A poor performance and dour encounter saw Ireland suffer a 16-point defeat
Ireland U20 3 England U20 19
A fruitless start to Neil Doak’s tenure as Ireland U20 manager saw England cruise to victory at Virgin Media Park on Thursday night in the opening round of the U20 Six Nations.
The defeat is made even worse when you factor in the numerical advantage Ireland enjoyed for much of the first half.
If Ireland are to get anything out of this campaign, they’ll need to pull together quickly.
Fifteen minutes into the game Junior Kpoku was dismissed for a high tackle on Eoghan Smyth, while Tom Burrow was sin binned 11 minutes later for slapping the ball away from Clark Logan in the ruck.
A chance for Ireland to get a foothold in the game. What followed was anything but.
The difference in players was the only measure in which Ireland were on top. The hosts made mistake after mistake and were outscored by England 6-3 in that spell.
Two penalties from the boot of Ben Coen and one from Ireland’s Sam Wisniewski left it 9-3 at that stage. The score was the same when referee Jérémy Rozier blew for half-time, but by then England were restored to 15 men.
On the resumption England improved but last year’s champions were still far from their best, and a mistake during a line-out stopped the visitors from finding a way over the tryline.
Unfortunately for Ireland they weren’t going to make that mistake again. With a maul advancing and England on the cusp of scoring, Oisín Minogue was penalised for stopping the maul illegally and sent to the sin bin.
The subsequent penalty try ensured Ireland would have a long way back, with the score now 16-3.
The remaining 10 minutes was likely Ireland’s best spell, but again mistakes plagued any potential advances. Michael Foy came closest with only a few minutes to go but was taken down just before the line. Much to the disappointment of the home crowd.
Coen added his fourth penalty of the night to seal the English victory, but it was a worrying result and performance from an Ireland team that looked like they hadn’t played a game together yet this season.
Scorers for Ireland: Penalty: S Wisniewski.
England: Try: Penalty try; Penalties: B Coen 4.
IRELAND: C Molony; D Moloney, C Fahy, E Smyth (G O’Leary Kareem 55), C Mangan; S Wisniewski (D Green 62), C Logan (A Doyle 68); A Usanov (B Bohan 15), H Walker (C Magee 51), A Mullan (T McAllister 51); M Ronan (D Walsh 67), B Corrigan; M Foy, B Power (O Minogue 66), É McCarthy (c).
Sin bin: O Minogue (68-78).
ENGLAND: J Kinder (J Bellamy 72); J Bracken, A Hall, N Allison (N Lilley 75), C Griffin; B Coen, A McParland (L Friday 26); R McEachran (O Scola 78), K Tuipulotu (L Gulley 74), V Sela (T Raymont 77); O Sodeke (A Ainsworth-Cave 78), T Burrow (c); J Kpoku (G Timmins 35), H Pollock, K James.
Red card: J Kpoku (15).
Sin bin: T Burrow (26-38).
Referee: J Rozier (FFR).