Many Irish fans unhappy with young flanker’s tackle on Keith Earls

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. https://twitter.com/VMSportIE/status/1091743900081913856 A number of Irish fans were unhappy with the Sale Sharks' club man's carelessness in the collision. https://twitter.com/JWCChristiansen/status/1091743667843465216 https://twitter.com/RugbyCAN_/status/1091743140585897990 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. https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/1091753051189334018 Itoje wasn't carded for his lunge and England continued to bombard him with high balls all the way through the half.