Ireland must turn upheatto melt brave Scotland

ruck where England thought they could protect or mind their ruck ball with minimum entry of players in to stand over it — one, maybe two. Scotland recognised the moment, got numbers in and stole or slowed down a lot of ball.

It begs the question: how good are England?

We will know a lot more after they play France in Paris. That eight that walked out in Murrayfield are a very decent unit, but British Rail’s favourite customer flogged them to death in the two weeks before the Scottish game and apparently they were horse-whipped to within an inch of their lives for the last 10 days.

I am surprised they were able to walk on to the pitch. England were listless and yards off the pace.

Eddie Jones saw how the French pack were beaten at the breakdown by Scotland and still decided to choose Nathan Hughes and Courtney Lawes in his back row.

They were at sea at the breakdown and the admirable and normally combative Chris Robshaw was suffering from the same army camp fitness regime malaise that the rest of the English front five were dealing with. If he had rested his horses and was able to call upon Sam Simmonds and Sam Underhill, I reckon they could have squeaked it.

Last year, before the Scottish Ireland England Scotland Wales France Italy 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 1 1 0 0 0 108 59 14 0 1 71 46 9 0 1 64 73 8 0 2 67 56 6 0 2 73 64 6 0 3 51 136 0

Saturday, March 10: Ireland v Scotland (2.15pm), France v England (4.45pm). Sunday, March 11: Wales v Italy (3.00pm)

game in Murrayfield, I suggested that Ireland have a real pop at scrum time. This was done on the basis that if you put on the power at scrum time and assert yourself in this phase away from home it gives you