Six Nations: England ‘bitterly disappointing’ and under scrutiny as Ireland excel at Twickenham | Rugby Union News

Known as a coach who never gets too low nor too high in his appraisals post England Rugby Tests, the furthest Steve Borthwick would go at Twickenham after a record 42-21 loss to Ireland was: ‘bitterly disappointing.’

A week on from England’s shock 30-21 loss to Scotland at Murrayfield obliterating their 12-Test winning run, a sensational attacking display by Ireland saw them put England to the sword at a stunned Twickenham, producing a 42-21 victory to leave England’s Six Nations campaign in tatters.

Below, we look at where England floundered and Ireland excelled…

A humming attack which tore apart a leaky defence

In parallels to last week in Edinburgh, England came up against an Irish attack intent on keeping the ball alive and taking them on.

Just as Scotland did, Ireland proved lethal in terms of cutting England’s defence apart and scored five tries through scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, wings Rob Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien, hooker Dan Sheehan and full-back Jamie Osborne.

Again, just like Scotland, Ireland did it off fewer 22 entries than England – the visitors had nine compared to England’s 12 – but sensed a vulnerability in the English line and grew in confidence the longer the Test progressed.

With half-backs Jack Crowley and Gibson-Park back to guide the Irish attack and shore up defensive fallibilities of their own, the ability of Ireland’s forwards and backs to connect together flat to the line was back to its best.

Ireland made eight line-breaks, beat 28 defenders and produced 10 offloads, while the likes of Stuart McCloskey, Caelan Doris and Joe McCarthy ran riot through contact – the Irish made a phenomenal 289 metres post-contact.

The start to the contest was also significant. For two consecutive weeks England have quickly fallen considerably behind on the scoreboard, having previously been involved in a string of tight contests before coming on strong late with bench impact.

Perhaps shaken by the defeat at Murrayfield, Borthwick moved Tom Curry and Henry Pollock into the starting XV, while at 22-0 down to Ireland he made first-half subs in bringing on Jamie George and Marcus Smith. There was no Pom Squad, and England proved again this side is not yet one suited to chasing.

“It was bitterly disappointing and huge credit to Ireland, they took their chances and their kicking game was excellent,” Borthwick said afterwards.

“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.”

Discipline remains a major (and costly) issue | Ireland dominate the breakdown

Up in Murrayfield, England were forced to play with a man less for 30 minutes of the contest as wing Henry Arundell was shown an early yellow card and then a 20-minute red. They were periods within which Scotland made hay.

At Twickenham on Saturday, England were again shown two cards as full-back Freddie Steward and back-row Henry Pollock were sin-binned in either half for cynical plays at the ball on top of the England try-line when under pressure.

Ireland scored 14 points with England down a player in the contest, as Borthwick’s charges were once again made to pay.

England also conceded some 14 penalties in the Test, and that while having a scrum clearly on top – as it was against Scotland – which is far too many.

Ireland weren’t squeaky clean either and saw Osborne sin-binned for a similar offence to that of Steward and Pollock, but they showed guts and nous in defence to halt a number of England charges.

Turnovers and the breakdown was as one-sided an area as one could find in a Test. England shipped some 18 turnovers compared to Ireland’s 11, while the visitors produced seven breakdown steals compared to just one by England.

Tadhg Beirne, Doris and Josh van der Flier absolutely bossed that area, and it routinely put Ireland into the ascendency and enabled the visitors to relieve massive pressure.

‘Heads may soon be on the block for England’

Former England captain Chris Robshaw spoke afterwards and warned there may soon be “heads on the block” after a second consecutive Six Nations defeat.

“The really disappointing thing today is it just looked a little bit flat. Especially with Maro Itoje’s 100th game, with losing last week and there’s been so much talk around how we’ve got to start quick – this Ireland side are under pressure themselves – I didn’t quite expect that performance.

“It might happen once, but for it to happen two weeks in a row is really disappointing.

“Maro needs to look within the squad now and they need to take ownership because as much as the coach can prepare the players, they need to step up, analyse themselves and be really critical.

“Unfortunately, we may see more heads on the block on the back of that and it’s not a nice place to be when that happens.”

World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson added: “Maybe before the tournament you’re looking, planning your route – not that anyone looks too far ahead – but now you’re going: ‘What does this game mean?’.

“We said after the Scotland game, this game vs Ireland looks a bit different – now after both these games, that Italy game looks different.

“I think maybe there is a danger teams are starting to look and think England are susceptible. There’s no doubt England have the talent in that squad but if you don’t have that ruthlessness underneath, teams have a lot of fun against you – they feel when you walk on the pitch: ‘Is it quite there?'”

Genge: We probably believed the hype

Loosehead prop Ellis Genge apologised to England fans for the defeat, admitting his team are unable to explain how a week after they were outfought by Scotland, they repeated many of the same mistakes to allow Ireland to storm ahead.

“What do you do?” Genge told the BBC. “Two weeks in a row conceding so many points in the first 15 minutes.

“There is a mountain to climb after that and everyone has to take a look at themselves. No one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out.

“It opened up scar tissue from last week. We have to be better at managing that period and stop turning the ball over.

“It’s brutal, professional sport because if you get five per cent wrong it’s gone. We probably believed the hype from the first week too much. We can’t let the noise in now.

“Sorry to the fans, you have been outstanding, we have let everyone down, apologies for that but I promise we will make it better. We are going to go away and work as hard as we can to go away and rectify things.”

When asked about the end of their title bid, Genge said: “I’m gutted, I wanted to win. It’s tough but that is what professional sport is and she’s a nasty mistress sometimes.”

Farrell: A special day for Ireland – ‘it was immense’

Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said after:

“It’s a special day, it 100 per cent is, to come here and perform like that. We’d obviously be delighted with that.

“But even more so than that for us, I thought the respect that the lads showed for one other out there on the field was immense, the respect they showed for the jersey and what it meant to them, and the respect for the Irish people.

“To learn some lessons and grow as a team was the overriding feeling for me. We spoke as a group after that as well. It is special.

“I said it to the lads I didn’t care whether we won or lost, just whether we grew as a group because we know where we want to go to and it just so happens that to the people of Ireland winning does matter.

“It brings a bit of joy on everyone’s face so, for them, I mean the crowd, the people that turned up, it was immense. I hope everyone at home is just as proud as well.”

What’s next?

England next travel to face Italy in Rome in Round 4 of the Six Nations on Saturday March 7 at the Stadio Olimpico (4.40pm kick-off).

Ireland host Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin for their fourth Six Nations clash on Friday March 6 (8.10pm kick-off).