NATIONS2017 England can
JOHNNY SEXTON made his way towards the Ireland team bus in the inner recesses of the Aviva Stadium on Saturday night with his left arm in a sling courtesy of the special attention England had earmarked for him.
A battalion of England’s defensive heavy hitters had lined up Ireland’s inspirational playmaker and tried to knock him out of the contest. They had failed.
His progress was ginger, the discomfort was there for all to see, but when one well-wisher asked after his health he received a positive bulletin. “It’s not so bad when you win,” smiled Sexton.
Ireland, depleted by injuries, had to go to some painful places to stop England’s Grand Slam bid but stop it they did to claim runners-up spot behind Eddie Jones’s side in the final Six Nations table. In the process they may just have done the England coach, right, a favour.
Looked at in the round it has been a fine championship for England. For a start, they won it and rightly felt able to celebrate that achievement on the pitch to the accompanying firework display afterwards, albeit with suspiciously waxwork grins.
They have also scored more tries, made more metres and conceded fewer penalties than 12 months ago. Progress on the surface in what has been a much higher quality, if zany, championship – there was the ruckless match against Italy and Wales’ timeless Test against France in Paris – than last year’s edition.
But the defeat in Dublin shone a light on deficiencies their winning run had masked, ones that if they are to achieve their aspiration of becoming the best side in the world, require attention.
Stand off England – as Scotland did a week ago – and they appear bruising, brilliant world beaters.
Meet England physically, flood their breakdown ball and demand they operate without momentum – as Ireland did for long periods – and the white machine grinds to a halt.
It was a similar refrain in the opening game of the championship when French bulk caused them the same issues. On that occasion, England were rescued by their much-vaunted bench; this time, on a sodden night at the Aviva Stadium, the finishers could not pull the game out of the fire as the mistakes Ireland 22 with seven minutes left when Maro Itoje’s instruction to Jamie George to throw to him backfired and man-of-the-match Peter O’Mahony – only drafted in during the warm-up because of Jamie Heaslip’s hamstring twang – picked it off.
“That was pretty big,” admitted Jones. “We’ve got a young guy who is only 22, he is still studying at university and doing an essay this week on the socio-economic status of Ghana or something like that, and this Six Nations is the first time he has called lineouts at Test level.
“He had a hard day and he will learn a lot from that. These things sometimes help you in the long run.”
It was Itoje’s first defeat in an England shirt, a year on from his debut against Italy.
Losses hurt, particularly in games big enough to be billed as World Cup finals by your coach. But if the lessons are absorbed by what is ostensibly a young side, defeat in Dublin need not be the end of the world. It could end up helping England to conquer it.