Having moaned on Thursday about media 'rat poison', Eddie Jones better brace himself for another deluge after meekly losing this battle of the also-rans
Something has to give in this battle of Six Nations 2021 also-rans and it spectacularly did, the credibility of this England team taking a pounding following the over-reliance of Eddie Jones on a plethora of his favourite players who haven’t been putting in it week to week.
With both teams running at two wins from four entering the final round in Dublin, middle table bragging rights were up for grabs. In the end, it was Ireland who exited cheering in the chilly night, outscoring England with a first-half swagger and then keeping composure in a second-half where not even Bundee Aki’s red card with 16 minutes remaining was going to deny them.
The convincing 32-18 outcome made for quite a change. The last time England were here on business 25 months ago, the place was thronged for a Saturday service that left the home crowd battered.
England produced the first episode that February 2019 night of a four-part power game series that had continued uninterrupted in recent Anglo-Irish matches, Jones’ crew scoring 131 points (17 tries) to Ireland’s 54 (seven tries).
In the meantime, the Aviva Stadium had become a place where time had stood still, sombre-looking wall adverts for tickets to an April 2020 Leinster versus Munster fixture and for fast-track passport renewal illustrating how the world has come to a halt in these parts.
☘️ Keith Earls is still up there with the VERY BEST.
Beautiful try from the veteran @IrishRugby winger.#GuinnessSixNations #IREvENG pic.twitter.com/zOVBD6U7lW
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 20, 2021
Leinster and Munster, those age-old Irish rivals who are long used to packing out stadiums wherever they meet, will next contest a behind closed doors PRO14 decider next weekend around the corner at the RDS. As for passports, don’t bother. You can’t fly out anywhere these days from Ireland without the curtain twitchers demonising your movements.
It was 3.51pm, 54 minutes before kick-off, when Elliot Daly, George Ford and Owen Farrell stepped out from the Aviva tunnel to the sound of silence to get their individual warm-ups started before the rest of their gang trundled out.
Na’er a partisan boos or a hiss was uttered to accompany their arrival, 50,000 empty seats staring back at them. Even the music man hadn’t clocked on yet to belt out a tune or two to generate some semblance of a vibe that something important was about to unfold.
Anyway, enough of the graveyard-like atmosphere and onto the rugby where some prime pre-game talking points were the reshuffled Ireland back row featuring the soon-to-retire CJ Stander at blindside (he was immense), the Jacob Stockdale wing recall (he was more than adequate), the alleged ‘pattern player’ restrictions of Conor Murray (gives us this pattern consistency any day of the week) and the England gamble of positioning Elliot Daly at No13 for the first time in 52 months.
Discussion on that last topic in the two days since the Thursday morning English team announcement had become redundant hot air, though, before the England team bus had even pulled into the ground.
Daly shifted to full-back to cover for Max Malins’ kept-secret Friday training ground ache and rookie Ollie Lawrence was promoted for a midfield audition that didn’t pan out any better than his round one ball-starved misadventure versus the Scots.
The runes had it we were in store for an evening of aerial bombardment, where severe neck strain was more of a threat to health than any year-old pandemic, and with Scotland having jumped ahead of both these teams on the ladder with their lunchtime trouncing of the hapless Italians, it was quickly onto who could make better sense of this week’s French officiating.
It’s fair to say England had their issues with Pascal Gauzere in round three while Ireland were also left nervous by Romain Poite in last weekend’s round four. This time around, Mathieu Raynal was in charge of a contest where the rivals began nervously, the Irish midfielders each running into touch on halfway on either side of the pitch while Daly had a sloppy kick out on the full.
Jack Conan finishes off a fantastic team score for Ireland! 🤝#GuinnessSixNations #IREvENG pic.twitter.com/PQNO9k0kKW
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 20, 2021
It could only get better and it did for those of an Irish persuasion. England blinked, Maro Itoje held up and a free conceded at a five-metre scrum following three Farrell points, whereas Ireland didn’t flinch, veteran Keith Earls ambling over following lineout chicanery reminiscent of the French last weekend at Twickenham.
