ENGLAND bounced back from their opening-day defeat to Australia with a convincing win over Ireland in front of a stadium-record crowd at the John Smith’s Stadium in Huddersfield, writes Liam Williams.
England controlled the game from the first minute to the last, and got off to a perfect start when Ryan Hall scored after two minutes. He completed a first half hat-trick and further tries from Tom Briscoe and Brett Ferres to give England a 30-0 lead at half-time.
Ireland restored some order to their defence in the second half, conceding just two more tries from Kallum Watkins and Rangi Chase, but they weren’t able to crack England’s impressive defence.
The hosts got off to a blistering start, and capitalised on an error by Tyrone McCarthy, Leroy Cudjoe sending in Hall to open the scoring. Sinfield’s conversion attempt rebounded off the post before another Irish handling allowed them to go further ahead. Rory Kostjasyn spilled the ball, allowing Brett Ferres to link up with his Giants team-mate Cudjoe, who again found Hall to score his and England’s second, Sinfield converting this time.
Cudjoe was in the thick of the action once more when he held off several Irish defenders before finding Rangi Chase whose kick was well taken by Briscoe to notch up England’s third try of the game.
Briscoe scored his second when Sam Tomkins broke through the Irish line before passing to the Leeds-bound winger who ran on unchallenged to the try-line.
This was followed by the try of the game. A fantastic move involving Watkins, Ben Westwood, Sinfield ended with Cudjoe again finding Hall who collected his hat-trick with an impressive finish.
Soon after Tomkins again broke through the Irish line and found Ferres, who went over to score on his home ground to give England a 30-0 lead at the break.
Ireland started the second half with more resolute defending and some good attacking combinations but failed to break through. England then increased their lead when Watkins crossed after he took the palmed-down ball from Briscoe.
Chase was next to add his name to the score sheet when he latched onto Tomkins’s grubber, following some smart play from the full-back.
Damien Blanch came close to registering points for Ireland when he looked to latch onto Liam Finn’s kick out wide, but he failed to take the high ball and the chance went begging.
England
1 Sam Tomkins
2 Tom Briscoe
3 Kallum Watkins
4 Leroy Cudjoe
5 Ryan Hall
6 Rangi Chase
7 Kevin Sinfield
8 Chris Hill
9 James Roby
10 George Burgess
11 Brett Ferres
12 Ben Westwood
13 Sean O’Loughlin
Interchange
14 Gareth Widdop
15 Carl Ablett
16 Thomas Burgess
17 James Graham
Ireland
1 James Mendeika
2 Damien Blanch
3 Stuart Littler
4 Apirana Pewhairangi
5 Pat Richards
6 Ben Currie
7 Liam Finn
8 Brett White
9 Rory Kostjasyn
10 James Hasson
11 Simon Finnigan
12 Dave Allen
13 Tyrone McCarthy
Interchange
14 Bob Beswick
15 Luke Ambler
16 Danny Bridge
17 Anthony Mullally
Referee: Thierry Alibert (France)
England 42
Tries: Hall 3, Briscoe 2, Ferres, Watkins, Chase; Goals: Sinfield 4, Widdop
Ireland 0
Attendance: 24,375
