England Put Ireland Through Fourth Summer Series Loss

Ireland 9  -  20 England

Ireland will go to New Zealand for  the Rugby World Cup without a single win in their four warm up international games, the latest loss against England in the Aviva Stadium this afternoon.

The game in an Irish point of view lacked any qaulity in the entire eighty minutes with Declan Kidneys men not registering any points in the entire second half.

Whats worse to this friendly loss for Kidney is that he has been forced to drop David Wallace from the World Cup squad after he was stretchered off with a horrible knee injury, Kidney confirming this news in the post match press conference, Kidney also admitted that there were concerns over Jamie Heaslip who suffered a concussion, Jerry Flannery who appeared to come off with damage to his ankle and Stephen Ferris who will undergo an X-ray on his hand.

Manu Tuilagi scores a very easy try

It didnt take England long to get on the scoreboard, infact they came out of the blocks looking better than they have all year, It could have been 3-0 England in the opening two minutes, Jonny Wilkonson took an oppertunity on the half-way line and went for the drop goal but it went wide of the posts.

Two minutes later England were on the scoreboard, Mike Tindal supplied Manu Tuilagi with a lovely pass and the former All Black tore through the Irish defense, especially Keith Earls who tried to make the try saving tackle and scored the try with Wilkonson converting.

Some minutes later Ronan O’Gara fired a penalty to put Ireland on the board but his opposite number ten Wilkonson soon fired another between the posts to give England a 13-3 lead.

The rival fly-halves traded three-pointers once more before Ireland were rocked by a horror injury to David Wallace, The flanker tangled with Tuilagi on 21 minutes and was in obvious pain before being driven off on a medical cart.

O’Gara then hit a penalty to close the gap to four — but England held firm and went into the break ahead. The second half was barely a minute old when Chris Ashton was sent to the sin bin by referee Nigel Owens for killing the ball.

Ronan O’Gara soon found an oppertunity to close the gap on the scoreboard to one point but he saw his attempt crash off the right up-right post and deny him the points. Soon after and 14-man England then stunned their hosts with a shorthanded try. Tindall’s cute grubber kick sent Armitage free, and the super sub touched down before Wilkinson converted.

In the driving rain, Ireland had a late surge and briefly threatened to get back into it. But some strong defence kept the hosts at bay and England closed out their first win in Dublin since 2003.

Daniel "Pitchside" Pitcher Twitter: @DanFM104Sport About: Dan "Pitchside" Pitcher provides insight and commentary as the chief soccer and rugby correspondent for Sportspeak.