Gerry Thornley: England putting a lot of faith in Smith’s magical moments

Ireland-England games in the Six Nations tend to have reverberations and consequences.

When Ireland lost their opening game at home to England in the 2019 Championship after winning the Grand Slam in their annus mirabilis of 2018, as Joe Schmidt subsequently admitted, the players were “a bit broken” by that 32-20 defeat and its fallout.

Indeed, it’s debatable as to whether Schmidt’s team ever fully recovered from that first, and only, home Six Nations defeat under his watch for the rest of his tenure, which was compounded by the record 57-15 defeat at Twickenham in the World Cup warm-up match when Schmidt conceded his team were “dishevelled”.

But the same can apply to England as well. When they arrived at an empty Aviva Stadium in last season’s Six Nations finale, England had just produced their best performance of the championship in beating France at home – whereupon they were beaten in pretty much every facet as Ireland won 32-18.

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Reflecting on that game yesterday, Eddie Jones revealingly conceded: “I think it indicated we’d run our race with that group of players, and had to move on. We came off a good win against France, and had a chance to finish off that tournament well and didn’t do that. That was disappointing. With the Lions tour and the finish to that Six Nations it made it clear we had an urgent need to move the team on. We’ve done that, and the team is moving in a good direction.”

Jones can be ruthless, and with a deeper pool of players, he can afford to be. There’s little doubt that the disciplinary actions taken against Saracens for breaches of the salary cap, resulting in a season in the Championship, had repercussions for England and even the Lions.

Neither Mako nor Billy Vunipola have played for England since that Irish defeat, with Jones admitting the leadership group had become too Saracens-dependent, while George Ford has since played only as a replacement.

The revamped backline now has a new halfback combination of Harry Randall ... and Marcus Smith, who has been sensational as a regular match-winner for Harlequins

Compared to that day, Keith Earls and Jacob Stockdale are injured, with Mack Hansen emerging and James Lowe re-emerging, Jamison Gibson-Park (a replacement then) has supplanted Conor Murray as the starting scrumhalf, Dan Sheehan has emerged in place of the injured Ronan Kelleher, James Ryan was ruled out that week, and Caelan Doris has returned from his concussion issues in place of the retired CJ Stander.

Otherwise, the core of the Irish side that day has remained intact.

By contrast, while injuries are a factor and most notably to Anthony Watson and Jonny May on the wings as well as Owen Farrell, the English team that started against Wales last Saturday week at Twickenham contained only six of the XV which started against Ireland a year ago – Luke Cowan-Dickie and Kyle Sinckler in the front row, Maro Itoje and Charlie Ewels in the second row, Tom Curry in the back row and Elliot Daly, who was at fullback in the Aviva Stadium and at centre against Wales.

The revamped backline now has a new halfback combination of Harry Randall, who looks a tidy player, and Marcus Smith, who has been sensational as a regular match-winner for Harlequins for the last two seasons and is both the present and future of this English team.

New darling

Replacing Smith, the new darling of the English rugby media, with Ford for the endgame of England’s defeat by Scotland in Murrayfield prompted plenty of criticism towards Jones.

But, allowing for Ford’s ultra safe two penalties to touch, it’s doubtful if this had any material effect on the outcome. Far more relevant was the defensive system which left Cowan-Dickie isolated on the wing for his flap into touch which gave Scotland a penalty try, and the couple of penalties conceded by Maro Itoje in the last ten minutes. In truth, Finn Russell had a more effective game than Smith with less possession.

Smith is a brilliant and instinctive player, and invariably it is going to take time for new team-mates such as Henry Slade and Daly, to read their goose-stepping, side-stepping, accelerating young outhalf.

Yet, beyond Smith’s moments of individualism against Scotland and particularly Wales, in stark contrast to Ireland’s running and passing game, it’s difficult to see what the back play in this so-called “New England” has been trying to achieve to date.

While acknowledging that Ireland’s game has evolved under Andy Farrell, Jones referred to how Ireland’s two-line attack, whereby the three-man pod also has the option to go out the back to Johnny Sexton or one of the playmakers, as an interesting way of playing but more structured than his English team.

Itoje has improved over three games and Courtney Lawes has returned to augment their power game. Something of that old English enforcer physicality has returned

England’s attacking game will evolve differently, according to Jones. Yet England do not have the same array of ball-playing forwards with footwork as Ireland possess, notwithstanding the loss of Andrew Porter. Ireland’s layered, short-passing attacking game which has been developed under Farrell has also thus far afforded more options and kept defences guessing.

Against Wales, England had a greater dependency on Smith’s individualism, but still only created two line breaks, while otherwise resorting to plenty of one-off carriers as they mostly played off their scrumhalf. Save for Freddie Steward – and fullbacks will usually be high carriers due to returning kicks – their five biggest carriers were all forwards and often employed as one-off runners.

Alex Dombrandt, a real addition at 8 and in sync with his 'Quins team-mate Smith, led the way with 16 carries, with the forceful Ellis Genge, a real handful, next on 13. Indeed the starting English front row made 27 carries (for 120 metres) compared to just seven by their Welsh counterparts (for 18 metres).

Itoje has improved over three games and Courtney Lawes has returned to augment their power game. Something of that old English enforcer physicality has returned.

In all three games their pack has been on top and they’ve had more territory, and against Wales they scored 12 points through breakdown penalties and closed the space at a lineout, with some subtle interference on the floor by Itoje, for Dombrandt to score their sole try off the ensuing overthrow.

Maybe it will take time, maybe things will pan out differently next Saturday, but if anything this looks like Old England v New Ireland.

gthornley@irishtimes.com