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Ireland v England: as it happened

Join us for our final minute-by-minute of the Six Nations championship as England visit Dublin.

Get in touch with your comments and thoughts as the afternoon’s action unfolds. Leave a comment below, send your e-mails to adrian@thescore.ie , tweet us @thescore_ie or find us on Facebook.

And whether you’re on the way to Ballsbridge, at home or in a pub somewhere, send us your view of the game later. You can do it through TheJournal mobile app of you have that. The future’s now.

Latest updates appear at the top.

7.07pm That’s your lot. It’s a memorable evening as the Aviva at last found it’s voice, Ireland re-found their mojo and England’s talented young star discovered what the championship is all about.

Wales need to win by 27. Let’s what and see. Thank for you company throughout the afternoon.

Check out our slideshow of the day’s best images if you want more>

7.02pm Martin Johnson: “I’m disappointed for everyone, we got what we deserved, there’s no excuses, we only have ourselves to blame and we take it on the chin.

“Ireland played well and they deserved it. We got beaten today and you have to put your hand up. We could never get a foothold.”

6.58pm Brian O’Driscoll: “We all share this result. I said last week, we win and lose as a team and we’ll enjoy that result tonight

“we knew we had it in us, a few small things needed to change I thought. We haven’t set down a marker here in the Aviva so we needed to give it a reason to call it home again here and what better way than beating the English by such a margin.”

6.54pm Declan Kidney: “I’m delighted for the players, they said they were going to put their hearts on their sleeves and they did that. We had the courage to go for things and they never wavered.

In this country we can keep looking back, but we moved on and worked forward.

“The Aviva was born today, it was brilliant wasn’t it.”

FULL-TIME Ireland 24 England 8 Declan Kidney’s men deny the English a Grand Slam. Wales need to win in Paris by 27 points to take the championship. Bit ambitious.

What’s your verdict?

6.38pm O’Gara has been excellent since he came on. Whether it’s outside-of-the-boot touch-finders or having a cut off Ashton. But Sexton deservedly gets the man-of-the-match award.

6.33pm Ronan O’Gara and Chirs Ashton square up and there’s the customary ‘handbag’. Munster meets Wigan, says Eddie Butler.

6.30pm And indeed ROG does come on for his cameo – and gives his young successor a nice little hug and pat on the back. Around ten minutes left now, still 28-8.

6.27 Ireland’s scrum, which was the foundation on their first-half success, is struggling now. Tom Court is penalised and Wilkinson kicks for the corner, putting them on the front foot.

Heaslip does brilliantly to steal it and take the contact in his own 22. We may see O’Gara in the next few moment you feel; Sexton’s back seems to acting up.

6.20pm England are going through the phases – 14 and counting – but Ireland seem to be happy to keep them at bay with some stout defending.

6.14pm In more good news for the Irish today, Seamus Coleman has put Everton one-up on Fulham.

6.11pm TRY! Ireland 24 England 8 But as I write, hooker Steve Thompson scrambles over for a try. Eoin Reddan was sloppy. Jonny Wilkinson misses by a mile.

That France game is delayed by the way, as prime minister Sarkozy will tonight make a statement on the action in Libya.

6.10 I don’t think anyone thought this would be a topic of conversation today, but Wales fans must now have calculators out. Half of England’s 42 point points-difference has gone.

6.07pm Ashton gets his first sight at the points but he fires a reverse pass into the waiting arms of D’Arcy. Brian Moore says: “I bet he called for that one.”

Eddie Butler: “What a suspicious mind.” Moore: “No, just experience.”

6.04pm TRY! Ireland 24 England 3 Brian O’Driscoll gets over in the corner after a wonderful pick-up to take the try record. Sexton silences the The Fields of Athenry with a superb conversion.

6.01pm The BBc staff looked as shell-shocked as the English players at halftime. Guscott said: “England are aimless, rudderless and it’s inexperience. The confidence is dipping slightly and Johnno has got a big job to pick these boys up.”

5.57pm Jonny Sexton gets us up and running again. And immediately, Bowe is almost gifted a try by a loose Banahan pass. The Ospreys winger shanks the ball out however as the line was clear.

HALF TIME That was stunning stuff from Ireland. They looked hungry, committed, confident. England’s young lions are like rabbits in the headlights. They’re not at Twickenham now.

