Drowned but not out

On the day of Drico’s daughter’s birth England needed nothing special to win in Dublin as Ireland put up one of the worst displays against the old enemy that I can remember. And I hope I soon forget it. The weather forecast was bleak for the day and it ended up worse than that. The rain was always going to decide the scoreline and as expected at all times it was divisible by three but we simply can’t call that a reason, an excuse or even a factor. England were, after all, using the same ball and they weren’t having the same issues keeping a hold of it that we were. Jamie Heaslip had a very poor game, most obviously because of his inability to catch two garryowens under little and no pressure but also due to his indiscipline at the breakdown. More than once, his was the last body off the ground as we gave away penalty after penalty. Ireland spent the first half knocking on, kicking the ball away and pulling up injured. Simon Zebo and Jonathan Sexton were the biggest casualties of a dour affair as numbers ten and eleven had been replaced after a half an hour but credit to Keith Earls and Ronan O’Gara – the Munster replacements made as much of an impact as they could have as the winger made two almost identical breaks to worry a narrow English defence and the outhalf kicked Ireland’s only points. Brian O’Driscoll and Sean O’Brien both pulled up at different points in the game but with our trip to Edinburgh two weeks away, time should help us to recover and regroup. The effort of last week’s endeavour had clearly taken it’s toll. Craig Gilroy was one of the few who can be happy with his contribution as the Ulsterman cleaned up a lot of dangerous grubbers and played with a calm confidence that belied his youth and inexperience. Unfortunately though, we just never got into a position to utilise his attacking prowess. Our front foot play was devoid of the type of zip and spark that was so evident (and so effective) in Cardiff last week. On the whole, the best that can be said about Ireland’s performance is that we kept out an England team that never looked like threatening our try line, our scrum was not humiliatingly trampled in the manner of last year’s defeat in Twickenham, and that because the tournament has been quite poor so far – Ireland could yet win it. England are of course favourites but they are immensely beatable. They had just as little imagination about them today as we had, but the difference was that we made the mistakes and they didn’t. James Haskell was sin-binned around the hour mark and England outscored us during his absence. You’re never going to win test matches if you can’t win those ten minute periods. Simple as that.

Elsewhere, Italy followed up last weeks famous victory by wilting (unfortunately predictably) in Murrayfield. The pick of the action was a sensational length of the pitch intercept try from Glasgow fullback Stuart Hogg as Scott Johnson’s side put up a healthy score that will give them confidence going into our visit in a fortnight’s time. France, unlike Italy, picked up where they left off last weekend as they continued their collapse, this time against Wales in front of a restless home crowd. Philippe Saint-André’s continued selections of Wesley Fofana on the wing and Morgan Parra on the bench are the most obvious signs that the man at the helm of the World Cup finalists is not making the right calls and he will most certainly face increasing animosity and occupational uncertainty unless he acts quickly to turn things around for Les Bleus.