SIR CLIVE WOODWARD
ON ENGLAND’S DUBLIN FLOP
HUGE congratulations to Ireland, who outplayed and in many ways schooled England. There is no hard luck story or controversy involved here. Not a hint. England fell well short in their effort to close out a second Grand Slam.
Before the tournament, I predicted an England title and Ireland runners up, but no Grand Slam, and so it proved.
England have only really turned it on for 80 minutes — against Scotland.
In all the other games, it was patchy. In fact, they should have lost to France and there is an argument that it might have been better for England to be defeated against the French.
Long unbeaten runs can inhibit you a little. You can sometimes find yourself playing to defend rather than to expand and develop your game.
England are still very much work in progress, one year into a four-year plan. They have a long way to go and that was evident in the rain in Dublin last night.
Ireland pressurised them into all sort of mistakes. Other than Elliot Daly, there was little composure and almost no threat.
The contrast with seven days before against Scotland at Twickenham was massive but not totally unexpected.
Eddie Jones is the latest in quite a long line of modern-day England coaches who have been turned over in big matches in Dublin. That includes myself, Andy Robinson, Brian Ashton and Martin Johnson.
England, though, can hold their heads high. Their transformation in the past 15 months has been impressive and this is the inevitable blip.
It will have hurt receiving their championship winners medals as losers but they will bounce back.
Their championship win will always be in the record books.
England would have been grateful to be only 10-3 down at half-time. They were poor and the only part of their game that was functioning was their defence.
Ireland could easily have been 20 points up and there would have been no complaints.
This is a very good Ireland team, one of their best ever, who up until this point had not quite fired on all cylinders in this tournament.
It was great to see the real Ireland last night and Warren Gatland will be delighted as well. The Lions coach will be picking from real strength next month when he names his party for New Zealand.
The Ireland pack hammered into England and secured a strong foothold in the game, which led to them owning 75 per cent of the possession in the first half.
Ireland were imperious in the lineout and the lastminute withdrawal of Jamie Heaslip helped them in that respect, with Peter O’Mahony superb at the tail of the lineout. It was his well-won ball that led to Ian Henderson’s try.
After the break, England began to gain a bit more possession and territory but Ireland did not look like giving up the win for a moment.