Ireland suffer heavy defeat to England in first international rugby outing of 1923
Leicester, 12 February 1923 - The Irish rugby team lost by 18 points to England in its first international fixture of 1923 at Welford Road in Leicester on Saturday.
Played before a crowd of more than 20,000 spectators, the home side won comfortably by a scoreline of 23 points to 5, the Irish outclassed in almost every facet of the game.
In an analysis of the Irish performance, the Irish Times ‘Rugby expert’ afforded a downbeat assessment of where the current crop of Irish player’s stand relative to their English counterparts. ‘It is a painful admission to have to make’, the paper’s expert remarked this morning, ‘but there is no doubt we have not in Ireland at present forwards the equal of the eight men who represented England in this game. Our half-backs also are very inferior by comparison... ’
The lack of quality in the Irish set-up has also informed English reactions to the result. The well-known English writer on the sport, ‘Astral’, claims that England’s victory, while undoubtedly impressive on the scoreboard, was secured more due to ‘Ireland’s weakness than on their own virtues..’
Similarly, the Times of London has suggested that England played down to their ‘moderate’ Irish opponents. The result nevertheless is that England have secured two wins from two matches in this Five Nations tournament. Scotland’s record is the same. Alongside France, Ireland has only played and lost a single match, leaving Wales to hold up the base of the international table with two loses from two matches.
Irish Rugby team photo (Image: Illustrated London News, 17 February 1923 )
[Editor's note: This is an article from Century Ireland, a fortnightly online newspaper, written from the perspective of a journalist 100 years ago, based on news reports of the time.]
