So then, was that a step forward for Ireland and might it give them a better chance of winning at Twickenham? And as well as puncturing the increasingly inflated view of the current English team across the water – and ending their expectations of a Grand Slam shootout in Paris – has their Murrayfield defeat left a few stones under the Sweet Chariot and made them more vulnerable?
Whatever the answer, there’s no time to ponder it. That’s because, for the first time, there’s no down week after the opening two rounds of the Six Nations. Player welfare, it seems, was not at the top of the priorities list.
On balance, had Steve Borthwick’s team extended their winning run to 13 by beating Scotland last Saturday, that innate English sense of superiority might have left them more exposed to an unexpected Irish mugging.
After beating Wales in their opening match, former England player Matt Dawson wrote in his BBC column: “There was a time, maybe a couple of years ago, when the England shirt used to weigh heavy on the players. The pressure seemed to inhibit them. They were not expressing themselves. Everything was safety-first and a bit meek.
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“No longer,” he said, adding: “Now, that England shirt seems to make the players double in size.”
Now, though, England are a wounded beast after Saturday’s 31-20 loss – as they were two years ago when beaten by Scotland and sent home to think again. A fortnight later in Twickenham, England ended Ireland’s Grand Slam hopes with a dramatic 23-22 win.
Scotland had figured out how to play against England’s statistics-based, kicking-orientated game. This was most in evidence when the visitors were without the yellow- and red-carded Henry Arundell. Scotland’s thrilling, coast-to-coast rugby was varnished with the instinctiveness of Finn Russell – still a genius at 33 who, like his teammates, seems to play his best against England.
There won’t be a better try-scoring assist in this championship than his tip-on for Huw Jones’ first try. Nor – when Russell wriggled and chipped into space – will there be a better analogy from a commentary team than Ian Madigan likening Ellis Genge’s attempt to fall onto the ball as “chasing chickens”.
Following Jones’s match-clinching breakaway try after Matt Fagerson charged down George Ford’s drop-goal attempt, the funereal retreat of the English players to their own posts was instructive. After all, there were 27 minutes still remaining.
Peter O’Mahony’s analysis of England’s laboured, one-dimensional attack in the build-up to Ford’s drop goal effort also exposed serious limitations in their game.
Do Ireland's rugby pathways need a serious overhaul?
In the fallout, though, there is expectation of Borthwick shifting Tommy Freeman back to the wing, with Ollie Lawrence restored at 13 and a probable starting place for Henry Pollock in a more dynamic team.
Of course, Andy Farrell has decisions to make too in the wake of Saturday’s richly entertaining, hard-earned and slightly lucky win over Italy, most obviously at outhalf. Sam Prendergast started the game strongly and did many things well, as when gathering the Dan Sheehan overthrow which led to Stuart McCloskey putting Jamie Osborne over nine phases later.
But whatever about missing one kickable conversion, missing a second suggested Prendergast is feeling the pressure. There’s no doubt the introduction of Jack Crowley had a starkly transformative effect.
His first contribution was to orchestrate the nine-phase attack off a good lineout launch play on their own 10m line, which culminated in Robert Baloucoune backing himself from McCloskey’s quarterback-style pass.
It was interesting to hear John Barclay and Chris Ashton give a neutral view of this debate on BBC’s Six Nations weekend wrap on Sunday, complete with a statistical breakdown of the two young Irish outhalfs which showed there is little between them. Nor did they plump for one or other that strongly.
For this upcoming game, it makes sense to restore Crowley, as the better defender and, seemingly, more in-form player. It doesn’t mean this is the end or anything like it for Prendergast, who remains a wonderful talent. Besides, as Johnny Sexton has said, why should there only be one?
That’s not the case with any of the other leading Test countries and Ireland only have 17 Tests between now and the next World Cup. The team won’t be best served by one of them starting all 17. Harry Byrne, Ciaran Frawley and Joey Carbery could enter the conversation too.
Nor will the Irish scrum serve them or the rest of the team if recent trends are continued. Conceding six penalties had a huge ripple effect on their game – as it invariably does – and gave the Azzurri serious impetus.
That said, Hollie Davidson and her team of officials seemed to ignore Law 19.39, namely Dangerous play in a scrum, which includes section c: “Intentionally lifting an opponent off their feet or forcing them upwards out of the scrum.”
What’s more, there’s not much point in warning Michele Lamaro: “When I penalise the scrum I then do not want to see your boys continue to drive.” The best means of ensuring against that would have been to reverse the penalty against Simone Ferrari for clearly continuing to do so after the whistle. It’s also dangerous.
That said, people who know their stuff about scrums believe the Italian frontrow essentially repeated the Springboks’ ploy of ignoring the loosehead to operate in a pincer movement on the Irish hooker and tighthead. Is resolving this problem at least in part a coaching issue on the training ground?
If Italy’s increased competitiveness over the opening two rounds and Scotland’s exhilarating performance in downing England have been major positives, so too has been the approach of France.
Fabien Galthié may have dropped some of the players’ delegation which are rumoured to have approached him after the November series, but perhaps he has taken some of their suggestions on board. They’ve been helped by the return of Charles Ollivon, who along with Mickaël Guillard, already look the nailed on secondrow partnership in the team of the tournament.
But clearly Galthié has given more rein to the instinctive brilliance of Antoine Dupont, Matthieu Jalibert, Thomas Ramos, Louis Bielle-Biarrey et al. With talents such as theirs, it would be mad not to do so. They look like they are enjoying their rugby and it would be wonderful to see Ireland adopt some of that license to counterattack.
In the bigger-picture stuff, it’s been a pretty interesting couple of weekends so far for the old Championship.
