Andy Farrell said he learned a lot about the players who played at Twickenham for the first time. Some of them became men, he said.
Great to hear – after watching such a naive strategic approach from Ireland – but Caelan Doris was already a proven man before this game. Same goes for James Ryan and Andrew Porter, although this pair did learn some painful lessons about leading while in reverse and scrummaging out of position.
I hope Farrell also understands what parts of his team are not working. I admit my scrum knowledge is limited, however, even to my modest eye the Porter experiment has not worked. Move him back to loosehead, where he belongs, and fast-track the next tighthead prop. Figure out who is the best option from Kenyon Knox, Jack Aungier, Tom O'Toole or Roman Salanoa.
Aungier and O’Toole are already playing regularly for their province.
Gordon D’Arcy: Ireland must be smarter as they stand up to England’s bullies
Gordon D’Arcy: Farrell’s challenge is getting player buy-in to incremental change
Gordon D’Arcy: Ireland’s old issue of lack of strength in depth rears its head again
Gordon D'Arcy: Ireland must go after victory by frightening France into mistakes
Promote one of them to understudy for Tadhg Furlong whenever Furlong returns from injuries that have kept him off the field since the first lockdown.
Porter is already a world class loosehead today who has manfully covered for Furlong since 2017. We have seen his rare strength in big matches and, eventually, he could become a decent tighthead scrummager but the cost no longer seems worth it.
Healy has 102 caps. He’s our greatest ever loosehead. Porter can give Cian a few more seasons at the very top of the sport.
Farrell and his assistants saw what was coming against England. They choose scrum solidity over lineout certainty but the decision backfired on both counts. They sacrificed an experienced lineout caller in Iain Henderson to ensure Porter had Quinn Roux's power behind him in scrums against Mako Vunipola.
False sense of security
Perhaps they were lured into a false sense of security against a fragile Welsh team and paid a heavy price against England.
Loyalty is important to Farrell, I am sure, but making or not making the hard choices will define his time as Ireland head coach.
Ross Byrne at outhalf came under the microscope at Twickenham. Byrne has been down this road before, struggling away to England and France when offered the chance to stake a claim to the 10 jersey. Such responsibility can weigh heavily on a player. The level of expectation is daunting.
Byrne has a style of playing and while he did not have a technically poor match it felt like he was playing a game that was not suited to him. There was far too much static shifting of balls behind the gainline rather than building the right to kick on Irish terms.
The Ireland 10 has to be able to cope with the nightmare scenario that presented itself last Saturday. O'Gara and Sexton are rare jewels in that they have been exposed over the years to games like Saturday but they recovered to produce some sensational days that ageing Irish forwards still love them for.
Relief from pressure
The outhalf must provide relief from pressure. I remember the days when I didn't touch the ball at 12 – and was glad for it – because Rog or Sexton saw how pointless it was to allow his centres to take static possession as a wave of white jerseys hits them. These were the performances that made Rog and Sexton world-class operators. It's why we followed Ronan and then Johnny into numerous battles, always feeling we had a chance.
Byrne received little decent ball, and “the plan” may have been to attack the edges but by standing so deep he gave his centres no chance of hurting England’s stacked midfield. The Ireland 10 needs to have one eye on “the plan” and the other on what his gut tells him. Keep the forwards on the front foot and build pressure on the scoreboard.
Byrne will get another chance and needs to be able to play his natural game and not Johnny’s game. Same goes for Jamison Gibson-Park, who was picked to bring tempo and needs the freedom to tap and set a pace that might wear down the English heavies.
As soon as the biggest Irish ball carriers were being smashed behind the gainline, the Leinster halfbacks needed to find a way to put pressure on England's lineout deep in their own territory but the execution of Ireland's kicking game was poor.
Failing tactical approach
Byrne needed to recognise a failing tactical approach and change up. Rog always had an innate feel for what his pack needed and for where the tiniest weakness existed in a dominant opposition.
This is a harsh and brutal commentary but Twickenham is a harsh and brutal environment. Maybe this Ireland team became men last Saturday but they looked tactically naïve while doing so.
