Brian O’Driscoll led from the front to keep Ireland on course for a first Grand Slam since 1948 by scoring eight points in a nail-biting 14-13 victory over England at Croke Park on Saturday.
The talismanic center scored the first try of the game, having already landed a 30m drop-goal, to put Ireland 11-3 ahead going into the final quarter.
But England set up a frantic final minute after full-back Delon Armitage scored a 79th-minute try which was converted by replacement stand-off Andy Goode to cut Ireland’s lead to just a point.
PHOTO : AFP
It was Ireland’s third straight win, but for England defeat meant a second consecutive loss after a 23-15 reverse against Wales.
England again didn’t help themselves by playing 20 minutes of the match, including the final 10 minutes, a man down after sin-binnings for prop Phil Vickery and replacement Danny Care took their yellow card count to 10 in four matches.
Indeed O’Driscoll’s try came soon after Vickery had been binned. Just when England had got themselves back into the match when Armitage cut Ireland’s lead to 11-6, after taking over the kicking duties from injured outside-half Toby Flood, the visitors’ fallible discipline let them down again when scrum-half Care was ordered off following a needless push on Ireland prop Marcus Horan.
Ireland outside-half Ronan O’Gara, who had missed four previous kicks at goal, was on target with the penalty to give his side an eight-point cushion.
“They’ve got to understand they’ve cost themselves a Test match,” England manager Martin Johnson said, as he reflected once more on how his team’s indiscipline had hurt them badly. “I am angry for them [the players], not me. They don’t need to make rash decisions at the breakdown. We don’t need to give penalties away. We’ve got to trust ourselves and believe in ourselves.”
An attritional first half, where Ireland dominated territory and possession, ended level at 3-3 after a penalty apiece from O’Gara and Flood.
England were able to slow Ireland’s ruck ball, but in the 12th minute center Mike Tindall was penalized for not rolling away.
However, O’Gara — who started the match needing just 11 points to overtake England great Jonny Wilkinson’s tournament record of 479, was off-target.
Ireland scrum-half Tomas O’Leary kept his pack on the front foot with some well-judged kicks over the top of the defense.
The hosts should have gone ahead in the 21st minute when England scrum-half Harry Ellis conceded a penalty when not releasing after being tackled by Ireland wing Luke Fitzgerald.
But, from just 22m out, the normally accurate O’Gara saw his kick go well to the right of the posts.
Both teams put in some heavy tackles, with O’Driscoll putting in an especially big hit to stop lock Nick Kennedy during a rare England foray into the Irish 22.
O’Gara made it third time lucky when he opened the scoring in the 28th minute after England were offside at a ruck.
But just when it seemed Ireland would turn round with a slender lead, England equalized.
Ireland lock Paul O’Connell won a line-out, but lost possession of the ball as he came down from his jump. England regathered and, after Ireland infringed in front of their posts, Flood made no mistake with the easy chance.
O’Gara’s bad day with the boot continued early in the second half when, after England handled in the ruck, he saw a 37m penalty chance come back off the right post.
Armitage was fortunate not to be yellow-carded for a deliberate knock-on but, with South African referee Craig Joubert indicating a penalty, O’Driscoll landed a drop-goal from 30m to edge Ireland 6-3 in front.
Armitage then somehow stayed on the field following a blatant late block on O’Driscoll after the Irish skipper had chipped ahead.
Ireland kicked the ensuing penalty for a line-out and drove to within a few meters of the English line.
Eventually, Joubert lost patience with England and Vickery was yellow-carded for not rolling away at the tackle.
With Vickery off the field, Ireland scrummed and then laid siege to the English line before O’Driscoll went over — although it needed the video referee to confirm the score.
■SCOTLAND 26, ITALY 6
AFP, EDINBURGH
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