Rugby union: England’s hollow title
“The ceremony was bittersweet, the trophy heavy, England’s smiles thin and unconvincing,” said Andy Bull in The Observer. They had won the Six Nations for the second year in a row, a feat they had last achieved in 2001. Yet they concluded the tournament with a defeat – their first since October 2015. Had they beaten Ireland in Dublin, they would have won a record-breaking 19th Test in a row; instead, they lost 13-9. This defeat was “a long time coming”, said Mick Cleary in The Sunday Telegraph. In so many of those previous 18 wins, England managed to “rise from the dead”; this time, however, they were “well and truly buried”. Ireland outdid them in almost all departments: there was “venom in every Irish tackle, potency in every attack”.
You never know what you’re going to get with Ireland, said Robert Kitson in The Observer. This season, they have been “up and down more often than a bungee jumper”. Last November, they enjoyed the “huge adrenaline rush” of ending the All Blacks’ own 18-match winning streak. Yet they were beaten twice in this tournament – by Wales and, far more surprisingly, Scotland. Last Saturday, however, the Irish never came close to losing, said Stuart Barnes in The Sunday Times. It was a triumph of tactics: they recognised that the England lineout had been “imperious” against Scotland the week before – so they “took them on in that very area”. And they ditched their usual narrow game, “flipping around” their tactics to play out wide; England, by contrast, had “nothing new to offer”. Coming weeks after Italy bewildered England by opting out of rucks, the loss marked the second time in this tournament that coach Eddie Jones had been “outsmarted”.
Still, England should be afforded “plenty of slack”, said Matt Dickinson in The Times. In one “transformative” year under Jones, they have achieved an extraordinary amount. But “no one sensibly thinks that they are, yet, among the true greats” – and surpassing New Zealand’s winning record would only have distracted from their flaws. It’s those flaws that Jones must now fix, said Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times. Elliot Daly looks “shaky” on the wing; the pack needs “a megaton of extra power”. And if the coach really is intent on coming back “better and stronger”, he needs to pick a new captain, said Owen Slot in The Times. Dylan Hartley has done a fantastic job of ingraining a “high performance culture” in the squad. Yet his tactical leadership lacks sharpness and he rarely makes it much beyond the 50-minute mark before he is substituted. Jamie George would make a better first-choice hooker, Owen Farrell a better captain. England’s winning streak has now ended; so too should “the Dylan Hartley era”.