum law from 2012 (prior to the global roll-out). In the four years prior to the law change in South Africa (2008-2011), 14 catastrophic scrum-related spinal injuries occurred, a rate of 3.5 per year. In the eight years after the laws revision (2012-2019), five such injuries have occurred in the scrum in South Africa, corresponding to a rate of 0.6 per year. Following the change in the law scrum-related injuries of all types in New Zealand that led to claims from a leading national insurer fell from 52 per 100,000 prior to the law change, to 24 per 100,000 in 2014. And in professional rugby in England there has been a significant 40% reduction in scrum-related injuries that lead to players missing training or playing time before and after the law change. So no results of the changes mentioned. Comprehension not your strong point In an 12 year SA survey the number of severe spinal injuries after the Law changes were basically 1/6 of the injuries prior to the Law change. And the other 2 examples clearly indicated a major reduction in all types of injuries post the Law change. It is incomprehensible that you basically deny that the results of the changes were not highlighted in the report.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
If you actually read the bloody article you would’ve seen that it referred to research supporting the development of changes not results of the changes themselves. The only thing you’ve managed to get right in your posts was in the last one… because you’ve wasted enough time with your puerile tirades
Daffyd
Roar Rookie
Thanks for your reply! Most concussions are going to be when the ball carrier has a change of direction and the tackler ends up with the head in the wrong side, or hits the hip bone. We can't do much about that. However we can make sure head high tackles are a rare occurrence. Some onus needs to also be on the ball carrier. I also think it is essential to stop ball carriers ducking or falling into a tackle. I think ducking into a tackle should warrant a free kick to the defending side. (The worst concussion I have seen is a winger taken ball and all in a perfectly legal tackle, and because he was wrapped up, could not get an arm out to take the fall. His head hit a baked hard (turf) cricket pitch. It sounded like a watermelon being dropped on concrete. Without any protocols in place he stayed on the field and afterwards had no idea -- where we were, who we were playing, what the score was, etc -- although he still recognised me. )
Nicholas Bishop
Expert
Yes we can agree on the last point at least, it was a great game of rugby. I don't think there is much point raking over the coals of the rest of it. I'll confine myself to pointing out that your player judgement is wrong - Kruis is not 'very different caliber' to Johnny Hill as a second row, who was a Lion in 2021 and beat out some pretty impressive contenders to get there. That comes down to your inexperience as a judge of rugby players, more worrying (not for me - for you) is that you simply do not realize when you are making excuses... And in comparison to just about every 6N team relatively new to each other and working with a relatively new attack coach, exacerbated by the fact that they are facing some decent defensive outfits. Pity you cannot see it - it tends to ruin a good conversation!
Carlos the Argie
Roar Guru
There’s a law book. Rugby LAWS. Sorry. :silly:
Aiden
Guest
I think in this case, the tackler was very upright and to me he had plenty of time and space to go lower. But overall I tend to agree with you in the sense that (1) yes we need to protect the head, but (2) laws/rules about protecting the head which ignore that its a high speed collision game don;t actually do anything, because players can't stop things like ... in your Kerevi example ... simply holding the ball and bracing for impact. Or, aiming for a blokes chest, and then the bloke ducks down and in a fraction of a second there is contact with the head. What I don't like to see is the TMO going looking for incidental contact near the try line, when realistically if you look at every ruck heads are bouncing off elbows all the time. If you really wanted to you could card half the players on the field before half time.
Aiden
Guest
The are still rules though. Laws are rules after all. :happy:
Aiden
Guest
Agree with all of that. Some rare examples excepting, I don;t think players ever actually mean to hurt their opponent or even attack the head. What they do, is they fail to go low enough, and then stuff happens in a split second which makes the tackle more dangerous than they intended. Why this is important to understand is, I honestly don't think (as many in the North are arguing) that we'll see more players doing more illegal stuff because they (in a fraction of a second) weigh up, 'Oh, I I'll only be off for 20 min, not the whole game, so maybe I'll try and take this guys head off.' I just don't believe that they think that way, so I don't see the red for the whole game as a deterrant. Your solution allows for calm consideration of the appropriate post game punishment, it provides some deterrant, it means that the whole team is not punished (when its not uncommon for the on field ruling to be wrong) and it balances out the impact to the other team by ensuring that the offending team lose a sub and the services of one of their best players. If post game we decide that the hit was particularly deliberate and malicious, season ban.
scrum
Roar Rookie
So the link I sent you from Bath Uni was nothing. Nothing in your eyes I guess. Pity it backed up everything I stated. This is the end of this conversation for me, no point debating with someone who lacks the emotional maturity to debate logically and acknowledge clear evidence.
Tom G
Roar Rookie
And you bring NOTHING
scrum
Roar Rookie
For heavens sake read the facts about reduction in injuries since the implementation of the new Engagement law. It’s there in black and white. You bring nothing to the argument other than to deny, deny but produce nothing at all to support your baseless position