This is not only England’s best Six Nations performance by far, it was by far their best performance of the Steve Borthwick era and the best they have produced in a long, long time, probably since their victory over New Zealand in the 2019 World Cup Semifinals.
I wrote before the game that England had virtually no chance of victory and that the game was about being competitive against what I believe is the best team in the world.
For England to come away with a victory, they would have to play close to a perfect game. What I find fascinating is that even though England beat Ireland, I still think they can play even better. What a great position for the team. They proved the doubters wrong.
Borthwick’s men can and must still give further impetus to their actions. But there is no doubt that this success for Twickenham against a team as good as Ireland is a big step in the right direction for everyone in English rugby. I really hope this win represents a lift-off for the Borthwick era.
England threw the kitchen sink at Andy Farrell’s men in a full-fledged contest and the way they won it thanks to Marcus Smith’s drop goal was simply brilliant.
England’s victory against Ireland was their best performance of the Steve Borthwick era
They threw the kitchen sink at Andy Farrell’s men and the way they won it was simply brilliant.
It should not be downplayed how huge this victory is for England. I was at Twickenham watching and it was a great day to be in the home of English rugby.
Winning consecutive Grand Slams is not easy. Even winning a Grand Slam is not easy, something I know from my own coaching career.
This will hurt Ireland greatly. It will take some time for them to recover even if they manage to win the title. Before this match I wrote that to have any chance against Ireland, England simply had to play with a blistering speed that caught their opponent off guard.
They started well. I honestly think the Borthwick players had read my pre-match column because they came out of the blocks quickly.
They scored a good try through Ollie Lawrence.
Ollie Lawrence scored a good try and the home team came out of the blocks quickly.
England’s first quarter showed they are improving – it was much better than we have seen.
England’s first quarter showed that they are improving. It was much better than we’ve seen in this Six Nations so far. England played well. In the first 40 minutes I wondered if they really believed they could win the game. But as the game progressed, that belief grew.
You could tell Ireland knew they were in a contest from the fact that their head coach Farrell and Borthwick were involved in a testy conversation near the tunnel shortly before half-time.
An example of how good Ireland are is that England were excellent in the first half and still went into half-time trailing 12-8. When James Lowe scored in the corner, there was England to worry about.
But they deserve immense credit for the way they responded. If I’m being picky, I think England could still have played faster from the line-outs. There were some unnecessary penalty celebrations which I hate. But these were more than made up for by the energy, passion and precision England showed.
England counterattacked impressively. As I had written before the game, they put pressure on Ireland’s lineout. The white jumpers rose into the air to pressure Dan Sheehan’s shots.
In the Calcutta Cup loss to Scotland, England tried to attack but made so many mistakes and coughed up so much of the ball that they were never going to win the match.
When James Lowe (pictured) scored from the corner for Ireland, there was England to worry about.
But against Ireland their attack was promising. They played well in transition, a very good example of this was George Furbank’s attempt as he ran into the corner.
England had their opportunities to take the points and keep the score. I urged them to apply for positions whenever they could.
But there is no doubt that his decision to go for the corner after Peter O’Mahony’s yellow card paid off with Ben Earl’s try. They proved their critics wrong.
I’m not the only one who has been hard on the team. They have received a lot of criticism.
But they stood up to be counted when it mattered most. I was surprised by the decision to bring out the front row, including captain Jamie George, so early.
Smith fell into the pocket again and his heroic moment could be the break-out for England.
Once again, it was worth it. The bench made a great impact. What I liked the most was England’s intention. They were looking to download. They had players running into space.
We haven’t seen that in a long time. As good as England were, you thought it wasn’t going to be enough when Lowe got his second try.
And I was out of my seat screaming when Danny Care kicked the ball with England in attack in the final exchanges. It seemed like a moment of madness.
But England came back. Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, who had a great game, led the attack.
Smith got back into the pocket and the rest is history. Take off for England. I really hope this is the start of something special in English rugby.