Sports
Ireland’s old guard roll back the years in record Six Nations win to leave England with huge questions
The reports of Ireland’s demise have clearly been greatly exaggerated. This was a performance reminiscent of their pomp that seemed to defy the circumstance, a record win over England at Twickenham that challenged so many of the assumptions made about both. No country for old men? There is life, and lots of it, left in this Irish band of brothers.
The verdant past of back-to-back Six Nations crowns may yet be beyond Ireland but here was a throwback showing of golden autumnal hue. Andy Farrell had backed his tried and trusted to hit the levels they had failed to of late and got what he had demanded. Ponderous? Plodding? Leggy after the Lions? Not so here: Jamison Gibson-Park fizzed with a vitality Ireland lacked in Paris on the opening night. Tadhg Beirne made mischief and menace and Stuart McCloskey stood tall to reduce English oak to acorns. For others, this was an international coming-of-age, wings Robert Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien among them. An assured showing from Jack Crowley should make the No 10 shirt his for the foreseeable future. “It’s a special day, 100 per cent, to come here and perform like that,” Farrell said of his side. “We’re obviously delighted with that.”
The only trouble for Farrell’s beaming team in green is that their title hopes may well rest on England beating France in Paris. It is a scenario that feels fanciful after this. For as good as Ireland were, the hosts simply wilted in the face of their pressure to raise deeper questions about their direction.
If their performance against Scotland could be dismissed as something of an aberration on a day luck did not go their way, there was no rub of the green, really, for Ireland here. Excepting the scrum – how was the play, Mrs Lincoln? – the visitors were better in every facet.
“It was bitterly disappointing,” Steve Borthwick conceded after a chastening day. “Huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances, their kicking game was excellent. Unfortunately, for two weeks now, we have given ourselves a mountain to climb, given the opposition too many points and we have not got scoreboard presence. We will be looking closely at that and how I set the team up to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
It had been Maro Itoje to lead England out, just the ninth man to reach a century of caps for his country, a great statesman and great player emerging with the understated calm and confidence that has defined him over a decade. A look to the heavens, perhaps in memory of his mother, and England’s captain was down to business.
Borthwick and his squad had expressed frustration about their lacking physicality in the opening Edinburgh skirmishes, and there was a real punch to their first few carries, Freddie Steward hurling himself into the Irish line and Joe Heyes soon after. But a poor kick from George Ford squandered possession, before the eagerness to atone manifested itself in three sloppy, hurried set-pieces. An offside penalty in the English 22 granted the recalled Crowley the chance to open the scoring and settle any nerves.
The hosts, meanwhile, carried a certain skittishness, a coltish feel they had seemed to shed during their long winning run. Ford, unbelievably, twice missed touch with punted penalties, while Steward and Ellis Genge fumbled within five metres of the line after sustained series deep in Irish territory.
When Ireland at last got a chance to attack, they seized their chance. It looked all too easy for Baloucoune and O’Brien – on early for an injured James Lowe – to make metres in open acreage down the right, and England didn’t appropriately reform when the visitors went away to the left. Tom Curry cynically came in at the side to stem the flow; Gibson-Park tapped the resultant penalty quickly and zipped into the corner.
For a second week running, bad for England soon became worse. O’Brien took a steepling kick on the left and Stuart McCloskey strode away from Ollie Lawrence up the centre. A superb cover tackle from Steward was immediately cancelled out by his diving over the top of the ruck; off he went to the sin bin after Baloucoune finished it off. Like Irish thoroughbreds rounding the bend at Cheltenham, the wing pair were soon at it again, with O’Brien this time the scorer in the left corner.
It was all too much for some. Referee Andrea Piardi departed with an injury and neither Luke Cowan-Dickie nor Steward made it to half time, hooked as Borthwick sought emergency solutions – or perhaps locked the stable door. Even when England did finally register, through Fraser Dingwall on the stroke of the interval, it felt like heavy treading, a phase or five too many required to break Ireland apart.
The visitors, by contrast, found plenty of pasture. Caelan Doris was next to have a gallop as the travelling support sang of the fields of Athenry. His break forced an infringement under the posts, for which Henry Pollock was shown yellow, and Dan Sheehan soon provided the finishing touches. England grew petulant: Itoje warned about his tone, Jack van Poortvliet conceding 10 metres with backchat.
Again, it appeared the game was long gone before the final quarter that England had come to command during their 12 consecutive wins. A neatly worked Ollie Lawrence try, and accompanying yellow card for Jamie Osborne, instilled some fading faith, but it did not last long, two strikes of Crowley’s right boot adding to the advantage and all but killing home hopes.
When a returned Osborne punched over 10 minutes from time, there were sprouts of green all around, and Englishmen and women stumbled for the exit. Itoje – another off early even on his milestone day – wore a face of stone, like plenty of others. Even at the last, Ireland were scrambling back hard, McCloskey hauling down Marcus Smith to showcase his impressive speed, Baloucoune bundling Tommy Freeman towards touch. “It looked like we were hunting people down throughout the game,” Farrell said.
Sam Underhill’s late try varnished a home performance for the scrapheap, yet still a record margin of defeat to Ireland here remained. Itoje’s 100th Test would have been among the most painful. Where do England go next?