Ireland's superb second half sees England shredded in Six Nations

Simon Easterby’s brief stint in charge of Ireland started in ideal fashion as they came from behind at the break to earn a 27-22 victory over England at the Aviva Stadium.

The Red Rose were impressive in the first half and held a 10-5 advantage at the interval through Cadan Murley’s try and Marcus Smith’s penalty.

Jamison Gibson-Park had responded for an Ireland side who lacked the fluency we’ve come to expect, but they rectified that in the second period.

They dominated the final 40 minutes, with tries from Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan sealing the win.

It was yet another missed opportunity for England, who undid all the good work after the interval, despite Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman’s efforts giving them a losing bonus-point.

While few expected England to win against the defending Six Nations champions, most thought they would provide Ireland with stern opposition and so it proved as Borthwick’s side began on the front foot.

A mixture of accurate kicking and some fine moments in broken field kept the Irish defence guessing and they got their reward early on.

Marcus Smith had already shown the threat they can pose when he linked with Freeman to send the Northampton Saint scampering down the right.

Although that attack broke down, the visitors were deservedly on the board soon after.  Ollie Lawrence made the initial incursion before play was shifted left and Henry Slade’s grubber through was picked up and finished by Murley on his Test debut.

Following that fine attacking start, it was all about defence for the Red Rose as Ireland got into groove with the ball.

It offered a chance for Sam Prendergast to prove his selection and, at times, it worked well, but too often passes went to ground.

Ireland were certainly better than they were in the Autumn Nations Series, however, particularly with their intensity and physicality in the contact area, and it put the opposition under pressure.

It resulted in a string of penalties and eventually referee Ben O’Keeffe ran out of patience, leading to a yellow card for Smith.

The Red Rose held out well for the next 10 minutes but a simple missed tackle was eventually their undoing as James Lowe shook off Alex Mitchell and found Gibson-Park, who finished brilliantly.

Prendergast missed the conversion, though, and that proved costly as England moved five points clear at the interval through a Smith three-pointer.

Unperturbed, the hosts continued to dominate possession and territory, while the visitors’ discipline remained poor.  England were unfortunate with a few decisions but there were also some needless penalties and that gave Ireland front foot ball.

Eventually, the dam broke when they isolated Aki one-on-one with Smith, but the Ireland centre still did superbly to bounce him off and finish under pressure.

Ireland now had the momentum while the Red Rose continued to make errors and another infringement enabled Prendergast to make his first kick of the game.

The hosts were very much beginning to find their rhythm and they concocted a brilliant attack when Lowe took an outstanding line through the heart of the English rearguard.  It was Beirne who supplied the excellent support and the lock duly touched down to end the game as a contest.

All that Ireland required for the perfect evening was the bonus-point and that came through the returning Sheehan, who latched onto some more wonderful work from Lowe.

England did finish with a flourish thanks to scores from Curry and Freeman, but it was very much the hosts’ day.

The teams

Ireland:  15 Hugo Keenan, 14 Mack Hansen, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Bundee Aki, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Jamison Gibson-Park, 8 Caelan Doris (c), 7 Josh van der Flier, 6 Ryan Baird, 5 Tadhg Beirne, 4 James Ryan, 3 Finlay Bealham, 2 Rónan Kelleher, 1 Andrew Porter
Replacements:  16 Dan Sheehan, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Thomas Clarkson, 19 Iain Henderson, 20 Jack Conan, 21 Conor Murray, 22 Jack Crowley, 23 Robbie Henshaw

England:  15 Freddie Steward, 14 Tommy Freeman, 13 Ollie Lawrence, 12 Henry Slade, 11 Cadan Murley, 10 Marcus Smith, 9 Alex Mitchell, 8 Ben Earl, 7 Ben Curry, 6 Tom Curry, 5 George Martin, 4 Maro Itoje (c), 3 Will Stuart, 2 Luke Cowan-Dickie, 1 Ellis Genge
Replacements:  16 Theo Dan, 17 Fin Baxter, 18 Joe Heyes, 19 Ollie Chessum, 20 Chandler Cunningham-South, 21 Tom Willis, 22 Harry Randall, 23 Fin Smith

Referee:  Ben O’Keeffe (New Zealand)
Assistant referees:  James Doleman (New Zealand), Hollie Davidson (Scotland)
TMO:  Glenn Newman (New Zealand)

Scotland rescued by Huw Jones hat-trick as they edge Italy in Six Nations

Scotland withstood a scare from Italy as Huw Jones’ hat-trick helped them open their 2025 Six Nations campaign with a 31-19 victory at Murrayfield.

