England saved their Grand Slam hopes on observe with a 49-5 win in Cork on Sunday, however they had been made to work arduous so as to take action by a aggressive first-half efficiency from the hosts.
The victory takes England’s successful streak over the Irish past the 10-year mark, however the Crimson Roses’ first-half struggles had been a marked distinction to how the primary 40 minutes performed out of their 88-10 rout in final 12 months’s championship.
England’s superior health ranges confirmed within the second interval as they rattled off six tries to dent the keenness of the house crowd.
The bonus-point victory retains England forward of second-placed France forward of their seemingly title showdown in two week’s time.
“That was actually robust particularly the primary half,” fly-half Zoe Harrison informed the BBC. “That one was about being affected person. Eire’s defence was implausible so credit score to them. We wanted to get our momentum again.
“The half-time discuss modified our mindset. It was calm and we talked about the place we had been placing stress on ourselves.
After a combative first 25 minutes wherein their stout defence annoyed the Crimson Roses, the hosts snatched the lead after Amee-Leigh Costigan beat Abby Dow to Dannah O’Brien’s kick in behind to turn into the primary Irish girls to attain a strive in opposition to England in additional than six years.
The Crimson Roses struck again 9 minutes later when Morwenna Talling completed off a driving maul.
John Mitchell’s aspect got a lift after the interval when Eire had been diminished to 14 girls when Niamh O’Dowd was despatched to the sin-bin for repeated infringements.
However England’s struggles had been laid naked when star fullback Ellie Kildunne was despatched in behind the Irish line through a fragile grubber kick from Jess Breach, however the World Rugby participant of the 12 months didn’t deliver the bouncing ball into her grasp.
Fortnuately for Kildunne, Harrison was in a position so as to add England’s second strive of the afternoon when she burst by way of a spot to the touch down after which nail the ensuing conversion.
Now with their tails up after 50 minutes of arduous graft, England quickly added a 3rd rating of the afternoon when Dow broke clear and fed Natasha Hunt to dive over unchallenged.
Sarah Bern secured England’s bonus level when she powered previous some drained Irish our bodies close to the hour mark earlier than she added one other strive within the 67th minute.
Kildunne then made up for her earlier dealing with error by shimmying previous O’Dowd and sprinting clear so as to add her fourth strive of the championship.
Kelsey Clifford scored her first worldwide strive within the closing phases to register England’s seventh strive of the afternoon.
“We truly actually loved that take a look at,” England assault coach Lou Meadows stated. “We wanted that and it is good for the sport to have a primary half like that. It was about fixing it and we knew we had good set-piece. We simply did not end and fireplace our remaining shot.
“That is one thing we needed to work on, the women we actually calm and got here out and completed the job. You need to maintain it actually easy, so we thought: ‘let’s clear it up,’ and we did.”
Earlier on Saturday, France outclassed Wales in Brive the place Émilie Boulard marked her return at fullback with two tries.
– Ladies’s Six Nations full fixture record
