Andy Farrell hailed Keith Earls’ century score as the icing on the cake as Ireland defeated England 29-10 in Dublin.
Earls, 35, led the team out with his three daughters and quickly made an impression on the pitch after coming on in the second half, diving acrobatically into the corner to the delight of the Dublin crowd.
It was Ireland’s fifth try of the afternoon, following tries from Bundee Aki and Garry Ringrose in the first half, with wingers James Lowe and Mack Hansen dotting down in the second period.
England’s sole score came from Kyle Sinckler in the second half, as the Men in Green largely dominated their English counterparts, but Farrell was keen to make sure the day was about Earls.
He said: “The story of the game is we won, which is great, we scored five tries so hopefully that’s nice for the crowd and a little bit entertaining before we go away.
“But obviously the story of the day, it’s very fitting that Keith gets his 100th cap and we make sure that he does that with a win.
“And also him scoring a try in Keith Earls style in the corner as well just made the day for everybody really.”
Ireland led 12-3 at the break and seemed in complete control but Farrell admits he was not overly pleased, citing his team’s lack of ugency as a reason they were not further ahead.
“It had a bit of everything, good, bad and ugly, really,” he added.
“I wasn’t too happy at half-time to be honest, I thought we had them in a place where we could just try and push a little bit harder and make it a little bit easier for ourselves, but we didn’t.
“First half, we could have come out of the blocks a little bit harder and pushed that little bit more.
“But I was really pleased that we found our rhythm back into the game in the second half there.
“In regard to the lineout as well, I thought it was much better and we scored some great tries.”