That sumptuous converted try, added to Sexton’s earlier penalty, gave the hosts a 10-3 advantage and while the underwhelming Farrell nudged a kick back, the peerless Johnny Sexton left Mako Vunipola feeling the heat for a scrum infringement, 13-6 with 30 gone and much more to come.
We mentioned the aerial game: Sexton was supreme. His towering inferno to Hugo Keenan was run in on the other side of the pitch by Jack Conan and England’s opening half 6-20 in arrears disenchantment was complete with Farrell penalised for an extra roll on the floor just before the bell.
The Jones cavalry arrived, Ellis Genge and Jamie George thrust in for the start of the second half, but it was powdery stuff, Ireland piercing initial England pressure and vaulting back with a second tasty Earls try that was ruled out for a knock-on in the build-up.
No bother. As it was, four Sexton penalties sandwiched the Aki red card for his high shot on the out-of-sorts Billy Vunipola and consolation tries for Ben Youngs and Jonny May – the latter with Ireland down to 13 with Murray sin-binned – wasn’t going to deny the hosts their much-deserved win on an evening when many of their players jumped ahead of their English rivals in the battle for Lions tour places.
England boss Jones had moaned on Thursday about media rat poison infiltrating his players’ heads during the campaign. He had better be prepared for much more of that kind of diatribe following this stinker of a performance in Dublin that was thoroughly emblematic of their underwhelming 2021. They were dire when it most mattered.
Tadhg loves it! 😁#GuinnessSixNations #IREvENG pic.twitter.com/mCv8BaugBD
— Guinness Men's Six Nations (@SixNationsRugby) March 20, 2021
Comments on RugbyPass
The rugby championship would be even stronger with Fiji in it… I know it doesen’t fit the long term plans of NZ or Aus but you are robbing a whole nation of being able to see their best players play for Fiji…. Every second player in NZ and AUS teams has Fijian surnames… shame on you!!! World rugby won’t step in either as France and England has now also joined in…. I guess where money is involved it will always be the poor countries missing out….
69 Go to commentsNo surprise there. How hard can it be to pick a ball off the ground and chuck it to a mate? 😂
2 Go to commentsSometimes people just like a moan mate!
1 Go to commentsexcellent idea ! rugby needs this 💪
9 Go to comments9 Brumbies! What a joke! The best performing team in Oz! Ditch Skelton for Swain or Neville. Ryan Lonergan ahead of McDermott any day! Best selection bolter is Toole … amazing player
12 Go to commentsI like this, but ultimately rugby already has enough trophies. Trying to make more games “consequential" might prove to be a fools errand, although this is a less bad idea than some others. Minor quibble with the title of the article; it isn’t very meaningful to say the boks are the unofficial world champions when it would be functionally impossible for the Raeburn trophy not to be held by the world champions. There’s a period of a few months every 4 years when there is no “unofficial” world champion, and the Raeburn trophy is held by the actual world champions.
9 Go to commentsIts a great idea but one that I dont think will have a lot of traction. It will depend on the prestige that they each hold but if you can do that it would be great. When Japan beat the Boks (my team) I was absolutely devestated but I wont deny the great game they played that day. We were outclassed and it was one of the best games of rugby I have seen. Using an idea like this you might just give the the underdog teams more of an opportunity to beat the big teams and I can absolutely see it being a brilliant display of rugby. They beat us because they planned for that game. It was a great moment for Japan. This way we can remove the 4 year wait and give teams something to aim for outside of World Cup years.
9 Go to commentsHi, Dave here. Happy to answer questions 🥰
9 Go to commentsDon’t think that headline is accurate. It’s great to see Aus doing better but I’m not sure they’ve shown much threat to the top of the table. They shouldn’t be inflating wins against the lousy Highlanders and Crusaders either.