The hosts had opened in fine style, finding themselves 14-0 and then 19-6 ahead thanks to tries from Rory Darge, Jones and Ben White, but the Azzurri hit back.

Tommaso Allan responded with two penalties before another brace of three-pointers reduced the arrears to seven.  When Juan Ignacio Brex intercepted Finn Russell’s pass to level the scores, the majority of Murrayfield was concerned, but Darcy Graham and Jones rescued the Scots.

Graham was the spark for both of the centre’s second-half tries as Scotland saw off a spirited showing from the Italians.

Fast start

The Scots went into the 2025 Six Nations with hopes once again high that they could end their long wait for a title and their start showed why.

Gregor Townsend’s men dominated possession and territory against an Italian outfit that were slow out of the blocks.  Co-captain Darge took advantage of their opponents’ slack opening, starting and finishing a try which moved them into an early 7-0 advantage.

The flanker, who was utterly sublime in the first half, turned over the ball on halfway before the play was shifted wide for Duhan van der Merwe to storm down the left-hand side.

Under pressure, Italy infringed and, instead of going for the posts, the hosts went for the jugular and it paid off as Darge barrelled over from close range.

Scotland then built on that early score and once again Van der Merwe was heavily involved as he surged down the wing and passed inside for Jones to finish.

It had been a dreadful start for an Azzurri team who themselves had big ambitions coming into the tournament.  Their lineout was malfunctioning while they simply failed to hold onto the ball for any significant length of time, but they finally began to edge back into the contest.

The scrum had the better of the Scottish front-row and the home side also started to make a few more errors, handing Allan a couple of penalty opportunities which the full-back kicked to reduce the arrears.

All the threat was coming from Scotland, however, and a third try was soon forthcoming as Dave Cherry’s brilliant off-load enabled White to touch down.

Only discipline was really letting Townsend’s outfit down and a third infringement inside their own half enabled Allan to make it a 10-point buffer.

But it was becoming a real issue and, after a fourth three-pointer got Italy to within a converted try on the scoreboard, the pressure increased on the Scots.

It evidently told on Russell, who forced a pass in midfield, and Brex was on hand to intercept and cross the whitewash unopposed to level matters.  The match had turned on its head and a revitalised Italy were hassling the Scots into mistakes.

The hosts needed something special to re-establish control of proceedings and it came via the magnificent Graham.  The flyer received the ball on the right-hand wing, cut inside and sped away before Jones was on hand to collect and score.

Graham was also involved in their fifth score as he took the ball off the shoulder of Russell to take them deep into Italian territory.  Under pressure, the visitors duly ceded when Jones crossed the whitewash for his hat-trick.

Those tries gave Scotland enough of a buffer to see out the rest of the game, despite a late surge from Italy which saw them create a number of chances.  However, their profligacy meant that they came away from Edinburgh with nothing to show for their efforts.

The teams

Scotland:  15 Blair Kinghorn, 14 Darcy Graham, 13 Huw Jones, 12 Stafford McDowall, 11 Duhan van der Merwe, 10 Finn Russell (cc), 9 Ben White, 8 Matt Fagerson, 7 Rory Darge (cc), 6 Jamie Ritchie, 5 Grant Gilchrist, 4 Jonny Gray, 3 Zander Fagerson, 2 Dave Cherry, 1 Pierre Schoeman
Replacements:  16 Ewan Ashman, 17 Rory Sutherland, 18 Will Hurd, 19 Gregor Brown, 20 Jack Dempsey, 21 George Horne, 22 Tom Jordan, 23 Kyle Rowe

Italy:  15 Tommaso Allan, 14 Ange Capuozzo, 13 Juan Ignacio Brex, 12 Tommaso Menoncello, 11 Monty Ioane, 10 Paolo Garbisi, 9 Martin Page-Relo, 8 Lorenzo Cannone, 7 Michele Lamaro (c), 6 Sebastian Negri, 5 Federico Ruzza, 4 Dino Lamb, 3 Simone Ferrari, 2 Giacomo Nicotera, 1 Danilo Fischetti
Replacements:  16 Gianmarco Lucchesi, 17 Luca Rizzoli, 18 Marco Riccioni, 19 Niccolo Cannone, 20 Manuel Zuliani, 21 Ross Vintcent, 22 Alessandro Garbisi, 23 Simone Gesi

Referee:  Karl Dickson (England)
Assistant Referees:  Luke Pearce (England), Damian Schneider (Argentina)
TMO:  Marius Jonker (South Africa)