Tries from John Kelly and Tyrone Howe gave Ireland A a well deserved 25-18 victory to condemn England A to their first defeat in two years at Franklin's Gardens this evening. An 18-point haul from fly-half Andy Goode was not enough for England, who conceded eight points during captain Nick Walshe's spell in the sin-bin, as their eight-match unbeaten run came to an end. Aside from the two tries, Burke added five penalties for Ireland in a match that was nip and tuck right to the end.
Burke and Goode traded penalties in the opening eight minutes before Ireland got the first try of the game on 12 minutes. The move began when Burke hit the post after Ireland had infringed at the scrum and poor handling afforded the visitors a second scrum just five metres out. Scrum-half Neil Doak fed the ball to Burke who slipped the pass to John Kelly for the centre to touchdown, but Burke failed to add the extras.
Goode and Burke exchanged penalties again before Goode's third penalty a minute into first-half injury-time reduced Ireland's advantage to 11-9 at the interval, and two quickfire kicks from Goods put England in front after the re-start. Burke pulled one back on 48 minutes to make it 15-14 before Ireland strayed offside again for Goode to take his and England's points tally to 18.
England were reduced to 14 men just before the hour when Walshe was sent to the sin-bin for diving over at the ruck and Ireland almost took advantage instantly as they pressed down the right flank. But as they spun the ball wide left excellent cover defence from Henry Paul and Sackey saw Howe bundled into touch. Instead the visitors had to be content with another three points from Burke.
Ireland scored their second try with a well executed effort again down the right flank just before Walshe re-entered the fray. Having broken the tackle Paddy Wallace slipped a neat pass Howe, who offloaded to Alan Quinlan, before running on the loop to catch the scoring pass to touch down in the corner. Burke failed with the conversion, but made no mistake with the final penalty of the game to secure a memorable win for Ireland, who will look forward to tomorrow's testing senior clash at Twickenham with renewed confidence.
Filed by Shane Murray
