Jonny May seals Rugby World Cup spot as England outplay Ireland

Sport360 staff 20:04 05/09/2015
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  • Jonny May proved his critics wrong with an assured display at Twickenham.

    England will enter the World Cup armed with a confidence-enhancing 21-13 victory over Ireland but will know they should have emerged more convincing winners over the RBS 6 Nations champions in their final warm-up game.

    — England Rugby (@EnglandRugby) September 5, 2015

    England’s start could not have been more emphatic as waves of attacks ended with Ben Youngs floating a clever pass to May who bumped off Tommy Bowe and evaded Simon Zebo to score in the left corner.

    The one-way traffic was temporarily interrupted when Jonathan Sexton landed a penalty on the crossbar with the ball bouncing over, but in the 14th minute England struck again when George Ford sent a cross-field kick to the right wing where there was acres of space. Watson and Zebo leapt to compete for the ball and it was the Ireland full-back who miscalculated, allowing Watson to collect and touch down.

    A bad start deteriorated further for the Six Nations champions when Murray’s match was ended by concussion and a forward pass from Youngs saw May denied a third try.

    May was forced into a rushed clearance from behind his own whitewash and Joe Schmidt’s men pounced from the short-range line-out, forwards peeling off around the fringes until O’Connell arrived to burrow over.

    The World Cup hosts were back in control as they searched for the match-sealing try and it appeared to have been scored with 10 minutes left only to be disallowed because of a mix-up between Tom Wood and Robshaw.

    Substitute Owen Farrell, who had earlier butchered an overlap, landed two penalties to put the result beyond doubt and ensure England will enter the World Cup unbeaten at Twickenham this year.

    Elsewhere, Wales suffered two alarming World Cup injury scares as Rhys Webb and Leigh Halfpenny were carried off during their final tournament warm-up clash against Millennium Stadium visitors Italy.

    Ospreys’ Webb, who scored five tries in nine Tests for Wales last season and is their undisputed top scrum-half, suffered a seemingly serious ankle injury when he became trapped in a ruck after 26 minutes as Wales edged home 23-19.

    And full-back Halfpenny also departed on a medical cart after stumbling in open play 10 minutes from time. He required oxygen while being treated.

    Wales prevailed through five Halfpenny penalties, a late Dan Biggar penalty and an early George North try, while Italy claimed a third-minute Leonardo Sarto touchdown before Tommaso Allan booted two penalties, Carlo Canna dropped a goal and Guglielmo Palazzani scored a try with the game’s final play.

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