The English were up for it.
It only took Eddie Jones’ men two minutes to break through the Irish rearguard and to lay down a marker in this Six Nations opener in the Aviva Stadium.
Johnny May dotted down in the corner and Owen Farrell nailed a near touchline conversion to let Joe Schmidt’s men know that they were in for a battle.
Ireland, to their credit were quick to respond with Sexton nailing a hard earned penalty but England kept piling on the pressure.
Young Tom Curry, the 21-year-old debutante followed through late on Keith Earls and the flanker was punished with a yellow card and ten minutes in the sin bin.
âš Yellow Card for England's Tom Curry for this late hit on Keith Earls!#VMTVRugby #GuinnessSixNations #IREvENG pic.twitter.com/L9vk5Qpr74
— Virgin Media Sport (@VMSportIE) February 2, 2019
A number of Irish fans were unhappy with the Sale Sharks’ club man’s carelessness in the collision.
https://twitter.com/JWCChristiansen/status/1091743667843465216
As soon as that happened I saw the card. Only I thought at first it might be red.
Tom Curry is lucky.
Glad Earls is ok.
Hope we survive this bin.— #RugbyUnitedCanada (@RugbyCAN_) February 2, 2019
https://twitter.com/saunders_tw/status/1091743086185795586
Just moments later, the English were hitting hard again and Earls was again on the end of it. The Munster man went up to collect a high ball and Itoje came in hard and slightly dangerously catching him with a knee into the stomach before the ball had even dropped.
No yellow? pic.twitter.com/QbsW6w2OQA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) February 2, 2019
Itoje wasn’t carded for his lunge and England continued to bombard him with high balls all the way through the half.
