Ireland vs England LIVE rugby: Result and reaction from World Cup warm-up after Billy Vunipola red card

It’s not quite working for Ireland today, though, a few gremlins in the machine. England opt not to contest which makes Rob Herring’s slanted toss to Cian Prendergast entirely unneccessary. Not straight, England’s scrum.

And when the Ireland front row withdraw before engagement, Paul Williams pings them.

Penalty Ireland! The ball is at the base and Ben Youngs and Billy Vunipola are instructed to use it, England failing to heed Paul Williams’s call and perhaps harshly penalised with Tadhg Furlong seemingly on his knees.

Back to the corner.

No lineout error this time for Ireland, but the maul never gets moving. Turnover, England’s scrum.

Not a great few minutes for Ben Youngs. The retreating scrum half tries to claim a ball as it plummets back down to earth but spills backwards, placing his mates Ford and Freddie Steward in a predicament. England are penalised at the ruck.

Ireland return to England’s 22. Kyle Sinckler replaces Will Stuart at tighthead prop for the visitors.

Bundee Aki then ploughs over the top of George Ford to grant Ireland clearing space.

A bit more punting ends with Ford claiming a mark.

Ireland almost get themselves in difficulty as James Lowe takes a tonking inside his own 22, but they are good enough to extricate themselves, Cian Prendergast punting up towards halfway.

England run it back with interest and begin to show off their patterns, but a ropey pass from Ben Youngs dips on George Ford and the fly half knocks on having been forced to stoop.

No half time changes that I can see, though the early removal of Dan Sheehan will worry the home fans. Hopefully it is just a niggle for the dynamic hooker.

England have work to do, obviously. They showed a few more attacking variations from launch plays early on but haven’t managed to provide consistent threat, and their kicking game has just been a little bit off, which given Ireland’s lineout issues will disappoint Steve Borthwick. If they are going to play a kick pressure game over the next couple of months, as all signs would seem to suggest, the accuracy of their chase and selection of their kicks will have to improve.

Still, nine points isn’t an insurmountable half-time lead, and there will be 15 England players re-emerging from the dressing rooms after the interval, which hasn’t been true in the last two meetings between these two.

That said...

It was a little bit clunky for Ireland at times, but plenty in their side today are playing their first warm-up game. That said, they are creating width so superbly - Mack Hansen and James Lowe have both been causing typical mischief in the roaming roles they are afforded in this Irish system, and their forwards ball-handling is creating issues at the line, too.

Pretty much as expected in Dublin, with Ireland’s repeated mishaps in advanced positions not mattering much in a half which the men in green largely had the better of. Two wonderfully-taken tries showed the range of the home side’s attacking game, and England haven’t controlled territory in the way they’d have liked given how kick happy Steve Borthwick’s side have (again) been.

The visitors’ defensive intensity hasn’t been bad, but there were a few flagging forwards later in the phase count as the half wore on.