Marcus Smith kicked a last-gasp drop goal as England produced their best performance of the Steve Borthwick era to dash Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes with a last-gasp 23-22 win.
Ireland were on the brink of sealing the title but England worked their way to within a few metres of the line and, with a penalty advantage, Smith had a free shot at goal, which he took to finish a frantic game.
England head coach Steve Borthwick said that he is really pleased for his players.
"They’ve worked exceptionally hard since we came together in Girona. We’ve been progressing each week and aspects of our game have improved each week, but for the players to have that tangible reward of the victory today against such a good team today was important. "
“It’s also important for the supporters. Jamie’s spoken many times about how he wants the supporters to feel and to enjoy it, and bring them on the journey with us. I thought Twickenham was magnificent tonight and the supporters left with a smile on their face.
“We concentrate on our progression. Sometimes it’s really visible and everyone talks about it, sometimes it’s not as visible, but the team has been progressing and that’s the message we’ve been talking about.”
The victory marked Jamie George’s second home win as England captain in what he described as "one of the most emotional and proud days of my career for sure."
"The reason for that is because there were a lot of doubters after that Scotland performance and probably rightly so, but at the same time internally we didn’t listen to the noise outside of what we knew was important.
“For us to go out there and do that to a team like Ireland, who for me are the best team in the world at the minute, that was a really, really special day.
“You saw a lot of the steps today. There’s still a lot to come and it wasn’t a perfect performance by any means, but there was probably a lot of criticism around our attack. To come up against Ireland and score three tries, not many teams do that.”
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