Slade Praises England’s Execution

Henry Slade praised England’s ruthlessness as they opened their Six Nations with a brilliant 32-20 victory away at reigning champions Ireland.

The Red Rose took the game to Ireland from the off, scoring after two minutes when Jonny May crossed the whitewash before Elliott Daly’s try and an Owen Farrell penalty on the stroke of half-time sent them in 17-10 up.

Ireland piled on the pressure after the interval, trying to grind the visitors down, but they struggled to puncture the defensive line and Slade took advantage to grab himself a brace of tries.

Replacement scrum-half John Cooney scored a late consolation try, but it was not enough as England got their campaign off to the perfect start in Dublin.

For Ireland, their hopes of a repeat Grand Slam are now over and they will look to bounce back next weekend in Scotland.

England take on France at Twickenham next and, speaking afterwards, two-try hero Slade praised the way his side carried out their game plan at the Aviva Stadium.

“It’s a great feeling coming over here and getting a win,” he said. “We dug in today. We had a lot of defending to do. We’ve put in a big shift over the last couple of weeks in camp.

“We knew exactly how we wanted to play and we executed it perfectly. The half-backs controlled the game well and everyone put themselves on the line.”