Ireland opens bid for third straight Six Nations title with 27-22 win over England

DUBLIN — Ireland got off to a five-point start to its bid for an unprecedented third straight outright Six Nations rugby title, overpowering England in a second-half recovery to rack up a 27-22 victory in Dublin on Saturday.

Trailing 10-5 at halftime after constantly coughing up scoring opportunities, the Irish were more accurate — and rampant for a while — after halftime and ran in tries through Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan against an increasingly ragged England to secure an attacking bonus point.

England started twins for the first time in its men’s team and flankers Tom and Ben Curry contributed to an impressive scrambling defensive effort in the first half, during which the visitors had an early converted try for debutant Cadan Murley and a 40th-minute penalty from Marcus Smith.

All Ireland could muster amid its territorial dominance was a try from scrumhalf Jamison Gibson-Park that came about following a missed tackle from England scrumhalf Alex Mitchell on James Lowe on the left wing. That score came in the last seconds of a sin-binning for Smith that England had weathered gamely.

But the English couldn’t maintain it, and were steamrollered by Ireland for much of the second half at Aviva Stadium. England at least gained a losing bonus point courtesy of tries from Tom Curry in the 76th — by which time his brother had been replaced — and Tommy Freeman.

In the 142 years of the tournament, which started out as an event for the home unions before the additions of France and then Italy, no team has won the title outright for three straight years. Ireland is over its first big hurdle and heads to Murrayfield next weekend to play Scotland, which opened with a 31-19 win over Italy.

rugby: /hub/rugby

This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.