Ireland are operating without two established props but there is always going to be five or six key players missing
The lineout has been a problem for over a year now. It had me asking my old pal Mal O’Kelly to explain what was going on. Mal was fairly sanguine about it all (Mal is fairly sanguine about everything to be fair) but he did not lump all the blame on Ronán Kelleher’s throw or James Ryan’s calling. The timing of the lifters was an issue for one of our greatest lineout technicians. The calling was correct, Mal believes, but inaccurate throwing and a split second off with the timing the jump allowed England, and especially Itoje, to turn the set piece into another horror show.
The coaching in camp will come under severe criticism until they fix the basics. I know what Joe would do. I know what Cheika would do. I've no doubt how Mike Brewer and Gert Smal would handle the next training session.
Farrell says they can fix the lineout. It is Simon Easterby's responsibility. The Dev Toner safety net has been removed (again) and now we see just how much of a high wire act the lineout is in big Test matches without proven operators. The next real examination is not until February so Easterby has time to fix a glaring problem in his department. Henderson and Ryan Baird will, presumably, come into the mix to support Ryan.
Also, from where I am watching this unfold, the Ireland coaches and on field decision-makers are the last to see how difficult it has become to score tries off five metre lineouts. I'll refer you to the Bernard Jackman statistic on RTÉ: from 200 kicks to the corner at Japan 2019 there were only three tries scored.
Ireland need to evolve with the times. In the meantime, kick your points.
Plenty is being made of the English backroom and how Eddie Jones cleverly plucked Matt Proudfoot from the Springboks, while France snapped up Shaun Edwards and Los Pumas added Michael Cheika before beating New Zealand.
Each team made immediate improvements based off the recruitment of expert coaches.
John Fogarty came up from Leinster to replace Greg Feek – who switched to the All Blacks scrum – and his role has expanded to several areas under Farrell. Ireland are operating without two established props but there is always going to be five or six key players missing. That is just how it goes for Ireland but Furlong is a massive loss.
Mike Catt’s attack can only shine with decent ball but we saw little innovation at Twickenham (aside from Dorris passing twice in the build up to Jacob Stockdale’s score). To be fair, you must earn the right to go wide and with Ireland’s runners running directly into a ravenous Saracens-style “wolf-pack” defence, they could be still out there and the score would still be 18-7.
The dominant team
England, working in twos, ate Ireland up and wrecked any hope of clean ruck ball. Much of their ruck activity was illegal but Pascal Gaüzère rewarded the dominant team.
The pressure is on the Irish coaches to communicate their message from laptop or training paddock to match day. This did not happen at last year's world cup
Afterwards, to a man, the English were disgusted to concede the Stockdale try. It became a training ground defensive session for them. They spoke about their desire to evolve an attacking game under new coaches Simon Amor and Jason Ryles so we can write with certainty that they are going to improve in all departments before they seek the five-in-a-row at the Aviva Stadium on March 20th.
This is the challenge facing Farrell and his assistants. England and France consider themselves at the start of their journeys as much as Farrell says the same of Ireland. The difference is the base they are climbing from is significantly higher due to a wealth of success at underage and club competitions that make the Pro14 look in desperate need of South African reinforcements
The pressure is on the Irish coaches to communicate their message from laptop or training paddock to match day. This did not happen at last year’s world cup – not at all – and we only saw flickers in Paris or on two visits to Twickenham this year.
It will need to start happening when France and England come to Dublin in 2021. The clock is already counting down to the Six Nations. Farrell's assistants have the ability to get things right, and there are big names to return so I'm cautiously optimistic. It must start with the set-piece basics.
South African franchises
Monday night rugby – which I am enjoying immensely from the touch line with eir sport – is ruining the chance to promote a few of the best Pro14 performers into the Irish team to play Georgia.
Looks like Eric O'Sullivan will be the only new cap in a short term solution to the injury problems at prop. Look at the Pro14 tables and tell me the tournament is not broken. Leinster, Ulster and Munster have 20 wins from 20 with 15 bonus points.
The South African franchises cannot come quick enough and despite the unintended consequences I wrote about a few weeks ago, another incoming issue is the Stormers, Bulls, Sharks and Lions reaction to putting 40, 50 points on Welsh, Scottish and Italian sides with the Irish provinces providing their only true competition.
They won’t be long wondering: “We gave up weekly contests with New Zealand and Australian teams for this?”
I made a case for Cardiff putting Leinster B under serious strain at the RDS on Sunday. They really did, but the final scoreboard tells no lies: Leinster 40-5 Cardiff.
