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England earn some pride but it’s Grand for Ireland

England deserve credit for big improvement on French rout

Sir Clive Woodward WORLD CUP WINNING COACH

THE contrast between England’s woeful performance against France last Saturday and in the game with Ireland in Dublin last night was like chalk and cheese. After the hammering Steve Borthwick’s side took by Les Bleus, they put pride back in the shirt at the Aviva Stadium, even if it wasn’t enough to stop an Irish Grand Slam.

I wrote in the build-up to the game that I simply couldn’t see a single way England could win this match but they deserve credit for the way they responded to France.

Borthwick saw his team lose Freddie Steward to a red card, one which I thought was not worthy of a sending off, but even with 14 men they were in the contest with the world’s No1 side. At 60 minutes, England were only a point behind and they can take heart from that.

Before I analyse England further, I want to give credit to Ireland. They fully deserved to win the Grand Slam this year. Ireland and France are the two best sides on the planet right now.

Facing those teams in the past fortnight has been a huge learning experience for England. The two losses have shown England exactly where they are.

Ireland was much better before the team ran out of puff in the final quarter, with Steward having seen red and Jack Willis in the sin bin. It is impossible to defend against a team like Ireland with a man down, let alone with 13 players on the pitch. The result was inevitable late Irish tries.

Despite those scores, England never fell apart in Dublin as they did against France. It is strange to be in a position talking positively about England after another loss. Any England senior side should be looking to win each and every game it plays.

That must be the aim for us as a major rugby nation but at the same time the reality is that is not possible at the moment.

England are far behind the best teams on the planet and have to build from a lower base. There is significant work for the team to do looking ahead to the World Cup this year.

I don’t think Steward’s red card ruined the game because, in my view, Ireland were always going to win and would have done so anyway had England stayed with 15 on the field.

But at the same time, I didn’t think the full-back should have been dismissed. When Steward collided with his opposite number Hugo Keenan, there was no one in our ITV commentary studio who said a word. There was no one screaming ‘Wow. That has to be a red card’ or anything like that.

Steward’s elbow definitely connected with Keenan’s head. I totally understand rugby needs to limit head contacts to protect the players but I also think there needed to be a bit of rugby empathy in those sorts of situations. I think Steward should have been given a yellow card at most. There was no way the Leicester back was deliberately trying to hurt Keenan.

With the World Cup around the corner, we have to get these big decisions right because red cards can have such a defining impact on matches now.

I repeat myself by saying that I think Ireland would have still won against England even if Steward had stayed on the pitch. They have a truly wonderful side packed full of world-class players.

Their attacking game is ruthlessly simple but so effective.

The first try they scored through Dan Sheehan was exactly that, with one small inside pass from Josh van der Flier completely bypassing the English defence.

When England look back on this Six Nations they must analyse the France and Ireland games in detail to see the standard they need to reach. It is not all doom and gloom and I remain positive about Borthwick’s appointment as head coach after his first campaign in charge.

Yes, he will have wanted it to go far better than it did. And yes, England can play better than they showed. But after the hammering by France, we have to look at the positives from the Ireland game as painful as it is to have suffered another loss.

The hard work must now continue. There are only six months to go until the World Cup. Were that tournament to start tomorrow, you couldn’t say England would be genuine contenders.

Six Nations

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2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

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