Ireland pulled the rug from under the feet of the world champions by battling their way to a famous 19-13 victory over England in RBS Six Nations action from Twickenham. A try by fullback Girvan Dempsey and 14 points from the boot of Ronan O'Gara were enough to bring England's 22-match winning streak at home to a clattering end.
It's been seven long years since England last lost a championship game at Twickenham, and a cheer will go up from John O'Groats to Sicily after a determined Irish side exposed some glaring weaknesses within the newly-crowned rugby kings.
England's famous forwards collapsed under the immense pressure put upon them by the Irish pack, and the running repairs performed by England coach Clive Woodward could not hide their deficiencies.
England's line-out simply fell apart under the close scrutiny of the visitors, and their pack failed to find answers to Ireland superiority in the rucks, scrums and the mauls.
But it looked like business as usual for England after O'Gara missed a sitter in the opening minutes -- yet the Munster fly-half did well to recover his composure to slot two trickier penalties soon afterwards.
Moments later, however, a rare creak in the Irish scrum saw Peter Stringer hassled off the ball, which went loose -- Paul Grayson collected and fed to Matt Dawson who touched down under the posts for a converted try.
The Twickenham crowd duly erupted, but Ireland refused to bow to the "inevitable", even after a Grayson penalty, fighting back to claim a deserved half-time lead of 12-10 courtesy of two further O'Gara penalties.
The World Cup winners' home-coming party was going badly, and England exploded out of the slips after the break, only to be denied a try after the video ref ruled -- quite correctly -- that Ben Cohen was guilty of a double movement in the act of scoring.
The let-off seemed to inspire Ireland and Gordon D'Arcy -- unquestionably the find of the tournament thus far -- left the England defence standing with a superb break.
After the ball was spread wide, Leinster fullback Dempsey came onto the end of the last past to cross over in the corner. O'Gara added a brilliant conversion to leave every Englishman in attendance visibly shocked.
The home side finally upped the tempo and substitute Mark Regan thought he had crossed the Irish line, but he was pushed into touch before he could ground the ball.
Grayson added a penalty to make the score 19-13 and -- despite some late pressure -- England continued to make basic errors in the face of their very stubborn guests.
Ireland managed to hang on, and found the energy to perform a jig of pure delight once referee Paul Honiss blew for full-time.
The message on their beaming faces was clear: England are fallible and "Fortress Twickenham" is no more.
Man of the match: Gordon D'Arcy deserves a mention for some fabulous breaks, and Ronan O'Gara conducted the game wisely -- playing the percentages and making England suffer. But our award goes to all the Irish forwards, who showed up their English counterparts with a passionate and committed display.
Moment of the match: England's defensive coach Phil Lader can watch the break by Gordon D'Arcy that lead to Ireland's try as many times as he likes, but there really aren't any provisions to be made for an attack like that -- it was simply magic!
Villain of the match: Bizarrely, several of the England players felt that questioning practically every decision made by referee Paul Honiss would get them somewhere -- there really isn't any place for back-chat in rugby and they were lucky that Honiss decided against punishing the more talkative members of the losing side. But, with our own whinge out of the way, we push this award towards Ben Cohen, who went into Girvan Dempsey's midriff feet-first as the Irishman slid across the line for his try.
The Teams:
Ireland: 1 John Hayes, 2 Shane Byrne, 3 Reggie Corrigan, 4 Malcolm O'Kelly, 5 Paul O'Connell, 6 Simon Easterby, 7 Keith Gleeson, 8 Anthony Foley, 9 Peter Stringer, 10 Ronan O'Gara, 11 Tyrone Howe, 12 Gordon D'Arcy, 13 Brian O'Driscoll (c), 14 Shane Horgan, 15 Girvan Dempsey
Reserves: Kevin Maggs
Unused: Victor Costello, Guy Easterby, David Humphreys, Gary Longwell, Simon Best, Frankie Sheahan
England: 1 Phil Vickery, 2 Steve Thompson, 3 Trevor Woodman, 4 Ben Kay, 5 Steve Borthwick, 6 Richard Hill, 7 Joe Worsley, 8 Lawrence Dallaglio (c), 9 Matt Dawson, 10 Paul Grayson, 11 Ben Cohen, 12 Will Greenwood, 13 Jason Robinson, 14 Josh Lewsey, 15 Iain Balshaw
Reserves: Mark Regan, Olly Barkley, Chris Jones, James Simpson-Daniel
Unused: Neil Back, Andy Gomarsall, Matt Stevens
Attendance: 72000
Referee: Honiss p.
Points Scorers
Ireland
Tries: Dempsey G.T. 1
Conv: O'Gara R.J.R. 1
Pen K.: O'Gara R.J.R. 4
England
Tries:
Dawson M.J.S. 1
Conv: Grayson P.J. 1
Pen K.: Grayson P.J. 2
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