Robbie Henshaw’s first Test try kept alive Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes as the defending Six Nations champions beat England 19-9 at Lansdowne Road for a national record-equalling 10th success in a row.
The 21-year-old man-of-the-match’s second-half try – allied to 14 points by Jonathan Sexton – ended a run of four successive defeats to the English, whose own hopes of the Grand Slam disappeared.
Ireland now have a chance of retaining the title for the first time since 1948/49.
England trailed 6-3 when they won a kickable penalty but captain Chris Robshaw opted not to go for goal and paid the price as Devin Toner won the resulting lineout allowing the Irish to clear the danger.
Sexton then won Ireland a penalty with a cracking tackle on Luther Burrell and slotted it over himself for 9-3 after 30 minutes.
The fly-half extended Ireland’s lead to 12-3 in the 48th minute but the roar that greeted those points was nothing compared to those when Henshaw outjumped Alex Goode to touch down from Conor Murray’s astute box kick.
Sexton converted beautifully from the sideline for 19-3.
That was it for Sexton, who had to go off with an apparent hamstring problem and was replaced by Ian Madigan.
Ford got England’s first points of the second half on the board as the hour mark approached with a penalty to make it 19-6 and added another three points as the game neared the final 10 minutes – but the Irish held firm for a deserved win.
“My first try coming against England is a dream that you daren’t even think will come to reality,” said Henshaw.
“It was good chance to use my Gaelic football skills and get it down.”
Ireland coach Joe Schmidt was left beaming at matching the 10-Test winning record.
“I’m incredibly proud of the lads and the way they defended.
“It is probably our biggest win and is a little bit special as only one other Irish team has done that before.”
England counterpart Stuart Lancaster decried his team’s ill-discipline and tactical naivety.
“In the first half, we were masters of our own destiny. We played in the wrong areas at times and our discipline wasn’t good enough and the timing of the try at the start of the second half was crucial,” he told BBC.
“We need to understand where it went wrong and learn from it – we now need to focus on our two big games at home.”