Ireland 27-22 England: Irish showed what we're capable of, says captain Caelan Doris

Captain Caelan Doris stated that Ireland "showed our mettle" in their bonus-point victory over England, kicking off their campaign for a third consecutive Six Nations title. Despite England leading 10-5 at halftime, second-half tries from Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne, and Dan Sheehan helped the defending champions secure a 27-22 win.

"It's definitely satisfying," said Doris, who plays in the back row for Leinster. "Momentum is massive in this tournament. You can't win it in round one, but you can lose it or diminish your chances. I think we showed our mettle at times. We had a good 10 days of preparation coming into the game, and we were confident in our attacking plan. We need to get stronger at that and keep evolving as the tournament goes on."

Last year, Ireland was defeated by England in a thrilling encounter at Twickenham. In Dublin, Steve Borthwick's team performed strongly in the first half, at one point threatening an upset. But Doris insisted that Ireland always believed they would "crack" England. "We needed to get back to our rhythm," added the 26-year-old Doris, who earned his 48th cap in Saturday's win. "At the end of the first half, we felt we were going to crack them - when we got into their 22 and scoring zones, things were going our way."

In his first game as interim head coach, Simon Easterby handed a Six Nations debut to 21-year-old fly-half Sam Prendergast, while Jack Crowley, who played every minute last year, was on the bench. Despite Prendergast missing a few conversion attempts, his ball handling was excellent, and he slotted a crucial long-range penalty in the second half to give Ireland their first lead. "I thought Sam Prendergast was excellent at times and created some really good opportunities," said Easterby. "As it was in the Autumn, Jack Crowley came on and impacted the game and finished it well."

Regarding Ireland's overall performance, Easterby stated: "I thought we did some really good things in parts of the first half but didn't quite take our opportunities. We had a strong kicking game but didn't capitalize on some chances, and then in the second half we kicked on. We were probably a bit smarter in the way we played early in the second half and carried that through for the majority of the second half, and the scores came." Easterby also said that the result sets up a "massive challenge" for Ireland next week against Scotland at Murrayfield. "It's never an easy place to go," he said. "They've just come off a win as well. But we need to make sure we do the things that we're good at better, and it's important we don't deviate too far from what worked for us this week. It's a place we have to go and perform well, we've had some success there over the last few years, but it's going to be incredibly tough."