Ireland 10 England 12
Ireland left the bowl at Belfield winded by their loss to England, maybe pleased with some aspects of their play, not so with others in the first of their November Series matches.
With eight months to go before the World cup begins on the same pitch both sides often looked like works in progress, Ireland as often failing on option taking as general play.
No surprise there for the first outing of the winter with England feeding in their Rio Seven's players and dealing with a four day turnaround after beating France on Wednesday at the Twickenham Stoop.
The visitors heading off with bragging rights will hurt Ireland, who for large swathes of both halves held the ball and territory but got precious little for it. The issue for Ireland in the first half was most of the time they played 10 metres either side of the half way line.
Irish number eight Paula Fitzpatrick and loosehead prop Lindsay Peat punched through the middle but the England defence were never unduly troubled. Out wide Niamh Kavanagh and Allison Miler made ground with outside centre Nicole Fowley also gaining in a tough, high tackle count match.
But not once in the opening 40 minutes did Ireland unscramble the composure of the reigning World Champions, who patiently waited, bedded in and grabbed the few chances that came.
In attack particularly Irish cobwebs were evident but they did improve as the match progressed however even when Stapleton found decent territory in the second quarter, Ireland didn’t threaten.
England then came to life late in the first half. They were always going to do that. On 30 minutes Rachael Burford knifed through for their first decent line break of the game. The ball was fed wide and England pushed over but blinded Australian referee Amy Perret awarded a five yard scrum.
Minutes later off the same phase, England hooker Vicky Fleetwood peeled off an England maul on the right and made it to five yards short of the Irish line. But Rocky Clarke in support picked and wrestled through the scrambling Irish cover for the first try.
What a moment for the 35-year-old Clarke, whose 115th appearance takes her past the most capped English player of all time Jason Leonard.
Nora Stapleton landed a penalty for Ireland on 39 minutes for 3-5 and that was important, if only for Ireland’s rock solid effort.
The frustration was the inexperienced home side seemed always capable of winning. No more so when Nora Stapleton dummied a pass right inside the England 22 after a clutch of recycles and took off, stopping only when the ball touched down outside the post.
She converted for 10-5 with Ireland expecting to exact more from possession and territory. But England, who will go to a world ranking of two to Ireland’s five, again gave nothing away after Stapleton’s sting.
Instead they opened up a couple times, Fleetwood their nifty hooker going again, a knock-on sparing Ireland a score. England also put on a few pushes with their confident pack, with Irish tighthead prop Allis Egan wonderfully holding them up with a choke tackle on 68 minutes.
It was that power that finally undid Ireland six minutes from the end. An English lineout inside the Irish 22 was mauled forward. Once the momentum was with them, neither Egan nor the rest of the Irish pack could stop the roll, a mountain of bodies falling over, flanker Izzy Noel-Smith holding the ball.
Katy Mc Clean’s conversion took the score to 10-12 and while a Stapleton cross field kick in the dying minutes rattled England fullback Danielle Waterman, that’s how it ended.
England are now two wins from two. Ireland have aspects to be proud about, but have an injured hooker in Cliodhna Moloney, who left with her shoulder strapped. But Ireland were rightfully smouldering. This was one match that slipped from their grasp. Scoring sequence: 34 min R Clarke try 0-5; 39 mins N Stapleton pen 3-5; Halftime. 51 mins N Stapleton try, con 10-5; 75 mins Noel-Smith try, McClean con 10-12.
Ireland: M Coyne; N Kavanagh, N Fowley, S Naoupu, A Miller; N Stapleton, L Muldoon (Healy 53); L Peat (Hayes 63), C Moloney (Lyons 35), A Egan, M Reilly, O Fitzsimons (Noris 75), C Griffin, C Molloy (Pearse 45), P Fitzpatrick.
England: D Waterman; K Wilson, C Allan (Mc Clean 52), R Burford (Large 67), F Popcock; E Scott, L Mason (Hunt 52); R Clarke (Cornborough 57), V Fleetwood, L Keates (lucas 57), T Taylor, H Miller-Mills (Cleall 67), Izzy Noel-Smith, , M Packer (Cokayne 44), S Hunter. Referee: A Perry (ARU)
