England 33-10 Ireland: Dan's the man as England finish with hope if no glory

DANNY Cipriani announced a new era and quite possibly saved head coach Brian Ashton's job by inspiring England to a deserved victory at Twickenham.

Cipriani, dropped last week for his late-night visit to a Mayfair club, pulled on the number 10 shirt of Jonny Wilkinson and followed in the footsteps of the fly-half legend.

Seven goals from seven attempts was the sort of perfection for which Wilkinson was renowned.

But it was the manner in which 20-year-old Cipriani led England to the sort of structured and enterprising triumph which had been sadly lacking of late which was most impressive.

Tries from Paul Sackey, Mathew Tait and man-of-the-match Jamie Noon all gave the scoreline a comfortable look and Ashton even had the luxury of bringing on Wilkinson in the second half to a moon-rocket type roar from the Twickenham crowd. It means England finish second in the Six Nations table and at least completed the campaign with hope and some style too. For Ireland, defeat consigned them to fourth place and their worst championship finish since 1999.

It also cast serious doubt over the future of head coach Eddie O'Sullivan, who signed a four-year contract before a World Cup in which Ireland were one of the big disappointments.

For Ashton, another defeat could have seen his rolling contract heading in the direction of the JobCentre.

England could hardly have made a worse start. They were slow to the ball, ponderous in defence and paid the price after just four minutes when the ball fizzed through the Irish threequarters. The ball reached Robert Kearney, via a raking delivery from Ronan O'Gara, and the Leinster wing corkscrewed his way over the line.

O'Gara, wearing the captain's armband for the first time, added the conversion before slotting a penalty to put the visitors ten points clear.

But after Cipriani slotted a penalty to record his first points for England, the home team began to show some long-awaited creativity. Some fire too, especially from captain Phil Vickery and Michael Lipman, the latter making hard yards to set up a three-quarter move which saw Iain Balshaw supply Sackey with the pass for England's first try.

In the next 20 minutes there was more imagination from England than we have witnessed all championship. There were little chip kicks from Cipriani and Toby Flood and one runaround break from Noon which required try-saving heroics from Tommy Bowe and Geordan Murphy.

A 13-10 lead at the interval became 16-10 when Cipriani landed another penalty soon after the break.

Enter Wilkinson for centre Flood. Cue the cheers. His arrival was swiftly followed by England's second try, again the ball spinning through a series of hands, including those of Cipriani and Wilkinson, to allow Tait – on as a blood replacement for Sackey – to race in at the corner.

Again the try was converted by Cipriani and

he was instrumental when Noon burst through for England's third touchdown. Victory was complete and as Cipriani stripped off his protective helmet at the end, you could not help sense a new dawn for the red rose.

Cipriani was delighted with the victory – but then blotted his copybook by swearing live on BBC1 in his interview, saying: "It's the f****** one to eight who deserve the man of the match".

He added: "I thoroughly enjoyed it. It may have been my first game, but I have played it in my head a million times."



Crediting England's powerful pack, he added: "When they play like that it is easy for the number 10. I thought our forwards were absolutely outstanding." He also spared a thought for Ashton, who has taken much of the flak for England's mediocre Six Nations campaign – not least when he decided to drop his protege against Scotland. "I think we owed part of it (the win] to Brian, because sometimes we have not performed as well as we should have," he said.