TheBreakdown
Full time18 March 1978
England
15–9
Ireland
Twickenham, London, England · Five Nations 1978Head-to-head

England won by 6 points.

Scoring

  1. 1’CEngland conversion · Malcolm Young2–0
  2. 1’CEngland conversion · Malcolm Young4–0
  3. 1’PEngland penalty · Malcolm Young7–0
  4. 1’TEngland try · Mike Slemen11–0
  5. 1’TEngland try · Peter Dixon15–0
  6. 44’PIreland penalty · Tony Ward15–3
  7. 62’DIreland drop goal · Tony Ward15–6
  8. 67’PIreland penalty · Tony Ward15–9

Line-ups

England

  1. 1Barry NelmesProp
  2. 2Peter WheelerHooker
  3. 3Fran CottonProp
  4. 4Bill BeaumontSecond row
  5. 5Maurice ColcloughSecond row
  6. 6Peter DixonFlanker
  7. 7Mike RafterFlanker
  8. 8John ScottNumber 8
  9. 9Malcolm YoungScrum-half
  10. 10John HortonFly-half
  11. 11Mike SlemenWing
  12. 12Paul DodgeCentre
  13. 13Barrie CorlessCentre
  14. 14Peter SquiresWing
  15. 15David CaplanFull-back
  16. 16Charles KentBench
  17. 17Martin CooperBench
  18. 18IN OrumBench
  19. 19Jon RaphaelBench
  20. 20T PryorBench
  21. 21Rob MordellBench

Ireland

  1. 1Phil OrrProp
  2. 2Patrick WhelanHooker
  3. 3Ned ByrneProp
  4. 4Moss KeaneSecond row
  5. 5Harry SteeleSecond row
  6. 6Stewart McKinneyFlanker
  7. 7Fergus SlatteryFlanker
  8. 8Willie DugganNumber 8
  9. 9John MoloneyScrum-half
  10. 10Tony WardFly-half
  11. 11Freddie McLennanWing
  12. 12Paul McNaughtonCentre
  13. 13Alistair McKibbinCentre
  14. 14Mike GibsonWing
  15. 15Tony EnsorFull-back
  16. 16Michael FitzpatrickBench
  17. 17Ciaran FitzgeraldBench
  18. 18Kevin MaysBench
  19. 19Colin PattersonBench
  20. 20Michael QuinnBench
  21. 21Larry MoloneyBench

Match officials

Sample data
Referee
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Assistant referee
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Assistant referee
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TMO
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Sample data Match officials is placeholder content: TheBreakdown has no data source for it yet, so nothing here is real.

Context

All-time, England 70–54 Ireland, 7 drawn in 131 scored Tests. Full head-to-head

England going in
Ireland going in

Also on this day

Results to 27 September 2026. Scoring and line-ups come from World Rugby match summaries where available; older Tests may have neither.