Ireland stuns England at Twickenham in a 42-21 rout and revives Six Nations hopes

LONDON (AP) — The rumors of Ireland's demise have been exaggerated.

Ireland revived its Six Nations title hopes and killed off England's after a shocking 42-21 blowout win at Twickenham on Saturday.

The script was expected to go the other way. England had not lost at home since autumn 2024, and a fiery retort after losing to Scotland at Murrayfield last weekend was expected to celebrate captain Maro Itoje's 100th England cap.

But England was flat and sloppy while Ireland harked back to the No. 1-ranked team from 2023; energetic, efficient and fearless. Having slipped to No. 5, the Irish beat a team ranked higher than themselves for the first time since July 2024.

And it was historic: Ireland's greatest win by score and margin at Twickenham with a bonus point from scoring five tries to three. All-time, England conceded its second most points at home.

“It was a very enjoyable game to be a part of,” Ireland captain Caelan Doris told ITV. "The fast start definitely helped but there was a ferociousness about us, there was some mistakes but we were always on the forward. It came together for us.

“Internally, there has always been belief at the core of what we are doing. We feel we have the right coaches and right group of players.”

Ireland shot to 22-0, led 22-7 at halftime, scored straight after the break and piled on. Jack Crowley booted seven from 10 for a personal 17 points in his second Six Nations start in two tournaments.

The clash of British and Irish Lions — 13 on Ireland's side and nine on England's — was a reminder of why Ireland dominated the successful squad in Australia last year.

Two consecutive losses have knocked out England from contending for the title. England finishes at Italy and, on the final weekend, defending champion France. Ireland goes home to welcome Wales and Scotland and hoping unbeaten France has an off-day somewhere.

“It's brutal professional sport because if you get 5% wrong it's gone,” England prop Ellis Genge told the BBC. “We probably believed the hype from the first week too much. We can't let the noise in now. I am gutted (about missing the title). It’s tough but that is what professional sport is and she’s a nasty mistress sometimes.”

An opening night hammering from France followed by an unconvincing win over Italy plunged Ireland into despair that a generational team was on the wane. But coach Andy Farrell's decision to give starts to Jamison Gibson-Park, Tadhg Beirne, Tadhg Furlong, Josh van der Flier and Crowley came up trumps.

“It must be nice to be Irish today,” Farrell told ITV. “I didn’t really care if we won or lost, I just wanted us to learn and get better from what we have shown in the first games. We geared ourselves up and gained more respect for each other. I am unbelievably proud of the lads."

Ireland was relieved early by England errors, highlighted by George Ford twice missing touch-finders into the left corner.

Injured winger James Lowe was replaced by Tommy O'Brien, whose first touch was to support a long break by fellow wing Robert Baloucoune. Gibson-Park quick-tapped, caught England sleeping and dashed over for the opening try that Crowley converted from the touchline.

England was suddenly full of holes. Ireland center Stuart McCloskey slipped off opposite Ollie Lawrence and Baloucoune was scoring. In a double blow for England, fullback Freddie Steward was yellow-carded for illegally trying to slow Gibson-Park.

Referee Andrea Piardi hurt his left leg and had to be replaced by Pierre Brousset, then Baloucoune was scoring off an O’Brien break for 22-0 after 30 minutes.

England coach Steve Borthwick pulled off Luke Cowan-Dickie and Steward for a spark from Jamie George and Marcus Smith and they finally pierced Ireland's magnificent scrambling defense a minute into injury time through Fraser Dingwall.

But the boost was short-lived.

Ireland used a yellow card to Henry Pollock in his first England start to get hooker Dan Sheehan over and Farrell was all smiles.

Pollock returned from the sin-bin to help Lawrence score a try and Ireland fullback Jamie Osborne was yellow-carded.

Itoje usually goes 80 minutes but in his milestone match he was replaced in the 55th.

Crowley added two penalties and a conversion to a try by Osborne straight out of the sin-bin. Ireland's hunger was relentless: McCloskey chased down Marcus Smith from behind to save a try in the 73rd. That earned a fist-pump by Farrell in the coaches' box.

Sam Underhill claimed England's third converted try but moments later Ireland was doing a lap of honor at Twickenham, celebrating a sixth win at England's home in the Six Nations era. No other Six Nations team since 2000 has more than two wins.

AP rugby: https://apnews.com/hub/rugby

Ireland's Jamie Osborne scores a try during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland in London, England, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Ireland's Dan Sheehan, center, celebrates after scoring a try during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland in London, England, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Ireland's Dan Sheehan, top, avoids a tackle by England's Luke Cowan-Dickie during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland in London, England, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Ireland's Jamie Osborne, front, is tackled by England's Ollie Lawrence during the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland in London, England, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

Ireland's players celebrate following the Six Nations rugby union match between England and Ireland in London, England, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

MILAN (AP) — Jordan Stolz's bid to become the first man in 32 years with three Olympic golds in long track speedskating was fading Saturday. Way ahead in the mass start, the sport's final event at the Milan Cortina Games, was 40-year-old Jorrit Bergsma, who joined another skater in pulling away from the pack with several laps to go.

Stolz kept figuring someone else would try to reel in the leaders. No one did. Stolz was shocked. He wound up in fourth place behind the mullet-wearing Bergsma, the oldest speedskater to claim a gold at any Olympics.

“They all expected me to chase, but I wasn’t going to do that,” said Stolz, a 21-year-old from Wisconsin. “If I would have chased with five laps to go, I would have just blown myself up. I though the other guys would be a bit more hungry to do it, but I guess they didn’t want to.”

He won his first two events in Milan, the 500 meters and 1,000 meters. Then came a silver in the 1,500. After that result on Thursday, Stolz said: “I didn’t have it today. Not sure why.”

He didn’t have enough in the mass start, either.

Viktor Hald Thorup of Denmark, who moved out front with Bergsma initially, got the silver. Andrea Giovannini, who mimicked Steph Curry’s “Night night” gesture when he helped Italy beat the favored U.S. in the men’s team pursuit, was the bronze medalist, barely nudging past Stolz in a closing sprint.

“I’m really happy for Jorrit. And I’m really happy for Viktor. Other than that, I don’t have anything that’s printable. The stupidest race I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Stolz’s coach, Bob Corby. “The whole peloton decided, like, ‘Well, let’s race for the bronze medal.’ So dumb.”

Ahead of these Olympics, there had been a lot of talk about whether Stolz might end up with a quartet of golds, and he was asked questions about that at news conferences immediately following his two wins. The last male speedskater to get three golds in speedskating at a single Winter Games was Johann Olav Koss at the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics.

“Well, it's just wonderful to have two golds and a silver,” Corby said. “Almost accomplished everything that we wanted to do. If he would have won the 1,500, I wouldn't have cared anything about the mass start.”

Stolz offered a similar assessment of his second trip to an Olympics; he had results of 13th and a 14th at the 2022 Beijing Games when he was 17.

“I thought it was pretty successful: Two golds and a silver, that’s pretty good," he said. "There’s some things that could have been better, but overall I’m pretty happy with it.”

Bergsma added this gold to his bronze in the 10,000 meters earlier in Milan. He now has a total of five Olympic medals, including a gold in the 10,000 way back in 2014.

The gold in the women's mass start also went to a Dutch skater: reigning world champion Marijke Groenewoud, who hadn't finished better than seventh in her other three races. Ivanie Blondin of Canada was the silver medalist for the second Games in a row, followed by Mia Manganello of the U.S. with the bronze.

Blondin helped Canada win a second consecutive team pursuit gold earlier at these Olympics. The 36-year-old Manganello, this season's World Cup champion in the mass start, took a victory lap with a U.S. flag after the final race of her career.

Bergsma and Thorup left the rest of the men's field behind in the 16-lap race.

Eventually, Bergsma went out in front alone, with enough of a lead that he could coast home during the final backstretch, pausing to spread his arms wide, pump his fists overhead and blow kisses to the sizable group of Dutch spectators at the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.

Later, waiting to walk out to the podium for the medal ceremony, Bergsma turned to Giovannini and said about the race: “I couldn't believe it. I was like, ‘Is this really happening?’”

Stolz, meanwhile, couldn't really understand what had transpired, either.

“I guess you just have to expect the unexpected from what people are going to do. Like in the mass start, you would think that they would want to chase more to try and to catch Jorrit, being that I already have two gold medals and the guys who are the gold medal favorites in the mass start didn’t want to chase,” Stolz said. “So, yeah, I wouldn’t have expected that.”

AP Sports Writer Daniella Matar contributed to this report.

AP Winter Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics

Mia Manganello of the U.S. celebrates winning the bronze medal in the women's mass start final speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Marijke Groenewoud of the Netherlands celebrates winning the gold medal ahead of Ivanie Blondin of Canada, center right and silver medal, and Mia Manganello of the U.S., far right and bronze medal, in the women's mass start final speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Gold medallist Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands celebrates winning the men's mass start final speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Momoka Horikawa of Japan leads before Francesca Lollobrigida of Italy as they compete in the women's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Greta Myers of the U.S. breaks away from the pack in the women's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Didrik Eng Strand of Norway leads before Bart Swings of Belgium, Andrea Giovannini of Italy, Gabriel Odor of Austria, Daniel Hall of Canada and others in the men's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Didrik Eng Strand of Norway crashes in the men's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Jorrit Bergsma of the Netherlands is followed by Daniele di Stefano of Italy, Jordan Stolz of the U.S., Jae-won Chung of South Korea and Shomu Sasaki of Japan, as they compete in the men's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Antoine Gelinas-Beaulieu of Canada flashes a thumbs-up in the men's mass start semifinal speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. warms up ahead of the mass start speedskating races at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Feb. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

Jordan Stolz of the U.S. competes to win a silver medal in the men's 1500 meters speedskating race at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Thursday, Feb. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)