Demons are banished as memory of All Blacks demolition revived

Complete performance restores feel-good vibe to England, writes Mick Cleary at Twickenham

Welcome back England, friends reunited as team and crowd reconnected following the World Cup fallout, when all those high hopes were unceremoniously shattered by Springbok might and mane.

There were doubts in the Twickenham air, partly induced by the crushing finale in Japan and partly by a succession of events into the new year. The sourpuss approach of Eddie Jones in press conferences over the past 10 days fed into a mood of unease and dislocation that has hung over the sport since the World Cup came to such a flat finish in Yokohama.

First the Saracens farrago followed by swingeing financial cuts to the Championship and a fickle, off-kilter opening in Paris.

Whispers in the dark of the night are the stuff of sport. Teams have to keep proving themselves, to keep seeking reaffirmation, to banish those demons. This was England’s reboot moment. There was a need for a cleansing of the system, a restoration of the feel-good vibe that had sent the team on their way to Japan five months ago.

Only a victory such as this can do that, a win built on the same hard-core principles that characterised England’s play in that riveting, all-encompassing performance against New Zealand. And for long stretches of this match, England hit those heights, far more convincing winners than the scoreboard indicates.

The game was as good as done and dusted by half-time, so complete was England’s performance up to that point. No wonder Jones was moved to comment that there might have been a declaration if it had been a cricket match. It was a trademark one-liner – sharp, sassy and on the money. On the good days, Jones’s team are cut from that same mould.

The England head coach had spoken of the team achieving levels in training that had not been seen since the later stages of the World Cup. Jones knew what he was after. And he got it, as he himself showed when coming down from his coach’s perch in the gods to send on Bath prop Will Stuart for a late trot from the bench, turning to personally shake hands with all those white-shirted warriors who had already completed their shift.

Jones is rarely so demonstrative, but even then, with time still to run, he knew his men were back in business. Jones may not be universally loved, but within the camp there are no naysayers.

It was the same on the pitch. Owen Farrell may project as a cold-eyed hard nut, intent on getting the job done with no time for sentiment. It is a shallow take on Farrell, as it often is with his father, Andy. Both thrive on physicality, but the essence of their characters revolves around trust and loyalty. They are men of heart and soul as much as of muscle and

bone. Owen’s influence on this England team is growing.

You could see it in the manner in which he called over his fellow backs in the closing minutes to come with him to backslap the forwards who had just resisted Irish pressure on their own line and won a turnover. Little moments. Big significance.

There were long stretches in the first half when England were off the leash and cantering clear. They made Ireland look wan and lifeless. Whatever it was that Bono said to them in his impassioned address in midweek, it did not translate into action.

Johnny Sexton was a cramped, haunted figure, shanking his kicks and making a complete hash of a defensive clear-up that gifted a try to George Ford. England have the ability to do that to teams. They can induce errors, cause jitters. There was a lot of power underpinning their play, encapsulated in the dominance of two of their big men, Maro Itoje and Courtney Lawes. The pair were imperious in all that they did.

Lawes was the go-to man in the line-out and a fierce figure round the field. So too Itoje, whose cloying presence at the breakdown is the stuff of nightmare for opponents with his long reach and ability to keep chasing the ball.

There were other heartening sights for England fans. Manu Tuilagi did as Manu does, crashing forward, providing targets, resetting the gain-line.

Elliot Daly was sharp and involved from the rear and such was England’s authority up front, the anticipated aerial bombardment from Sexton and Conor Murray never materialised for the simple reason that Ireland had no ball. Twickenham’s new cult hero, Ellis Genge, was greeted with roars of new-found approval and the Leicester prop did not disappoint as England won a penalty at his first scrum.

There is a subtle changing of the guard as Jones plans for the future as well as deals with the short term. Genge, Stuart, Luke Cowan-dickie, Ben Earl – England’s resources are well stocked.

There has been a touch of bombast about England since the World Cup, Jones urging them to strive to be the greatest the sport has seen. They are a long way from that still. But, as the Twickenham crowd headed into the fading light of a Sunday evening, their faith had been restored, the midwinter blues well and truly banished.