If they’re to win the Grand Slam it will have to be some second-half performance. But what’s your verdict on that first period?

Ireland 17 England 3 Sexton makes no mistake again from the penalty.

5.40 It must be Ireland’s day. Youngs is yellow carded after a wonderful break from David Wallace and a kick-chase from Bowe.

I think he walked because he threw the ball away in order to stop a quick line-out.

Ireland 14 England 3 Flood opens his and his side’s account with a straightforward penalty. Unusually, a large section of the Aviva crowd jeer him as he addresses the ball.

5.33pm Ireland 14 England 0 Sexton misses the conversion at attempt but it was his quick thinking and confidence that carved out the try attempt for Bowe. The Ospreys man finished for his 17th try despite a possible forward pass in the build-up.

5.31pm TRY! Tommy Bowe gets in.

5.30pm Wow. the usually-reliable Toby Flood drags a penalty across the face of the posts. Still a nine-point game with 26 minutes gone.

Ireland 9 England 0 Sexton slots the penalty chance. England haven’t had a sniff so far but Ireland need a complete performance this week.

NO TRY! Brian O’Driscoll touches down are some sustained pressure but it’s called back for a supposed forward pass from Tommy Bowe. Ireland penalty though.

5.22 Meanwhile, behind enemy lines, the BBC liveblog writes: “England need to turn on the lights, they’ve been ambushed… ”

5.15 As our horse racing boffin Mark Hobbs tweets us the following “If there’s a man with a more dislikeable head than Ashton I’ve yet to see him”, the aforementioned England wunderkind nails Sexton with a high tackle.

The Leinster out half arrows it between the posts beautifully. Sexton trots back and offers Ashton a few choice words.

Ireland 3 England 0 Sexton opens his account with a sweetly-struck penalty. He looks in great form.

For those interested, here’s that horror tackle by Man United’s Jonny Evans. Several sources are reporting that Holden’s leg is broken but that’s yet to be confirmed.

szólj hozzá: —

5.05pm England realise they’re in a game. Ireland win an early scrum and Keith Earls makes a break after a brace, quick tap from Sexton. The crowd sounds awesome.

5.01pm Those anthems were spine-tingling. Toby Flood gets us kicked off.

5pm Last chance to get those predictions in! We’ll send a book if one of you gets it right.

4.57pm Little dig at Ireland’s Call from the BBC’s Bryn Palmer? “Still lots of empty seats and the teams are already on the pitch. Here come the preliminaries…which usually take a while in Dublin.

I don’t understand the late arrivals though. Is this a Dublin double-header?

4.43pm Here’s the president. No fuss about the carpet or lino or anything this time.

4.50pm Here we go, England come out – we wait for Ireland. The crowd are extremely slow to file in according to Ryle – I stand corrected. We’re expecting rain during the first half too.

4.47pm Jason Leonard and Hugo O’Neill are interviewed from pitchside by Tom McGurk. They both reckon Ireland will win. That hasn’t happened all day.

The stadium’s filling up very nicely now too.

4.42pm It’s almost time to dish out the jerseys…

Ireland: Earls, Bowe, O’Driscoll, D’Arcy, Trimble, Sexton, Reddan, Healy, Best, Ross, O’Callaghan, O’Connell, O’Brien, D. Wallace, Heaslip.

Replacements: Cronin, Court, Cullen, Leamy, Stringer, O’Gara, P. Wallace.

England: Foden, Ashton, Banahan, Hape, Cueto, Flood, Youngs, Corbisiero, Hartley, Cole, Deacon, Palmer, Wood, Haskell, Easter.

Replacements: Thompson, Doran-Jones, Shaw, Croft, Care, Wilkinson, Strettle.

Fresh from his Late Late appearance last night, Rory McIlroy is interviewed pitch-side. He reckons England will win. Boo!

4.37pm Jonny Evans has been sent off for Manchester United at Old Trafford as Bolton hold the title hopefuls 0-0. John Inverdale is waxing lyrical about Martin Johnson’s face. It’s full of resilience and fortitude apparently.

4.32pm Johnson’s counterpart Declan Kidney speaks to Tracey Piggott on the sideline. The coach urges the Irish fans to win the battle in the stands too. McGurk says he understands there’ll be some 20,000 English supporters in the new stadium. The country’s cash-strapped clubs have sold many of their allotment across the Irish Sea.

