IRELAND A 25 ENGLAND A 18Ireland deservedly won a match, where guts, character and determination were the requisite qualities required for victory.
This performance at Northampton last night should be long celebrated by the Ireland A pack, for it was that sector that deserved the plaudits, especially Leo Cullen, Reggie Corrigan, Alan Quinlan and second-half replacement Bob Casey.
The visitors scored two tries to nil and won't really care that the match rarely rose above the mediocre.
The intrusive whistle of Italian referee Marco Salera denied the game more than fleeting passages of continuity, and both sides suffered as a result. In mitigation, the official would point out that is was prodigious error rate that prevented the game from being elevated above a patchy affair.
Ireland were guilty of a litany of mistakes. There were exceptions: Cullen was equally impressive out of touch as he was in general play, his appetite for work, with and without the ball, particularly noteworthy.
Victor Costello, as he is accustomed to, was asked to make the hard yards and he generally managed this, despite being gang-tackled on several occasions. Keith Gleeson's speed and protection at the breakdown guaranteed the visitor's ball, but Ireland still insisted on committing too many players to rucks.
This allowed England the latitude to commit just two and three forwards to rucks and therefore space was at a premium for the Ireland backs further out. The corridors of midfield were generally well policed by England, as the Irish also offered too many side-on tackles while drifting across the pitch.
They made far greater inroads when the pack mauled the ball and this was particularly effective from driven lineouts: the only drawback was the occasionally wayward delivery of Paul Shields, who otherwise worked hard.
The respective outhalves, Paul Burke and Andrew Goode, exchanged early penalties before Ireland managed the only try of the half, a score that owed something initially to good fortune.
Burke saw a penalty rebound off a post only for an England player to knock on. From the ensuing five-metre scrum, Costello set up a ruck and when it was moved to the blindside, Burke made a half break before cleverly offloading to John Kelly, who dived over.
Ireland will rue the indiscipline that saw them concede a rash of penalties afterwards. Goode kicked four, with Ireland's solitary reply a similar strike from Burke, and England edged ahead 15-11 five minutes after the restart.
The Irish outhalf kicked his third to narrow the gap to a point after 49 minutes.
The individual errors continued, Ireland full back Paddy Wallace looking brittle under the high ball. It was his spill that allowed Goode his sixth penalty in the 52nd minute, but Ireland were somewhat fortunate that his accuracy deserted him when he had another chance five minutes later.
Burke posted a fourth penalty and Ireland started to cut down on errors. Casey was making his presence felt and Alan Quinlan was getting through a Trojan workload.
The Munster flanker played a big part in Ireland's second try on 70 minutes. Wallace exploited space on the shortside, Howe took it on, found Quinlan and the Ulster wing took the return pass to race the final 20 metres: Burke could not improve on it, but Ireland led 22-18.
Ireland's new-found ascendancy was exclusively down to the excellent mauling of the pack, and another superbly-controlled drive forced England to transgress and Burke obliged from a difficult angle on the 22-metre line.
Scoring sequence: 5 mins: Burke penalty, 0-3; 8: Goode penalty, 3-3; 11: Kelly try, 3-8; 26: Goode penalty, 6-8; 32: Burke penalty, 6-11; 41: Goode penalty, 9-11. Half-time: 9-11. 42: Goode penalty, 12-11; 45: Goode penalty, 15-11; 49: Burke penalty, 15-14; 52: Goode penalty, 18-14; 61: Burke penalty, 18-17; 70: Howe try, 18-22; 76: Burke penalty, 18-25. Sin-bin: N Walshe (England) 59-69 mins
ENGLAND A: M Perry (Bath); P Sackey (London Irish), H Paul (Gloucester), F Waters (Wasps), J Lewsey (Wasps); A Goode (Leicester), N Walshe (Saracens, capt); M Worsley (London Irish), A Titterell (Sale), R Nebbett (Leicester); A Brown (Bristol), T Palmer (Leeds); P Buxton (Newport), A Sanderson (Sale), D Danaher (London Irish). Replacements: D Flatman (Saracens) for Nebbett 52 mins; S White Cooper (Harlequins) for Buxton 61 mins, C Fortey (Gloucester) for Titterell 76 mins; A Sheridan (Bristol) for Brown 77 mins.
IRELAND A: P Wallace (Ulster); G D'Arcy (Leinster), J Kelly (Munster), M Mullins (Munster), T Howe (Ulster); P Burke (Harlequins), N Doak (Ulster); R Corrigan (Leinster, capt), P Shields (Ulster), S Best (Ulster); L Cullen (Leinster), J Davidson (Ulster); A Quinlan (Munster), V Costello (Leinster), K Gleeson (Leinster). Replacements: B Casey (Leinster for Davidson) half-time; M Horan (Munster) for Best 52 mins; A Ward (Ulster) for Costello 63 mins; J Holland (Munster) for Wallace 73 mins.
Referee: M Salera (Italy).
• A spirited Ireland under-19 side was made to pay for a serious lack of a cutting edge as they were beaten 15-0 by England at Coventry last night.
For much of the second half, Ireland had their more powerful opponents going backwards. But Ireland were never able to secure the space to breach the home line and five minutes from the end England counter attacked to grab a game-killing converted try.
