England 24-12 IrelandTries from Ford, Daly, Cowan-Dickie help hosts to victoryEngland are back in Six Nations title contention after a convincing victory over a below-par and overly generous Ireland. In their first home fixture of the tournament the hosts successfully capitalised on a 17-0 first-half lead and now sit second in the table, four points behind unbeaten
France with two rounds left to play.
The outcome was crucially shaped by Ireland’s failure to deal with two clever George Ford kicks into their in-goal area which yielded tries for Ford and Elliot Daly respectively inside the opening 25 minutes. With
Ireland also under frequent forward pressure and glaringly short of inspiration at half-back a sizeable home win was never in doubt, although
England missed out on a potential try bonus point.