ENGLAND were humiliated at Twickenham by Ireland, who put them to the sword to seal the Grand Slam.
Ireland –described as ‘scum’ by England head coach Eddie Jones- obliterated the sorry Red Rose, who have now lost three on the spin and are in full-on crisis.
Defeat left England on course for their WORST Championship performance since 1983 and leaves Jones with a huge headache 18 months out from the World Cup.
Tries from Gary Ringrose, CJ Stander and Jacob Stockdale did the job for Joe Schmidt’s team, who are the first side since France in 1981 to come to Twickenham to claim the Grand Slam.
They were up and running just five minutes in after a moment to forget for Anthony Watson.
Jonny Sexton unleashed a huge up and under on the full-back, who could only spill it under pressure from Rob Kearney before Gary Ringrose fell on the loose ball to score.
Ireland were far the better team in the opening quarter and produced a moment of magic to score their second and leave England shell-shocked.
After great link play between Sexton and prop Tadhg Furlong, Bundee Aki burst through England’s defence and passed to CJ Stander who barrelled over the line from 10 metres.
The Twickenham crowd were even more livid just after when Aki smashed into Elliot Daly’s head with what appeared a no-arms tackle, but referee Angus Gardner saw it differently and let Ireland off the hook.
They were threatening to run away with it but gave England a reprieve when flanker Peter O’Mahony was sin-binned for collapsing a maul.
And the hosts made them pay soon after – Elliot Daly picked up Farrell’s neat chip through on the left wing after 32 minutes for their first points.
But it didn’t take the visitors long to reassert their dominance, with Jacob Stockdale making it 21-5 on the stroke of half-time.
The winger, 21, raced on to his own chip through, beat Jonny May and Mike Brown for pace, kneed the ball over the line and touched down.
Stockdale has been in unstoppable for Ireland since making his debut last summer – he now has 11 tries in nine tests and became the first person ever to score seven tries in the Six Nations.
Jones’ men came out with the bit between the teeth but struggled to make any inroads against the dogged Irish defence.
And Conor Murray knocked over a penalty with 20 minutes remaining to put Ireland 24-5.
But Elliot Daly –a rare shining light in a white shirt- crossed over for his second in the left-corner after a slick move by England and superb assist by Mike Brown.
But it was all too little too late and leaves Eddie Jones heading back to the drawing board after a humiliating Six Nations.
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