Six Nations: Ireland produce stunning display to smash England at Twickenham

From start to finish, the visitors were absolutely outstanding as they crossed the whitewash five times against a sluggish English side.

Ireland built a 22-0 lead after half-an-hour through Jamison Gibson-Park, Robert Baloucoune and Tommy Oâ™Brien tries before the Red Rose hit back through Fraser Dingwall.

But the hosts were bettered in pretty much every area by an Irish side that simply obliterated their opponents in the physical battle.

Two more tries from Dan Sheehan and Jamie Osborne, plus a couple of Jack Crowley three-pointers, sealed a superb win to keep them in the Six Nations title hunt.

England did go over through Ollie Lawrence and Sam Underhill but, after their poor performance against Scotland, this was another embarrassing display.

There has been plenty of talk that this ageing Ireland side are one the wane but, judging by this performance, they are anything but.

The opening half-hour was an absolute statement from Andy Farrell's men, who were superb and ripped Englandâ™s dreadful defence to shreds.

Their fluency, which had been missing for the past 12 months, returned and they scored three times in 10 first-half minutes after a relatively quiet first quarter.

Although there was not too much action in scoring terms, with just a Crowley penalty after eight minutes, it laid the platform for what was to come.

Gibson-Park was the conductor in the mayhem and his tap penalty was too quick for England, giving the scrum-half an easy run to the line.

It demonstrated all that was good about the visitors and all that was bad about their opponents. While the Irishmen were intelligent and slick, Steve Borthwick's team were laboured and dumb.

With Ireland returning to their 2022 and 2023 form, they were creating chances at will and a Stuart McCloskey break from a weak Ollie Lawrence tackle set up their next try.

The centre was hauled down just short of the line but Gibson-Park was on hand to allow Baloucoune to cross the whitewash unopposed.

The scrum-half managed to get the ball out to wing despite Freddie Steward illegally grabbing hold of him at the breakdown and the full-back was duly sin-binned as a result.

England had struggled with 15 men and they were even more porous with 14 as from the restart Josh van der Flier broke through.

Although that attack came to nothing, moments later Ireland manufactured another fine move, which resulted in Baloucoune sending Oâ™Brien, who had come on for the injured James Lowe, over the line.

It was getting to the point of embarrassment for the English but they did stem the bleeding when Dingwall gave them hope on the stroke of half-time.

That hope was only brief, however, as the start of the second period saw Caelan Doris easily swatting aside Ellis Genge and running fully 30 metres up field.

Under pressure, the hosts once again infringed, with Henry Pollock this time being yellow carded, and moments later Sheehan secured the bonus-point.

It was already a long way back for England at that point and it ultimately proved to be insurmountable, despite Lawrence's try and Jamie Osborneâ™s sin-binning.

However, the Irish were men possessed and they controlled that 10-minute period brilliantly with Crowleyâ™s three-pointer the only score during that time.

Osborne then returned from the naughty step to touch down and complete a wonderful afternoon for Farrell and Ireland, although the visitors had the final word through Underhill.

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