3 Go to commentsSuch a shame Roigard and Aumua picked up long term injuries, probably the two form players in the comp. Also, pretty sure Clarke Dermody isn’t their coach. Got it half right though.
3 Go to commentsOh the Aussie media, they never learn. At least Andrew Kellaway is like “Woah, yeah it’s great, but settle down there guys” having endured years of the Aussie media, fans, and often their players getting ahead of themselves only to fall flat on their faces. Have the “We'll win the Bledisloe for sure this year!” headlines started yet? It’s simple to see what’s going on. The Aussie teams are settled, they didn't lose any of their major players overseas. The Crusaders and Chiefs lost key experienced All Blacks, and Razor in the Crusaders case, and clearly neither are anywhere near as strong as last year (The Canes and Blues would probably be 3rd & 4th if they were). The Highlanders are annually average, even more so post-Aaron Smith and a big squad clean out. The two teams at the top? The two nz sides with largely the same settled roster as last year, except Ardie Savea for the Canes. They’ve both got far better coaches now too. If the Aussies are going to win the title, this is the year the kiwi sides will be weakest, so they better take their chance.
3 Go to commentsThe World Cup has to be the gold standard, line in the sand. 113 teams compete for what is the opportunity to make the pool stages, and then the knockout games for the trophy. The concept is sound. This must have been the rationale when the World Cup was created, surely? But I’m all for Looking forward and finding new ways for the SH to dominate the NH into the future. The autumn series needs a change up. Let’s start by having the NH teams come south every odd year for the Autumn/Spring series games?
9 Go to commentsWhat’ll happen when the AI models of the future go back in time and try to destroy the AI models of the past standing in their way of certain victory?
41 Go to commentsThanks, Nick. We (Seanny Maloney, Brett and I) just discussed Charlie as a potential Wallaby No 8, and wondered if he has truly realised how big he is in contact (and whether he can add 5 kg w/o slowing down). Your scouting report confirms our suspicions he has the materiel. No one knows if he has the mentality (as Johann van Graan said this week about CJ, Duane and Alfie B) to carry 10-15 times a game.
57 Go to commentsHe would be a great player for the Stormers, Dobbo should approach the guy.
3 Go to commentsGood article. A few years back when he was playing for the Cheetahs, he was a quiet standout for exactly the seasons stated here. I occasionally get to see his games in the UK, and he has become a more complete player and in many ways like an Irish player. His work ethic is so suitable to the Leinster game. I wonder if Rassie would have him listed somewhere.
3 Go to commentsResults probably skewed by the fact that a few clubs have foreign fly halves in their 30s, but most teams have young English scrum halves. Results also likely to be skewed by the fact that many teams rely on centres and fullbacks to provide depth at 10, whereas they will need to stock a large number of specialist backup 9s.
2 Go to commentsI really get the sense that when all is said and done, the path of least resistance will end up being a merger of Wasps & Worcester that essentially kills the Worcester Warriors brand and sees Wasps permanently playing at Sixways. I’m not saying that’s what should happen or what I want to happen. I just think it’s the easiest rout to take and therefore, will be what happens. Wasps will definitely return to play first, and I suppose it all depends on if they can find support at Sixways. If people turn up and support Wasps in that community, at that ground, I bet they drop the Sevenoaks plan and just remain at Sixways. Under the radar but not totally unrelated, it looks as though London Irish are going to be brought back from the dead by a German consortium and look set to return, likely to the remade Championship. It’s set to have 12 clubs next season with 14 in 2025/26, what do you want to bet those extra 2 are Wasps and London Irish?
3 Go to commentsThe shoulder is a “joint” with multiple bones. You don’t “fracture” a shoulder, you fracture any one or more of the bones that make up a shoulder.
2 Go to commentsOh dear, bones too suspect to continue?
2 Go to comments