• Ireland women 11-8 England women
• Niamh Briggs makes it two defeats from three for England

Daire Walsh at Milltown House

Niamh Briggs’ late penalty condemned England to a second defeat in three games

, leaving the world champions with very little chance of adding a Six Nations crown to that global title.The big news emanating from the England camp this week was the decision to select the women’s sevens coach, Simon Middleton, as the permanent successor to the World Cup-winning Gary Street.

Middleton will not assume his new role until the conclusion of the Sevens World Series in May, however, and the interim appointment, Nicky Ponsford, (the RFU’S Head of Performance for Women’s Rugby) was in charge for a third consecutivegame.

With several new additions to their squad, England are facing a tough transition this year and, despite falling short on the night, Ponsford feels that the younger players will benefit greatly from the experience.

“It was definitely a really hard-fought battle from both sides. We were really pleased with our defence but not quite good enough in the end,” Ponsford said. “We were always expecting to have a number of younger players coming into the squad. I think this is a fantastic opportunity to bed them in and give them huge games like this under significant pressure and see how they come through.”

England’s fly-half Katy Mclean was off-target from her first kick at the posts, but when Irish skipper NiamhBriggs was deemed to have performed a high-tackle on flanker Alexandra Matthews from the subsequent attack, she made no mistake from close-range.

England were now settling into their customary stride, and Mclean was narrowly wide of the mark from long distance at the tail end of the first-quarter. This was something of a let-off for Tom Tierney’s charges, who eventually opened their account on 25 minutes through the boot of the reliable Briggs, and threatened to build momentum as the half wore on.

Now that they had been made aware of Ireland’s attacking potential tradedpenalties in the first half England increased the tempo of their play as the interval beckoned. Bristol’s Abigail Brown and Mclean were both halted just shy of the Irish line in stoppage-time, but from the resulting five-metre scrum,No8, Harriet Millar-Mills, crossed for the game’s opening try.

Mclean could not add the conversion and 8-3 felt like a precarious half-time lead from England’s viewpoint. Within 10 minutes of the restart, their sterndefensive resistance was eventually broken. The impressive Alison Miller – who registered a hat-trick against England in the same venue two years ago – almost found a way through on the left, and when the play was switched towards the opposite flank, scrum-half Larissa Muldoon applied the finishing touch to an enterprising move.

Briggs was unsuccessful from a tricky conversion attempt, however, and moving into the final half-hour, the tie remained delicately poised.

England did enjoy a dominant period of possession during the final quarter but they received little leeway from a watertight Irish defence. Ireland had the upper hand for the closing stages, however, and their relentless pressure ultimately told when Briggs held her nerve to land the decisive injury-time penalty.

Ireland Briggs (capt); Tyrrell, Murphy, Fitzhenry, Miller; Stapleton, Muldoon (Rosser, 71); O’Reilly (Hayes, 48), Bourke, Egan (O’Brien 85); Spence, Reilly; Fitzpatrick, Molloy, O’Brien.

Try Muldoon Pens Briggs 2

England Cattell (Field, 79); Laybourn (Reed, 76), Brown, Large, Gregson (Goddard 85); Mclean, Blackburn (Davidson 79); Clark, Fleetwood, Keates; Taylor (capt), Scott; Matthews, Gallagher, Millar-Mills.

Try Millar-Mills Pen Mclean

Referee L Berard (US)