4.30pm Fascinating piece on the Beeb about the red carpet fiasco. O’Driscoll admits he has a ‘little bit of respect for Jonno’ holding his ground. Johnson says sometimes you have good days and ‘that was a good day’.

4.26pm The consensus in the studio is that we’re back to the famous ‘three Bs’ – boot, bite and bollock.

4.22pm Paul O’Connell blogged last weekend about enjoying a round of golf with Keith Wood for a BBC piece. Looking forward to that.

On RTÉ, Brian O’Driscoll tells Joanne Cantwell that ‘small things need fixing’.

4.19pm RTÉ are running one of those Braveheart-inspired VTs. The teams are in the dressing-rooms ahead of England’s first visit to the new stadium.

Hooky weighs in to criticise Kidney’s team selection and particularly the bench, as Conor O’Shea did earlier.

But what’s your prediction – let us know in the comments section or  drop us an email. I’m going to say Ireland by a couple of points for no particular reason.

FULL-TIME Scotland 21 Italy 8 – good finish to the tournament for Andy Robinson. Italy looked a bit hungover. Now for the main event.

4.08 With three minutes on the clock, Luke McLean made a wonderful dash for the line from way out. But that man Paterson was there on the line again – just like last week at Twickenham against Chris Ashton you’ll remember – to deny the sub.

3.59 Scotland 21 Italy 8 Paterson whips another three points between the posts. And the stadium PA pumps this classic:

3.51pm Italy are dominating here and are trying to batter their way through the middle. In the meantime, have you read Donal Lenihan’s interview with Martin Johnson in this morning’s Irish Examiner?

His stuff on the president is interesting. Wonder what she’ll say to him later.

TRY! Scotland 18 Italy 8 Well you wait two years for a try and then two come along at once. Walker – the man who missed the tackle on Masi in the first half – gets in to touch down. Paterson doesn’t miss this conversion.

TRY! Scotland 11 Italy 8 De Luca sneaks over in the corner after ‘soft hands’ form Hines. Scotland’s patience is rewarded. Paterson misses the conversion by inches.

3.30 Nugent also mentioned the team are due at the stadium for about 3.30pm I think. Darragh Doyle tweets this pic of the crowds outside the squad hotel, The Shelbourne. Looks like they’re ready to roll.

Scotland have an attacking scrum around the Italian 22 after a Lamont break. They’re looking to break that long try-less streak.

2.27pm We’re up-and-running in Edinburgh again.

3.26pm Ryle Nugent speaks to Tony Ward on the Aviva sideline. He reckons England’s bench will be the difference but says Ireland need to employ a ‘full court press’ throughout.

Nugent has got the magnifying glass out and says the pitch looks ‘very patchy if you examine it closely’.

HALF-TIME Scotland 6 Italy 8 Chris Paterson had scored nine from nine penalties up until the last action of the half. He dragged the 10th wide. It’ll be Scotland’s wooden spoon if it stays like this.

3.07pm The ref Steve Walsh looks embarrassed after he got his lanes mixed up and ends up catching an Italian pass. We get re-started with a scrum.

3.04pm Scotland 6 Italy 8 Bergamasco converts a penalty to swing the pendulum in the the Azzurri’s favour again. But immediately afterwards try-scorer Masi leaves the fray injured to be replaced by Luke McLean.

Interesting stat from BBC:

“Amazingly Scotland have not scored a try at Murrayfield since November 2009. They are showing plenty of adventure but just cannot cross the whitewash.”

3pm First scrum of the game after 26 minutes. Elsewhere, Spurs have failed to score against West Ham at home in a result which is a major blow to their Champions League qualification hopes. You can watch the highlights here.

2.50pm Scotland 6 Italy 5 Danielli is held up on the line as a last-ditch tackle stops what looked a certain try. Paterson swings over another penalty though to put the home side in front again.

In the meantime, Ansbro has been replaced by Nick De Luca as he seems to have suffered a dead leg or a twisted knee or something.

2.44pm Looking ahead to the main event at 5pm, reader Sean writes: “Very tough game ahead… We need to run around these boyos or they’ll destroy us in the centre. Get johnny running at them full pace and see what happens, we’ve nothing to lose and need to give these lads a hiding.”

