Think back to nearly all of Ireland’s great days in recent years and a common denominator is a quick start. By extension, as Scotland showed when racing into a 17-0 lead inside 14 minutes at Murrayfield last week, England may be fine front-runners, but they can become a little flummoxed when behind early on.
As against the Scots, a malfunctioning lineout compounded handling errors and another yellow card in going 22-0 down inside 31 minutes.
The dry, still conditions suited another key aspect of Ireland’s approach, namely to back their own fitness and run the legs off England. The surprise was that England played to Ireland’s hands by employing similar tactics.
Ireland pull off one of the great Twickenham days against England
In both of England’s previous games, the ball-in-play time was 34.8 minutes, whereas at Twickenham on Saturday it was 38.16 minutes. This was not unusual for Ireland, though, as the ball-in-play time in Paris was exactly 38 minutes and against Italy, it was 39.3 minutes.
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Furthermore, whereas England, true to form, had 42 kicks out of hand against Wales and 26 against Scotland, against Ireland, that figure dropped to just 18.
Ireland still kicked “contestables” among their 31 kicks out of hand. But in stark contrast to the tactics employed on that sodden opening night in Paris, when almost never playing beyond one phase in making 39 kicks out of hand, here Ireland’s stated aim from the outset was to play and probe, even in their own territory.
So it was that Jamie Osborne called for an audacious chip over a ruck inside the Irish 10m line by Jamison Gibson-Park in the 12th minute, which was not regathered.
So it was that Stuart McCloskey had an attempted bridge pass intercepted by Tommy Freeman in the same prolonged passage of play in the 13th minute. But Ireland remained undeterred.
Critically, too, Ireland drew on the defensive discipline, connections and work-rate in denying England a score in that opening quarter, most notably when repelling an 18-phase attack in the 17th and 18th minutes.
Henry Pollock was looking dangerous, nearly escaping until a vital tackle by McCloskey and again when failing to gather his own half-blocked grubber. That led to a pivotal Irish scrum inside their own 10m line at the end of the first quarter and after those long passages of play England looked wearier.
By that stage Ireland had only enjoyed 22 per cent possession in the previous 10 minutes. But all week long the messaging from the coaches had been to “fire shots” and when Gibson-Park moved the ball away in the nick of time from a creaking scrum, McCloskey hit Robert Baloucoune with a skip pass for him to link with the newly arrived Tommy O’Brien.
After a strong carry by James Ryan up the middle, Jack Crowley looped around Garry Ringrose and off that recycle Joe McCarthy rumbled before Tom Curry was penalised for side entry with the English defence stressed. Fittingly, Gibson-Park was the game’s first try-scorer by dint of thinking and acting a second ahead of everyone else with his quick tap and finish.
He may be regarded as the second-best scrumhalf in the world behind Antoine Dupont, but that might arguably still make him the second-best player in the world. His 70-minute contribution here was Dupont-esque.
A constant hub of energy and accuracy, and all executed at his usual high tempo, central to him and his team putting England on the back foot from early on was his probing runs. In the first 10 minutes leading up to the opening penalty by Crowley, Gibson-Park had already sniped three times, two of them clean breaks, as he kept the English fringe defence guessing with his speed over the ground and nimble footwork. In all, he made a dozen carries, whereas in 80 minutes in Paris, he made just three.
Another prolonged bout of play – Ireland going through three phases inside their own 10m line – and a Gibson-Park box kick, which O’Brien reclaimed brilliantly, led to Ireland striking again.
Andy Farrell made much of Ireland’s attacking rugby in broken play, and from the recycle, Osborne took Tadhg Beirne’s screen pass to feed McCloskey, who fended Ollie Lawrence and broke clear. True to form, Gibson-Park picked out the right option with a try-scoring skip pass to Baloucoune.
With Freddie Steward also binned, Ireland were not going to stop there. After Caelan Doris ran back the restart, Josh van der Flier immediately pierced the English midfield again from inside the Irish 22. Soon after, Osborne ran back a kick from inside halfway and two phases later Ireland struck in broken play again when Baloucoune came across from his wing to avail of Doris’s adroit handling to send O’Brien clear.
While England would go on to engineer three tries, Ireland stayed out of reach. And when Gibson-Park was hauled down just short, it led to Pollock’s yellow card and the power play from which Dan Sheehan scored, incredibly, his 14th Six Nations try.
Gibson-Park was also integral for the fifth try after Baloucoune won possibly the first turnover of his career and Ciarán Frawley fed the scrumhalf. He chased his own kick into space in tandem with Nick Timoney to win an attacking penalty.
Cue another visit to the English 22 and another seven points, as another Beirne swivel pass culminated in Osborne’s fine finish from Crowley’s pass. With that, the three outside backs had all scored.
Ultimately, Ireland scored 36 of their points from nine visits to the English 22, at an average of four per visit. England scored 21 points from 12 visits, at an average of 1.75.
Therein lay the tale of Ireland’s record win at Twickenham.
