Nobody has ever won three consecutive outright titles in the Six Nations Championship. That’s a rather stupendous stat, considering that this annual round-robin affair for Europe’s top national rugby teams, which kicked off this weekend, dates all the way back to the nineteenth century. But maybe this is the year: Ireland, the reigning two-time defending champs, took a step toward history on Saturday night in Dublin by pounding England, 27-22, in the opening round of the 2025 tournament. Don’t be fooled by the final score: A pair of garbage-time tries from England covered up Ireland’s actual dominance.
Heading into the matchup against its most despised rival on and off the pitch, Ireland is currently ranked second in the world (behind only South Africa) and has the highest-rated squad in this year’s all-Euro Six Nations field.
But Ireland’s winning skein came entirely on the watch of head coach Andy Farrell, who recently went on leave to prepare for a busman’s holiday coaching a team on tour in Australia this summer. So yesterday’s match was the Irish side’s first under Simon Easterby, a former Farrell assistant recently named interim head coach.
Perhaps that change up top explains why the favored hosts started so sluggish. The playing of “God Save The King,” the imperialist former occupying oppressors’ national anthem, is very often prickly at events in the Republic. But on this day the performance came off with a disappointing dearth of disdain from the Aviva Stadium crowd. Then just minutes after kickoff, England’s Cadan Murley beat Ireland’s defense to gather in a sneaky kick from Henry Slade for a try to open the scoring. And though time of possession and field position favored Ireland from that point of the game on, the visitors were able to stay ahead with a bend-but-don’t-break defense, aided by replay, which detected an illegal hold that wiped an apparent try from Ireland’s Ronan Kelleher in the 15th minute. Ireland’s first and only thrill of the half didn’t come until late, with a stiff-arm-enhanced run down the sidelines from wing James Lowe ended with a deft dish to Jamison Gibson-Park and a try in the 34th minute. The Irish conversion kick, however, went wide.
England’s Marcus Smith converted a penalty against Ireland at the end of the half, sending England into the break with a 10-5 lead and leaving the home fans fearful of an upset.
All for naught, as it turned out. Maybe it was the message Easterby cooked up for his debut as a halftime motivational speaker, or perhaps his squad’s superior depth and seasoning, but everything turned around in the second half for Ireland. First, Bundee Aki, Ireland’s gargantuan center, burst up the left sideline in the 51st minute for a try. Another wide conversion attempt left the score 10-10. A converted penalty from Sam Prendergast with 55 minutes gone gave Ireland its first lead, 13-10. Then Lowe again broke into the open in the midfield in the 63rd minute and headed straight for the goalposts before passing to Tadhg Beirne to finish the try and, with a successful conversion, put the score at 20-10. Ireland finished off its scoring binge with a majestic all-hands run for a try in the 72nd minute, climaxed by yet another sideline run from Lowe, who made an unselfish feed to Dan Sheehan for the hosts’ fourth try of the day and effectively put the game away at 27-10.
The Aviva crowd was singing victory songs, and network pundits had already named Gibson-Park player of the match by the time England saved a tiny bit of face with two very late, mostly empty scores, including a try at the final whistle. The losing side’s fans back across the Irish Sea, however, weren’t fooled. (Semi-curious factoid: The three standouts for Ireland on the day–Aki, Lowe, and man-of-the-match Gibson-Park–were actually born in New Zealand.)
As far as the tournament table goes, Ireland got four points for the win, plus a bonus point given to any squad that scores at least four tries. The quest for immortality continues next Sunday, when the Irish face Scotland in Edinburgh. The Scots, powered by a hat trick from Huw Jones, opened up with a 31-19 win over Italy.
But lots of Irish fans are already looking beyond next weekend to the scheduled March 8 encounter with France at Aviva Stadium. France opened its tourney by thrashing Wales, 43-0, in Paris. Should Ireland get past Scotland as the bookies indicate they will, the match versus France will likely decide both the Six Nations winner, and whether the 142-year three-peat drought endures. Whatever happens to Ireland from here on, however, they’ll always have the win over England.
