No doubt Andy Farrell expressing pride in his players after England's decisive 18-7 win at Twickenham on Saturday may have surprised some Irish supporters, yet you could understand where he was coming from.
True, like last February at the same venue, Ireland never fired a shot and never looked like winning, but unlike last February, at least Ireland fired shots and never wilted.
This was, after all, the core of an English side which came within a game of winning the World Cup and recently regained the Six Nations and are, to all intents and purposes, at or close to the top of their cycle.
Ireland, by comparison, were down several key men, trying out a few combinations and while not particularly younger, they are, as Farrell maintained, at a different stage of their journey.
Whether rightly or wrongly, Farrell and his players came away believing they can beat England in Dublin next March simply due to “the experiences that the lads are gaining”, said the head coach.
“Some lads were starting for the first time at Twickenham against a side that’s playing so well like England. It’s priceless. Even the lads that would be disappointed in their performance tonight, that’s priceless as well.
Tough afternoon
“Look, we won the second half,” said Farrell and, noting when Ireland went 15-0 down early in the second period, added: “You could say when they gain the first score with the penalty kick it’s going to be a tough old afternoon. But how we kept going, battled strong, how individuals were growing in their own international game . . . I thought this experience was priceless.”
Of several encouraging performances, none stood out in Farrell’s eyes more than Caelan Doris. “I thought Caelan was outstanding. I thought he was unbelievable, he kept offering himself in those dark corners and getting his nose through when they were coming at him in waves. I thought he was outstanding.”
The main critique of Ireland’s performance was that they played into England’s hands, but here again Farrell returned to the same theme.
“What do you do, do you kick the ball away five metres from their line? But I suppose when they are slowing down your ball and you are running into a brick wall, what do you do, keep throwing the ball back 20 metres and keep getting hit behind the gain-line etcetera? So there was a bit of that,” he admitted.
While Ireland initially showed a greater willingness to look for grass with short kicks, they seemed to abandon that tactic before Chris Farrell came within a whisker of scoring from Ross Byrne's grubber and Jacob Stockdale did do so after gathering Billy Burns' chip.
Was there a lesson in there?
“I suppose if you flip that and look at how England scored their tries, one was from a penalty on our line, from a lineout and a one-on-one cross-field kick, which was a shot in the dark really, that they came on the right side of.”
“Obviously an overthrow at the other end of the field that they have a breakaway try. So they didn’t really have to work for their tries neither. I thought we created some decent opportunities. Did we execute and make them pay for that field position? No. That’s the work-on for us,” Farrell admitted.
Increasingly, possession and territory counts for less than it used to, even if the team making four times as many tackles emerging as winners might seem a little bizarre.
“No, if you watch the game you’d know it is not bizarre. I suppose you would have to give credit to us for being able to play in the right parts of the field, it’s more credit to them for disrupting our set-piece, disrupting the type of ball we had.
“Everyone wants to play off fluid ball, but you don’t tend to get that much with England. Even the ball we did get from set-piece, they came down and made that slower, scrappy etc. You’re into phase after phase after phase trying to get going after slow ball.”
Unlikely win
Farrell has stated that not only was he of a mind to use all 34 players in the squad during this Autumn Nations Cup, but that they would dip further into their pool of players than that. Presumably, he had the game against Georgia at the Aviva Stadium next Sunday specifically in mind, when Ireland are likely to field a much-changed side.
Furthermore, Ireland then only have a six-day turnaround before their final game in this hybrid competition, which will also be at home. Unless Wales record a decidedly unlikely win over England by more than seven points to ensure a three-way tie in Group A, in all probability Ireland will thus finish second and host the runners-up.
Following France’s 22-15 win over Scotland in Murrayfield yesterday, the two group winners to contest the first place playoff will be England and France at Twickenham.
Further confirming the final standings in the recently completed 2020 Guinness Six Nations, with equal certainty the Group B runners-up and Ireland’s third place playoff opponents on Saturday week will be Scotland.
