Foot rushing and a good old fashioned Irish performance
This was the day that the spirit of Lansdowne Road finally arrived at the Aviva Stadium as Ireland produced a good old fashioned performance full of passion, intensity, desire and impressive physicality. When the splendid Donncha O'Callaghan and Paul O'Connell combined to produce a 50 metre foot rush you just knew that England were damned for the day and that the Irish dander was well and truly up!
The jubilant Irish supporters must have been left last night reflecting on why Ireland had only managed to produce this level of performance in the final game of the campaign. Yesterday it was Ireland rather than the battered England side that looked the Grand Slam contenders. There was a real cut and thrust about Ireland from the early exchanges onwards and they were marshalled perfectly by Jonny Sexton with a Man of the Match performance. It was also a day when the old guard came up trumps and anyone doubting whether Messrs O'Driscoll, O'Connell , O'Callaghan and Wallace could have an influence at this level need to think again.
The problems England encountered at the breakdown last week against Scotland were once again cruelly exposed by the muscularity and intensity of the highly impressive Irish pack. England were found wanting in this area as Ireland were able to create turnovers through keeping the England players off the ground - at times it look liked men against boys and Martin Johnson will need to be thinking long and hard about how his team are to compete in this crucial area in the future.
Unlike the Irish in Cheltenham this week, England were never at the races yesterday with the nature and margin of the defeat being a big blow to the squad. While the back row never stopped working and the front row continued to cause Ireland problems in the scrum, Johnson must be concerned with the performance of Ben Youngs who seemingly went in to meltdown in the face of the pressure of the day. The lack of subtlety, guile and pace in the centre was once again evident on a day when England seemed to have very little cutting edge.
We all have got a bit carried away with comparisons with the England squad of 2003 but in the cold light of day there was certainly no Martin Johnson type character on the field yesterday for England, no Richard Hill and Neil Back either. Moody and Tinadall would have surely made a difference but it must be remembered that current England Squad is an emerging one and patience will need to be shown before they become anywhere near the finished article.
