Key events
Andy Farrell, victorious coach, is here
“We’ve done this four time, but this is the first time we’ve done this at home and it means so much for the Irish here and around the world. It was squeaky bum time for a while at 10-9, and the pressure France had put on us in recent weeks. It was stop start match, a proper test match, but in the end we have a bonus point victory. This is unbelievably fitting for Johnny (Sexton), he wanted to lift the trophy with someone else, but I told him he musn’t, and he and we have bigger fish to fry with the World Cup coming up.”
Owen Farrell is reflecting on the game
“Congratulations to Ireland, winning a GS is special. I thought we showed a tremendous amount of fight, we gave away too many penalties and the game changed with the card, but we stuck in it and caused them some problems. It’s not for me to have an opinion on the card, but it did seem harsh to me, but the rules are there.
We’ve got to go back to our clubs now to be better players, and we’ve laid some foundations this Six Nations, but we have to build on that.”
The medals are being hung around the necks of the Irish players, each having their named called and followed by a cheer from the crowd, all of whom have stuck around.
James Ryan takes the Triple Crown plate, and last up is Sexton to carry the big trophy to his players assembled on the plinth of victory.
The cheers and arms go up, along with the golden tickertape, as this enormous achievement sinks in and he lap of honour begins.
James Ryan is talking
“One of the best nights of our careers today. We spoke of the opportunity to win a Grand Slam in Dublin in front of home fans. We didn’t quite get it right in the first half, but we stuck in there and found the way, but that’s good for us as you have to test yourselves. These are the days, it’s really special, Johnny’s last home Six Nations game and what a servant he’s been”
@bloodandmud DEFCON 1 Pints Pints Pints & more Pints in every Irish pub around the world! Go on Ireland love it
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) March 18, 2023
There will be a lot of talk about beating 14 men and whether that was fair to England, but it’s hard to see how this result would’ve gone any other way even with a full compliment.
England did a good job to curtail Ireland in the first half, but from the second quarter onwards the home side were building dominance in the way that is typical of what has taken this Irish team to the top of the world.
Beginning with the tour victory in New Zealand last summer, via some hard fought wins in the Autumn to this crowning achievement, this has been the greatest period in Irish rugby history.
Knowing Andy Farrell, he’ll see this as nothing like job done yet.
FULL TIME!
IRELAND WIN THE GRAND SLAM!
80+2 mins. Isiekwe claims the ball in the middle of the lineout, and the carries start hammering the Ireland line, but the home side are not keen to end with conceding a try and tackle accordingly.
80 mins. Songs ring out in the crowd as England continue to work the ball in the Ireland half, winning a penalty that Farrell kicks to touch in the corner.
79 mins. England go from a lineout on halfway, putting it through hands as the time ebbs away.
78 mins. 90 seconds to glory for Ireland.
TRY! Ireland 29 – 16 England (Rob Herring)
77 mins. Herring peels off the maul to dive over in the corner to score against thirteen men.
Ross Byrne misses a difficult conversion from out wide.
YELLOW CARD! Jack Willis
75 mins. The TMO draws Ref Peyper’s attention to Jack Willis lifting Ross Byrne beyond the horizontal. He really lifts him quite high, but lands him on his back, not particularly hard, so it’s a yellow.
74 mins. Jamison Gibson-Park and Johnny Sexton leave the field for Conor Murray and Ross Byrne.
Sexton limps off to standing ovation in what many assume is his last Six Nations match at the home of Irish rugby.
TRY! Ireland 24 – 16 England (Jamie George)
72 mins. The Fields Of Athenry is ringing around the stadium as the home fans finally start to relax and truly believe. But England aren’t lying down for it as they catch and drive a maul over the line for George to dab it down.
Farrell converts.
That’s Dan Sheehan’s final act of a very good game for him, replaced by Rob Herring.
Alex Mitchell has replaced Van Poortvliet for England.
TRY! Ireland 24 – 9 England (Dan Sheehan)
69 mins. Ireland work the short-side via Mack Hansen who feeds Dan Sheehan who is lurking on the right touchline. He’s stopped, but on the next phase he’s up to take an offload from Conan to run over in the corner.
Sexton booms the conversion over.
Beyond penalties for breakdown pressure, England haven’t looked like scoring all game, this feels a long way back now for the visitors.
Genge and Sincker are off, replaced by Mako Vunipola and Dan Cole.
Jack Willis returns from his blood bin, and that’s a cue for Dombrand to leave the field to officially be replaced by Ben Curry.
TRY! Ireland 17 – 9 England (Robbie Henshaw)
62 mins. Playing on an advantage from the scrum, Ireland go to Aki who sucks in two defenders and feeds a short pass right to Henshaw to dive over.
Sexton bends the conversion over.
60 mins. Sexton sprays a kick in behind Watson, who is hounded over his own line by Hansen and tackled to give Ireland a huge five metre scrum platform, assuming they can manage to hold it up!
Joe Marchant comes on for Henry Arundell, who’s had a difficult game.
Tom O’Toole replaces Tadhg Furlong for Ireland.
57 mins. Ireland snaffle the ball from England’s lineout maul to save Sexton’s blushes, with Gibson-Park breaking up the field. The ball ends up in touch and the teams set to with some pushing and shoving, which adds even more to the tension and drama.
When it all settles down it’s an England scrum and they win another penalty as Porter collapses.
Jack Conan is on for Peter O’Mahony
55 mins. The ball is spending a lot of time in the air, as both sides look to kick and it’s England who are winning the battle so far. The latest deep kick from Farrell has Johnny Sexton shanking one into touch for not many metres, as even the most experience mad on the park starts to tighten up with the weight of expectation.
PENALTY! Ireland 10 – 9 England (Owen Farrell)
50 mins. England put the Irish front row under pressure and it goes down to give England a penalty amidst a chorus of orgamo-squeals from the English pack.
Farrell hammers it through the posts to cause more twitching among the Irish players and fans
48 mins. Owen Farrell decides Ireland can have some of their own medicine and that it’s time to test how good O’Brien is under the high ball. The answer from this example is “not great” as the replacement Ireland fullback bounces the ball off himself to give England a scrum in the Irish half.
45 mins. Unsurprisingly, Ireland appear to now have a clear tactic to kick to where Steward would have been to see how well England cover their backfield now. The latest boot from Sexton is comfortably marked by Watson, however.
43 mins. Ireland start brightly and on kick return Gibson-Park escapes a tackle on the left touchline, bears down on Watson and chips it over to chase, but can only watch the ball roll into touch in the England 22.
Second Half!
Sexton kicks the restart deep.
Hugo Keenan is off after the head contact and Jimmy O’Brien is on. That’s a big loss for Ireland.