Ireland opens bid for record third straight Six Nations title by beating England 27-22

DUBLIN (AP) — Ireland got off to a five-point start to its bid for an unprecedented third straight outright Six Nations rugby title, overpowering England in a second-half recovery to rack up a 27-22 victory in Dublin on Saturday.

Trailing 10-5 at halftime after constantly coughing up scoring opportunities, the Irish were more accurate — and rampant for a while — after halftime and ran in tries through Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan against an increasingly ragged England to secure an attacking bonus point.

England started twins for the first time in its men’s team and flankers Tom and Ben Curry contributed to an impressive scrambling defensive effort in the first half, during which the visitors had an early converted try for debutant Cadan Murley and a 40th-minute penalty from Marcus Smith.

All Ireland could muster amid its territorial dominance was a try from scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park that came about following a missed tackle from England scrumhalf Alex Mitchell on James Lowe on the left wing. That score came in the last seconds of a sin-binning for Smith that England weathered gamely.

But the English couldn’t maintain it, and were steamrollered by Ireland for much of the second half at Aviva Stadium. England at least gained a losing bonus point courtesy of tries from Tom Curry in the 76th — by which time his brother had been replaced — and Tommy Freeman.

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“It was a little patchy to begin with but we produced some nice stuff in the end. A lot of credit to England,” Gibson-Park said.

“We improved our accuracy and things stuck better in the second half.”

Going for three-peat

In the 142 years of the tournament, which started out as an event for the home unions before the additions of France and then Italy, no team has won the title outright for three straight years. Ireland is over its first big hurdle and heads to Murrayfield next weekend to play Scotland, which opened with a 31-19 win over Italy.

England, meanwhile, has lost seven of its last nine games, with the only wins coming against Japan. The pressure is building on coach Steve Borthwick and it won’t get any easier next week when Antoine Dupont and France visit Twickenham. Inspired by Dupont, France crushed Wales 43-0 in the tournament opener on Friday.

Winger Lowe inspires

Lowe didn’t score a try but the left winger was key to Ireland’s fightback against England.

It was Lowe who shrugged off Mitchell for Gibson-Park’s 35th-minute try that undid so much good work by the English defense in an intense first half that started with Murley running onto Henry Slade’s grubber kick and getting ahead of Josh van der Flier to ground.

The temperature inside Lansdowne Road rose when Lowe got involved in a scuffle with England fullback Freddie Steward that saw the Ireland supporters gain their voice early in the second half.

And it was Lowe who broke England’s defensive line on the crash ball and passed outside for lock Beirne to trundle over for the key third try in the 64th that pushed Ireland 20-10 ahead.

Lowe capped his performance with a bustling run down the left wing, through Smith, to set up replacement hooker Sheehan for the bonus-point try in the 72nd that ended England’s chances of victory.

“I thought the first half was fantastic and we did everything we wanted to do,” said Maro Itoje, England’s new captain. “The second half we lost the territory a little bit and we struggled to get out.”

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AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby