Ireland captain Amee Leigh-Costigan scored Ireland's first try from open play against England since Claire Molloy crossed in November 2018. A remarkable sore in a remarkable first-half where the Irish girls went toe-to-toe with the world's best pound-for-pound rugby team England in Cork for 50 minutes. Costigan's try gave Ireland a 5-0 lead and it was 5-7 at break and she hailed the performance as giant step forward in this group's development. “There’s something special about this team and I think the fans know it as well. There’s so much attraction towards their team now heading into an exciting summer," said the captain following a game that finished 5-49. READ MORE: Full Ireland player ratings as they put in valiant effort against England in Six Nations "We put it up to them for 50 minutes. We fired shots and that's what we are about, that's what we wanted do. “We still have two more games left and there's plenty more in us. We’re excited to get going again heading into Wales week, and put out a performance that really shows what the Irish are about.” Truly, Ireland had put in a remarkable first-half performance against England perhaps most notable for the physicality shown by the girls in green. There was a fairly even first quarter and the stats were not too dissimilar for both sides before Amee Leigh Costigan raced onto a Dannah O'Brien chip through to score. O'Brien actually struck the conversion well but it went wide. READ MORE: Stacey Flood: the rise and rise of women's sport in Ireland continues - READ MORE: Costigan, King, Jones, Wafer, Parsons, Bemand - Ireland rugby plan coming good England retained possession for most of the rest of the half but would only score once, Morwenna Talling crossing five minutes before the break. Frustratingly Zoe Harrison's successful conversion meant England went in at the break 7-5 ahead. The fact the score was so close was testament to Ireland's workrate in that second quarter, getting up and going again at continual waves of English attack. At this point Ireland had made 75 tackles and missed just five. That effort was, as could have been predicted, unsustainable while a misfiring scrum which had been conceding first-half penalties coughed up a yellow card early in the second-half. England didn't need a second invitation and were now running the ball wide on every occasion and a tiring Ireland would be dragged around for the 10 minutes and concede 14 points as Harrison and Meg Jones crossed. Having gone from 5-7 to 5-21, tiring visibly, Ireland were staring down the barrel of a gun. Sarah Bern crossed for the bonus-point try in the 58th minute, the same player scoring soon after while there were another four touchdowns to come. "I think we were in a competitive game for 55 minutes, the players defended valiantly," said Ireland coach Scott Bemand afterwards. "I think we created some problems, England couldn't get their game going. "We repelled some first-half challenges in our own 22 and got out cleanly. "The scrum came under a little bit of pressure in the first-half didn't it? But you look at some of the players involved like Niamh O'Dowd, some of her line speed in defensive moments in that game were potentially game-changing in that first-half." So far so good. "After half-time they came out and just widened it up a little bit and we have not been able to manage that quite as well as we did in the first-half and from then on it was tough for us to contain. "There are bits that these players are continually going to absorb, to learn, we just have to keep learning fast. "Proud of the 50 minutes so, proud of the fact that we came out and created some problems that England actually had to work through. "We are a step forward from where we were last year. The gain doesn't stop now, we have two more games, we get back on the wagon pretty quick, this won't define our Six Nations." England's tight-head Maud Muir picked up the Player of the Match award and noted afterwards: “Credit to Ireland, they put us under a lot of pressure, especially when we were in our own 22. We just spoke calmly at half-time about how we needed to build that pressure back on them and then break them.” "We want to build pressure on pressure and that’s definitely what we did. We try and win that scrum battle every game, and for sure we did that today.” Ireland: Flood; McGann, Dalton, Higgins, Costigan (capt); O'Brien, Lane; O'Dowd, Jones, Djougang; Tuite, Wall; Hogan, King, Wafer. Replacements: Moloney for Jones 58, McCarthy for Tuite 47-55, for O'Dowd 56-66, Haney for Djougang 70, Campbell for Wall 70, Moore for Tuite 55, Reilly for Lane 55, Fowley for O'Brien 58, Elmes Kinlan for McGann 58. England: Kildunne; Dow, Jones, Heard, Breach; Harrison, Hunt; Botterman, Atkin-Davies, Muir, Talling, Ward, Aldcroft (capt), Kabeya, Matthews. Replacements: Cokayne for Atkin-Davies 52, Clifford for Botterman52, Bern for Muir 52, Galligan for Talling 60, Feaunati for Kabeya 60, L Packer for Hunt 52, Aitchison for Heard 60, Rowland for Breach 66. Get the latest sports headlines straight to your inbox by signing up for free email.