Ireland 0 England 2: Rice and Grealish both haunt former side as Three Lions ease to win in Lee Carsley’s first game
DECLAN RICE and Jack Grealish rammed the Irish fans’ taunts down their throats with the first-half goals that gave England a comfortable victory.
A banner in the Irish end of Lansdowne Road proclaimed “The snakes are back” alongside pictures of the pair.
But the players who switched allegiance to the Three Lions after wearing the famous green showed why they are £100m footballers, the most expensive Englishmen of all time.
Rice was superb, scoring the first with an emphatic finish then teeing up Grealish for the second at the end of a superb move.
Ireland and their fans had no answer.
England interim boss Lee Carsley had set himself up and his team for a day of mockery by mistakenly sitting in the home dugout before kick off.
But a day that threatened to be all about that mistake, and the silly row about former Republic of Ireland international Carsley not singing the national anthem, soon turned into a take of how the snakes bit back.
Any fears that the level of excitement would be far lower than the pre-match controversy soon disappeared.
An early scuffle involving Grealish, Jayson Molumby and Seamus Coleman raised the temperature further.
The Robbie Brady corner that followed seemed to hit Molumby as much as he actually headed it and the ball went well off target, but it was a real chance.
FOOTBALL FREE BETS AND SIGN UP DEALS
Soon afterwards Kane should at least forced a save out of Caoimhin Kelleher but sent a header well over the bar from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s cross.
But a goal was not long in coming. Seconds after Jordan Pickford had saved a Sammie Szmodics effort following an Ireland break, Alexander-Arnold played Anthony Gordon through with a peach of a pass but the Newcastle winger could not beat Kelleher.
Gordon pulled the ball back for Kane, only for Nathan Collins to block the shot. But it just had to fall to Rice, who smashed it home.
The Arsenal midfielder toned down his celebrations to almost nothing as both sets of fans went crazy for different reasons.
Kobbie Mainoo was booked for a foul on Chiedozie Ogbene but Ireland fluffed the free kick and England broke. Rice surged forward and fed Gordon, whose cross was met by Kane only for Kelleher to make a smothering save.
There was a slight lull in proceedings for a while, but England continued to dominate possession and then scored a brilliant second.
Rice exchanged passes with Mainoo and then with Bukayo Saka as he surged into the penalty area.
He cut the ball back to Grealish, who angled his finish perfectly into the bottom corner of Kelleher’s net and was quite happy to show how much he enjoyed it.
That really shut the Irish crowd up. Their team looked demoralised, too, as England kept the pressure on, and Kelleher had to punch a Saka cross off Kane’s head.
The second half was more low key, with the game already won to all intents and purposes. Just before the hour Szmodics fired wide when he should have at least hit the target.
Molumby was even more wayward with an effort a few minutes later.
Alexander-Arnold was then guilty of one of those moments of casualness that can be so costly.
But Ireland were not sharp enough to capitalise on his misplaced pass and the chance disappeared.
Grealish was substituted towards the end, to a chorus of boos.
But it was the loudest the home crowd had been for a while and substitute Jarrod Bowen forced another save out of Kelleher.
There were a few more jeers when Rice appeared to be suffering from a knock or cramp.
And when the England fans sang the anthem that Carsley did not, it was another kick in the teeth.
Bowen and Saka both had stoppage-time chances to make the scoreline reflect the superiority of the Three Lions.
But the two snakes had already decided the game.