Ireland 10 England 3
Ireland took a seven point lead over England into the dressing-room following an intense first half at the Aviva Stadium in the final Six Nations game of the season.
A strong opening was rewarded on 22 minutes when second row Iain Henderson stretched over for a try that was confirmed by the Television Match Official. Sexton converted to open a 10-3 lead.
Ireland took an early 3-0 lead thanks to a Sexton penalty and in a busy start to this game the home team worked a real try opportunity and briefly lost their captain to a Head Injury Assessment.
Jared Payne, in at full-back for his first game of the campaign, worked an opening and fed Keith Earls, who gathered but lost the ball forward in the tackle. The play was called back for an earlier infringement and the Ireland out-half punished the visitors to open the scoring.
England were back level on 17 minutes when Owen Farrell knock over a penalty when Ireland didn’t roll away in the tackle.
At this stage Ireland skipper Rory Best was off the field, but he returned after passing his HIA. Sexton was then left seeing stars from a series of heavy hits, England back-row Maro Itoje punished with a penalty for a late hit.
Ireland were rocked shortly before kick-off, which was delayed as the earlier France-Wales match ran late, when Jamie Heaslip was forced to withdraw with an ankle injury suffered in the warm-up. Peter O'Mahony came into the team and CJ Stander moved to Number 8 in a back-row reshuffle.
