Reflections upon Ireland 27 England 22 (Six Nations)

Yesterday I tuned into ITV’s coverage of the Six Nations clash at Croke Park between last year’s champions Ireland and England – under the captaincy of decade-long “FEC” (future England captain) Maro Itoje (now 30) for the first time – which resulted in a 27-22 victory for the hosts.

I shall leave Rusters who deliberately or otherwise didn’t see it “live”, but want to know the details of what happened, to either watch a recording or perhaps read reports of the match in their newspapers of choice.

My purpose today is simply to record a few personal reflections upon the proceedings as broadcast by ITV.

First up, it was fascinating to see the broadcaster fielding a diminished Eddie Jones in their pitch-side “panel” alongside host Mark Pougatch, Jonny Wilkinson, Brian O’Driscoll and occasional others.

Even though none of the above was a second-row giant, Eddie looked a positive pip-squeak (5 feet 7 if he was lucky?) under an absurd woolly hat.

He was on his best behaviour but his contributions added little and he fended off the Pougatch’s obligatory invitation to comment upon Danny Care’s description of him as a bully with an ungracious quip that he was still waiting for Care to send him a copy of his book.

The match itself was a proverbial “game of two halves”. A fired-up England began on the front foot and at half-time were 5-10 to the good, but then Ireland scored 22 unanswered points as the visitors failed to capitalise upon their efforts – lost Marcus Smith to a yellow card 10 minutes in the sin bin – and then began making basic errors, including frustrating Kiwi referee Ben O’Keefe with some of their offside infringements.

I’m reluctant to criticise to rank top-flight sportsmen trying their best, but for me Quins’ flying left winger Cadan Murley had a disappointing international debut.

Although he scored an early well-taken try by getting on the end of a Henry Slade grubber kick – and was rumoured to have improved his defence – on two occasions, chasing balls back over the England line, he then inexplicably tried to “play the ball” rather than let it drift harmlessly over the dead ball line, ran straight into trouble and put his side under pressure.

Elsewhere, as Ireland gradually ramped up the pressure with a relentless display of forwards successively taking the ball into contact and then their midfielders mixing things up by whipping the ball wide on both wings, England’s discipline began to creak and one or two players began falling off tackles – scrum half Alex Mitchell’s feeble attempt upon the powerful James Lowe leading directly to a try by Jamison Gibson-Park being a stark example.

Consolation tries towards the end by Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman brought England a losing bonus point that, on the run of play, they barely deserved.

It’s now a case of “must do better” next Saturday at the Allianz Stadium when England entertain France who crushed Wales 43-0 on Friday night.