DUBLIN : England coach Steve Borthwick said Ireland’s experience made the difference after his team fell away in the second half of their Six Nations game in Dublin on Saturday to lose 27-22 after leading 10-5 at halftime.
England were impressive in the first half, but were on the defensive for almost all of the second as Ireland scored 22 unanswered points before late tries by Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman made the score close and earned England a losing bonus point.
“Ireland are a world-class team and have been for a long time. They have been in the top four consistently. That experience told in the third quarter,” Borthwick said.
“You’ve seen two different teams. An Ireland team that have been together for a huge amount of time with nearly 1200 caps against an England team that has been building over the last six months.
“Just over half the number of caps. At the start you didn’t see a difference. I thought we took a step forward with our attack.”
England were full of energy at the start, scoring a well-worked try through debutant winger Cadan Murley and smothering Ireland at the breakdown.
The second half was a different story, with Ireland making all the running and England hanging on desperately, before eventually being breached.
“It was two kick exchanges that they won, which got field position and opportunity, and a couple of penalties that we conceded that gave them field position opportunity, and that was probably the critical period, and that allowed them to get scoreboard pressure,” Borthwick said.
“Huge congratulations to Ireland and respect for them for their performance. But I’m very proud of the way the players attacked the game in the first half and in the final quarter, the way they came back.
“It was disappointing to concede the tries, I thought against one of the best attacking sides in the world, the team certainly improved defensively and I think we took a step forward in attack.”
The result made it eight defeats in 13 games for England and new captain Maro Itoje struggled to pinpoint the reason.
“The first half was fantastic we did everything we wanted to do,” he said. “It’s hard to dissect exactly what the reason was, it was a territory thing but I’m proud of our team for not giving and playing until the end.”
England face France at Twickenham next Saturday.
