Noon on a high as England are back in business

Mar 16 2008 by Nick Purewal, Sunday Sun

WRECKING ball Jamie Noon smashed and grabbed England to emphatic Twickenham victory – while Danny Cipriani booted 18 debut points to humble Ireland.

Newcastle Falcons Noon and Mathew Tait crossed to add to Paul Sackey’s first-half try, while dropped world record Test points scorer Jonny Wilkinson came off the bench to replace clubmate Toby Flood at centre.

Terrorising Andrew Trimble in midfield, Noon made massive hit after massive hit to hurt Ireland every time they came at England out wide.

What a transformation from last week’s Murrayfield madness – from also-rans to class act in just seven days.

Brian Ashton can thank his lucky stars the rain held off, his forwards clicked at last – and that Cipriani lived up to the hype.

Making Wilkinson the scapegoat for the 15-9 Scotland defeat was disgraceful, but giving Cipriani his head was not, and it worked a dream.

Good thing, too, for the former Bath coach – because he can probably expect to keep hold of his job now.

Right from the off 20-year-old Cipriani made good decision on good decision, not just whipping the ball around with abandon, but kicking like a dream from hand and off the ground.

Wilko might not have been at his best of late in an England shirt, not quite hitting his straps kicking out of hand and perhaps even sitting too deep in attack.

None of that from Cipriani, who straight away got England moving forward – albeit behind a pack that found no trouble getting quick ball.

Once Noon had put his only aberration behind him – overrunning the line to allow Rob Kearney to cut back and cross for the opening score – he and England got to work in wrapping up their mediocre Six Nations in style.

A simple switch allowed Cipriani to put Noon through for a good early line break, and only Nick Easter’s lack of pace prevented a try.

Minutes later Noon’s first big hit on Trimble led to England’s first penalty, which Danny Cipriani duly dispatched for his first international points.

Groundhog Day followed pretty quickly for Trimble, who just could not shake off Noon, and while that hit did not precipitate the next score, England hardly had to wait to get their try-count up and running.

Wasps wing Sackey flew into the line at outside centre, before Flood cut back inside and fed Michael Lipman out of the tackle.

The Bath flanker and then Easter trucked it up, before those hands along the line did the trick.

Noon perhaps should have scored when he was hauled down by Tommy Bowe inches short, but in any case it was another fantastic cut-back line from Cipriani’s delayed ball.

After the break Cipriani stretched the lead to six, before Falcons flyer Tait put in a cameo to remember.

Simple stuff did the trick as Tait scorched into the corner, after Lesley Vainikolo came into the line at 12 and Iain Balshaw delayed the telling pass.

Even simpler stuff still did for Noon’s score, as Easter’s pivot and Cipriani’s miss-one allowed Noon to crash through the line.

Two Cipriani penalties ended the scoring, ending England’s Six Nations and giving the new boy the last word in a performance dominant enough to help Ashton keep his job.