Ireland continued their steady build to next month's World Cup with another victory on Saturday evening against England in Dublin.
It may not have been the finest performance of 2023 for this Irish squad, but they were still posed few problems by a poor England side who finished the game with 14 men after the sending off of Billy Vunipola.
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell will have been satisfied with the result, if not the performance, as Ireland saw off their bitter rivals by 29-10 - even more than the 13 point winning margin in March's Six Nations game.
There is just one warm-up game left for Ireland before the World Cup kicks off for them against Romania on September 8. They will travel to Bayonne to face Samoa next Saturday.
They may, however, be without star man Dan Sheehan, after he picked up an injury in Saturday's victory over England.
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Ireland v England: Andy Farrell gives injury update on Ireland squad
Speaking to RTÉ after the game, Ireland coach Andy Farrell gave an update on the concerning injury picked up by hooker Dan Sheehan in the first half at the Aviva Stadium.
19 August 2023; Dan Sheehan of Ireland leaves the pitch in the first half of the Bank of Ireland Nations Series match between Ireland and England at Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile
Farrell said he had "fingers crossed" that the injury would not be too serious, but that there was some concern over the situation:
Dan had a bit of a sore foot - we'll get him checked and see how that is. Hopefully it's [okay] fingers crossed.
Dan's lost a bit of power in his foot. It seems to be the same old story doesn't it? We won't know until we get it looked at, scanned or whatever, so we'll probably know more in the morning.
Thankfully, Farrell did confirm that there was no doubt that Jack Conan - injured in the last warm-up game against Italy - would be fit to travel to the World Cup. He also confirmed the same for Sheehan's fellow hooker Ronan Kelleher, and prop Dave Kilcoyne.
Farrell went on to break down his side's performance against England, saying that there had been "good, bad, and ugly" in the 19-point victory:
It had a bit of everything. Good, bad, and ugly really. I wasn't too happy at half time. 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.
We didn't kick on in the first half, probably because England's line-out defence was pretty good and we made it a bit scrappy for ourselves. But I was really pleased that we found our rhythm back into the game in the second half there. In regards to the line-out as well, I thought it was much better and we scored some great tries.
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.
Fingers crossed Ireland fans will have some celebrations in order by the next time the team plays on home soil.
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