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'The best performance in an England shirt I've been involved in' - Jonny May

Manu Tuilagi and Henry Slade celebrate as England secure a valuable victory in Dublin. (Getty Images)

Henry Slade scored a second-half double as ruthless England consigned Six Nations champions Ireland to a first home defeat for over two years with a 32-20 bonus-point victory in Dublin.

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Joe Schmidt’s side started the defence of their title as firm favourites to retain it, but the 2018 Grand Slam winners were beaten for the first time on home soil since losing to New Zealand in November 2016.

Jonny May set the tone by scoring inside two minutes and Elliot Daly took advantage of a mistake from Jacob Stockdale to add another after Cian Healy touched down.

“We always want to start fast,” May told RugbyPass.

“It’s how we train, it’s how Eddie prepares us. We want to go out there and impose ourselves straight from the off. We executed our set piece and everyone did their role and I got put in the corner.”

The lively Slade crossed twice for Eddie Jones’ side and Owen Farrell scored 12 points with the boot as Ireland’s 12-match winning run at the Aviva Stadium came to a juddering halt.

A second Johnny Sexton penalty and late converted John Cooney try and were all Ireland could muster after the interval as they were outplayed by a hugely impressive England side.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtY_k9kAT73/

England silenced the majority of a raucous crowd by taking the lead just 90 seconds in, Farrell whipping a brilliant cut-out pass for Daly, who fed May on his outside for a superbly worked try.

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Tom Curry was sent to the sin bin for a late hit on Keith Earls and Ireland had their opening try just after he returned when Healy dotted down, and Sexton slotted through the conversion.

England responded well to that setback and produced another slick move to go clear, Stockdale juggling the ball under pressure from Jack Nowell and Daly racing onto his own kick to punish the prolific Ireland wing.

Slade gave clinical England breathing space when he darted to get on the end of a clever May kick to finish, then snaffled a stray pass from Sexton to rub salt into the wounds with a bonus-point try five minutes from time after a long-range Farrell penalty.

Winger Jonny May credited England’s win to the work rate within the group and their preparation pre-game.

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“We were clear in our game plan, and to a man, we executed that plan,” he said.

“It’s brilliant that we have had a few guys back from injury, that obviously helped.

“It was probably the best performance in an England shirt that I’ve been involved in. That’s promising, it shows us as a team we are learning and improving.

MAGNIFICENT MAKO DRIVES ENGLAND

Mako Vunipola was outstanding in a brilliant all-round display for England, making an astonishing 25 tackles and 11 carries. The prop was denied a try on the stroke of half-time for a double movement, but was named man-of-the-match for an outstanding performance.

IRELAND’S AERIAL BOMBARDMENT FAILS TO TAKE OFF

Much was made of the aerial bombardment that Daly would face after he was given the nod at full-back, but he and May were largely assured under the high ball as Sexton and Conor Murray were not allowed to dictate the play by England.

Ireland were up against it and they breathed a sigh of relief on the stroke of half-time when Mako Vunipola had a try – which was initially awarded – ruled out by Jerome Garces for a double movement following consultation with the TMO, with England having to settle for a Farrell penalty that gave them a seven-point lead at the break.

Jordan Larmour replaced Earls at the interval and Sexton reduced the deficit to four points before Farrell was off target from the tee, with Maro Itoje and Devin Toner limping out of what continued to be a fierce tussle.

However, Slade’s try proved to be a pivotal blow that Ireland couldn’t strike back from until Cooney burst through to go over right at the end for a try that Sexton quickly converted, but England already had a deserved victory in the bag.

OPTA FACTS

– England’s opening try was their first in Dublin since Delon Armitage crossed in 2011 in a Rugby World Cup warm-up game, they had failed to score a five-pointer in their three previous visits.

– Wing May has scored nine tries for England since the beginning of 2018, only Rieko Ioane has scored more in Test rugby during that time.

WHAT’S NEXT?

England host France, wounded by a second-half collapse against Wales, on Sunday and Ireland take on Scotland at Murrayfield on Saturday.

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t
takata 33 minutes ago
Can Les Bleus avoid a Black-wash in New Zealand?

Lost on the theory of why it would benefit a WC as well.

Where did I develop a theory about something benefiting the WC as well?!

It’s me lost 😊


I’m fully aware that French International players participation into Top 14, European Cups & 6 Nations will hinder their preparation for a WC. Its nothing new. Galthié & Co also noted that everything didn’t go the way it was planned in 2020 when he took over the national team. They had made detailed projections for players experience, number of caps, etc. that weren’t realistic in the long run to 2023 WC.


As for player welfare, since 2020, they have asked their players’ clubs to record and give them full data access to some set of metrics they had defined together concerning more than 120 targeted players (form U20 to senior players). Meanwhile, they were also frequently interviewing them in order to control their psychological state and motivation.


So I’m not particularly worried about Galthié’s ability to precisely know the real condition, mental & physical, of anyone he’s going to select to play for the team. From my humble level of observation, what I would guess about his current strategy, taking into account all those realistic limitations (game time, wellness, etc.) he is facing, is that he is trying to replicate for the national team what the clubs are doing in Top 14, in particular Toulouse (and now Bordeaux as well) since many seasons:


- drill as many quality players, as young as possible, to the core game plan and don’t build your team around individualities; then rotate players depending on who’s available for the day and keep the system flowing.

332 Go to comments
I
IkeaBoy 1 hour ago
Can Les Bleus avoid a Black-wash in New Zealand?

Forgive me, I meant BILLIONAIRES.


Altrad (Montpellier), Lorenzetti (Racing 92) & Wild (Stade Francais) have a combined NET worth of more than €10 billion! Altrad even gets to kit sponsor the national team despite the conflict of interest that would bring.


They are all cash cows as teams who go some length without winning major trophies still yield huge returns on the money their owners pump into them. The prize money is of little consequence even to serial winners. Any time they need a cash injection, they just hit up an investment partner.


Fiducial – the largest private shareholder in the league - has a 12% interest in Toulouse. They wouldn’t have to pay much in to get a cut of the €700 million broadcast deal, the bulk of which goes to the Top 14.  


Dupont – the league and indeed the games poster boy – is the product of rural dairy farmers rather fittingly as he is milked. His salary is a fraction of what he generates for his club, his country and for the sport.  Cash cow. And now recovering from his second major injury in as many years.


The clubs certainly don’t mess about when it comes to pumping money into the game but look at it in inflation terms.  It’s never at a higher rate year on year than the increase in their TV and broadcast deals. 


The club game has always been France’s priority. They got kicked out of the 5 Nations for almost 15 years because they paid players to play the game at club level despite its amateur status at the time. They were so very resistant to the eventual professionalism of the game. And openly so.


Their former Vichy government quite literally banned rugby league as a sport to clear the way for rugby union!


It’s a great league to watch and well supported but it’s a money league.  If you are going to mix metaphors and compare sports it’s not the French soccer league but the Saudi oil leagues that is a better comparison.  That’s what the Top 14 is in relative terms.


A lot of their current dealings around salary caps are shady. Proper shady. It was only a couple of seasons ago when Jaminet was ‘loaned’ 450K as a disguised payment to buy out his own contract to then move clubs. Interest free as well…

332 Go to comments
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