So, at least, for some good news. Amid the injury toll in the fall-out of a first Six Nations home defeat in six years, Keith Earls is fit for Saturday's rendezvous with Scotland and their hat-trick hero from last weekend, Blair Kinghorn.
Ironically, despite escaping without a yellow card for leading knee-first into Earls in an 18th minute aerial challenge, Maro Itoje has been sidelined for England's next two games, and it also transpires that Earls' hip-pointer injury originated from an earlier collision with the English lock.
“It was actually the first kick-off. I think it was Itoje twice, the first kick-off and then the one in the air,” said Earls, who was not of a mind to blame Itoje.
“No, no, it was a collision. I don’t know whether he got his timing wrong or whatever. I had a look back at it and it does look bad but that’s not for me to say. It was just a big collision. He is a big man and I think if it had been anyone smaller I would have been alright.”
It appeared as if England had targeted the most experienced member of Ireland’s back three.
“I’m not sure. There was a lot of pressure down my way alright with kicking. I don’t know, I suppose it worked for them anyway,” said Earls ruefully.
The pain certainly seemed to inhibit Earls, not least when unable to contest for a couple of Conor Murray box kicks.
“It was frustrating. Everything kind of shut down around my hip and it was sore to run because it swelled out. They usually loosen out but it didn’t. I suppose it was the first time I stayed on injured and tried to run it off because I’m usually quite good at knowing my body and when to come off. From that aspect I probably should have come off earlier.”
Sitting down for ten minutes at half-time only worsened the problem, but he should still be good to train fully this week.
“It’s just a normal week for me once I don’t get someone banging off it in training,” he said smiling. “I came out here early on Sunday, sent the family home early unfortunately, so I could ice it non-stop. Those are the sacrifices you make.”
By half-time last Saturday, Ireland were trailing 17-10 and had conceded a second-minute Jonny May try down Earls’ wing when he pushed up only to be beaten by Owen Farrell’s superb cut-out pass. Ireland had six defenders to England’s five attackers and appeared too narrow and unevenly aligned inside Earls but – as honest as ever – he has accepted full responsibility.
“It was obviously one hundred per cent my fault. I got my numbers wrong on the edge. I didn’t see [Elliot] Daly out there, I thought it was May. I was going to go for the intercept but obviously [Owen] Farrell’s pass is one of the best in the game and it beat me. I should definitely have just tucked in if I had taken a look up.
“I should have tucked in with Conor, just not gone off on my own. Obviously the ball was popped out and I did one thing and Conor did another. I went off on my own rather than just taking a feel for the game. If I got the intercept it would have been a different story but I made a mistake.”
Earls consoles himself in the belief that much of Ireland’s performance last Saturday is fixable, and maintains: “Everyone thinks we were poor but some of our decision making by individuals probably let ourselves down but we actually didn’t play that badly. We’re not a bad team overnight. We know there is another massive challenge ahead with Scotland and with the firepower they have, we have to be 100 per cent. We can’t be off the mark like we were at the weekend.”
Although England found plenty of grass with their kicking game, Earls contends that they covered the Irish backfield pretty well, but admits Farrell is world-class. “It was getting to the stage where we were well able to read 10s, but I think 10s are starting to read us a lot better now and there’s no better man than him.”
Outhalves such as Farrell are making life more challenging for wingers.
“We’re trying to read body language, we’re trying to close hard, trying to stay back, it’s just all becoming a feel.
“It’s not black and white anymore, that I’m going to stay back, I’m a winger. We play high as a team so I’m going to stay up. We’re just getting a feel about who’s inside us and it puts us under pressure to make good decisions. A lot of the time we make good decisions and we can shut down a team but I didn’t make a good decision at the weekend and it can go completely against you.”
For Farrell, next up read Finn Russell.
Ireland's second most experienced back against England, Earls' fitness for Murrayfield is all the more significant given the absence of Andrew Conway and Russell's array of attacking kicks – witness the crosskick for Kinghorn's first try against Italy and the grubber for Stuart Hogg's. The huge in-goal area at Murrayfield further facilitates Russell's inventive kicking game.
“He’s a great player,” admitted Earls. “He makes it look easy. He’s a hard player to read at times as a winger. He obviously makes everything go around for them. He has a variation of all sorts of kicks and all sorts of passes. He is someone we are going to have to keep an eye on.”
None more so, potentially, than Earls.
