England overpower Ireland to reignite Six Nations hopes

Ford and Daly cashed in on Irish hesitancy when dealing with grubber kicks by Ben Youngs and Ford, while England’s ferocious tackling left Ireland, who had won their opening two matches, struggling to get any sort of foothold as they trailed 17-0 at half-time.

A Robbie Henshaw try gave the Irish a brief glimmer of hope but England hit back quickly as an unstoppable maul shoved Cowan-Dickie over. Andrew Porter scrambled over for Ireland at the death but it was still a hugely important and dominant victory for Eddie Jones's side.

England's third successive big win over the Irish takes them to nine points after three rounds, having lost to France but beaten Scotland.

France, who have won their first three games, top the standings with 13 points. Ireland have nine with Wales and Scotland on six.

England set the tone from the opening exchanges and barely took their foot off the pedal throughout the first half.

They were on the board after nine minutes when Johnny Sexton failed to deal with the awkward bounce of Ben Youngs’s grubber kick, allowing Ford to dive on it.

A similar scenario unfolded for the second try, Jacob Stockdale fatally hesitating over Ford's kick and Daly reaching it just in time to touch down.

England’s attack was full of hard, aggressive running and neat, delayed passing that repeatedly punched holes in the Irish defence.

Conversely, when the visitors had the ball the English loose forward trio of Lawes, Tom Curry and Sam Underhill were swarming all over them.

Farrell slotted a penalty to stretch the lead to 17-0 at halftime, and it was no more than England deserved. Ireland had barely visited the English 22 and the one opportunity they did get was wasted when Sexton screwed an easy penalty wide. They looked more fired up after the restart and hit back with a Robbie Henshaw try but it didn’t last long and even then Sexton was again off beam with the simple conversion.

England’s replacement forwards brought new energy and a rolling maul, with most of the backs joining in, shoved Cowan-Dickie over, before Farrell slotted a tough conversion to make it 24-5.

The crowd was energised, baying for a fourth bonus-point try, but Ireland regrouped and had the last word when Andrew Porter burrowed over.

It was too little, too late, however, and they will seek to get their campaign back on track at home to Italy on March 7.

"We gave a very good team two tries from our mistakes, not covering the chip kick, and then we didn't take our chances," said Ireland captain Sexton.

"We were getting the ball on the back foot, trying to get to the edges and we couldn't, looked a bit silly at times."