PAUL REES SAYS THAT, WITH IRELAND AT HOME AND FRANCE AWAY TO COME, BORTHWICK’S MEN MUST BECOME RELENTLESS
IT WAS three years ago last weekend that England last beat a side in the Six Nations that was not Italy or Wales. Maro Itoje’s try four minutes from time gave them a threepoint victory over France at Twickenham, although it needed a review for the score to be awarded after Teddy Thomas was initially ruled to have got his arm under the ball.
Since then there have been three defeats to Scotland and Ireland and two to France. The leaders and Grand Slam champions are next up at Twickenham on Saturday and if Ireland win with a bonus point they will retain their title no matter what the outcome in Rome in the match before which involves their closest challengers, Scotland.
It has been something of a stroll for Ireland so far and having won convincingly in Marseille on the opening night, England away is not being seen as the most formidable of obstacles. “England were abject at Murrayfield after scoring a cracker of a try,” said the former Scotland coach Matt Williams. “If they play like that against Ireland, they will get beaten by 40. They are mentally nowhere.”
Abject? Disjointed, certainly, but they were buried by their own mistakes rather than sustained Scotland pressure. It was not a rerun of last year’s demolition by France at Twickenham, which England followed up with a gritty performance in Dublin that saw them just 10-6 down just before the break when Freddie Steward was, wrongly, sent off.
The year before that, England were level with Ireland at Twickenham with 15 minutes to go having had Charlie Ewels sent off 82 seconds in for a dangerous challenge. It is not England’s morale that has been lacking in the last three years: they have simply not been good enough.
England fought back against Wales at Twickenham in the second round, winning the game with a penalty 10 minutes from the end. Ireland, also with home advantage, took immediate control, although it was credit to the way Wales defended that the bonus point was only secured with the final move of the afternoon.
It showed how far Ireland are ahead of England in terms of tactical appreciation and continuity, yet when Andy Farrell took over as head coach from Joe Schmidt after the 2019 World Cup, four of his first seven Six Nations matches in charge resulted in defeats. They have since won 15 out of 16, including the last 11.
Patience has been a victim of the social media age. Scotland had a more settled side than England and they were smarter than they had been against France the week before when, for all the debate over whether Sam Skinner’s claim for what would have been the match-winning try at the end was valid, they wasted opportunities.
“There will always be teething problems at the start but England will go harder because that is t