Do you agree?

Scotland 3 Italy 5 And it remains a two-point game as Bergamasco bounces the conversion attempt off the left upright. Those lost five points could well be rued tonight.

TRY! Masi gets in to make it 3-5

2.40pm Mirco Bergamasco fails to level it up at a half-empty Murrayfield with a missed penalty, awarded as the Scots enter a ruck from the side. He hit five last week in the famous win over France but he started shakily enough with the boot then too.

2.35pm Scotland 3 Italy 0 – Bright start from the hosts as Lamont breaks with support from Chris Patterson. They’re ultimately awarded a penalty and the Edinburgh man nails it.

2.30pm We’ve just had the two national anthems in Edinburgh – both wonderful in different ways I must say. That completes the voting from the Irish jury.

Almost ready for kick-off now. Here’s the teams:

Scotland: C Paterson; N Walker, J Ansbro, S Lamont, S Danielli; R Jackson, R Lawson; A Jacobsen, R Ford, M Low, R Gray, A Kellock, N Hines, J Barclay, K Brown.

Replacements: S Lawson, E Murray, R Vernon, A Strokosch, M Blair, D Parks, N De Luca.

Italy: A Masi; T Benvenuti, G Canale, A Sgarbi, Mirco Bergamasco; K Burton, F Semenzato; S Perugini, L Ghiraldini, M Castrogiovanni, C Del Fava, Q Geldenhuys, A Zanni, P Derbyshire, S Parisse.

Replacements: C Festuccia, A Lo Cicero, V Bernabo, R Barbieri, P Canavosio, L Orquera, L McLean.

2.24pm The BBC’s Bryn Palmer tweets from D2: “Strange feeling warm in Dublin on 6N wk/e. Beautiful day here, slight breeze but shd b perfect. Eng fans taking in delights of Grafton St”

2.20pm Jeremy Guscott has been knocking around Dublin all week. The World Cup winner is on BBC One now advising England to focus on the game.

“England have got to try and block out everything that’s happened to date and take the Ireland match for what it is. They need to combine what they did against Wales, when they were efficient, Italy, where they played with freedom, and France, where they got the job done. England have to be canny, play for position and territory get Toby Flood getting the scoreboard ticking over. And they must be wary of Brian O’Driscoll – he’s a big game player, the man for the big occasion. He’ll do something, whether it be good or bad, to decide the game.”

2.18pm The lads in the RTÉ studio are gone mad on the Twitter machine as Vincent Browne might say. Hooky says Ingrid picked his outfit this morning. Nice to know.

And McGurk has posted several pictures. This is my super-fave!

2.16pm I came across this on Balls.ie earlier. God bless the Apres Match lads.

Watch out for the bit of language at the end though if you’re in work or there’s little rugby fans around.

2pm Are we all seated? Then let’s begin.

It’s the grand finale of the RBS Six Nations championship. England visit Dublin with the Grand Slam in their sights. Ireland meanwhile have never lost all their home games since the tournament became the Six Nations.Declan Kindey will attempt to avoid a repeat of what last occurred in 1999.

We kick off, however, with the Wooden Spoon decider. Bottom side Scotland try to avoid a whitewash as they host a rejuvenated Italy at Murrayfield.

Get in contact in the usual ways. How do you think Ireland will get on?

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By Ben Dirs

1638: Quick stat-attack: Ireland and England have met 123 times, with England leading by 70 wins to 45. However, England have managed only one win in their last seven matches against Ireland - the Grand Slam decider in 2003. England are gunning for their 13th Grand Slam today...

Ireland: Earls, Bowe, O'Driscoll, D'Arcy, Trimble, Sexton, Reddan, Healy, Best, Ross, O'Callaghan, O'Connell, O'Brien, D. Wallace, Heaslip. Replacements: Cronin, Court, Cullen, Leamy, Stringer, O'Gara, P. Wallace.England: Foden, Ashton, Banahan, Hape, Cueto, Flood, Youngs, Corbisiero, Hartley, Cole, Deacon, Palmer, Wood, Haskell, Easter. Replacements: Thompson, Doran-Jones, Shaw, Croft, Care, Wilkinson, Strettle.

Referee: Bryce Lawrence (New Zealand)