Ireland need to make England suffer to show 2019 World Cup potential

Green giant: Jacob Stockdale has led the way for Ireland with a record-equalling six tries in this Six Nations and will be determined to add to his total at Twickenham
AFP/Getty Images
Dan Jones16 March 2018

So, then, to the final weekend of the 2018 Six Nations, with England third in a championship table they presumed they would dominate: the title out of reach and only pride to play for, bumping along below the “scummy” Irish and “s**t” Welsh. (Thanks for that, Eddie Jones).

This has been a strange old tournament, alright, and with only one left before the World Cup — how did that happen? — it feels right to take stock of where the northern hemisphere’s finest now stand. Do any of them look ready to go to Japan next year and win? I’m not sure I would bet on it.

If the World Cup were tomorrow, plainly the best hope would be Ireland, who come to Twickenham having secured a third championship in five years and looking for the Grand Slam.

They have been mighty impressive this year: as I wrote before they mopped the floor with Scotland last Saturday, Joe Schmidt (right) has assembled a beautiful stable of warhorses and bolters, and on their day they can beat any team in the world, New Zealand included.

But World Cups have not proven the Irish forte. If Ireland are going to kick on from being the best of a scrappy Six Nations bunch, then a Slam tomorrow is non-negotiable. They need to grab England by the scruff and grind their faces into their own turf, then go down to Australia on their June tour and do the same there. Not impossible — but not a tied-on certainty either.

Wales, sitting second, remain a curate’s egg. When they breathe fire, as they did in annihilating Scotland in the first game of the tournament, they can singe anyone’s backside. But their discipline around the breakdown has been getting steadily worse since then and their commitment to playing a Scarlets-style brand of heads-up rugby has faded — not helped by unusually chronic indecision on the part of Warren Gatland about whom he feels is his best No10.

Rhys Patchell, Gareth Anscombe and Dan Biggar all have their merits, but are in no sense interchangeable. Patchell in particular — dropped from the 23 for Wales’ showdown with France tomorrow — has been treated rather shabbily. Who are Wales? How do they really want to play? These questions matter as Gatland approaches his World Cup swansong. We did not find out in this tournament — if anything, there have been more questions raised than answers.

France, Wales’ opponents tomorrow, know what that feels like: this is a perennially schizophrenic side that has fielded a teenager (Matthieu Jalibert) and a pair of ancient relics (Lionel Beauxis and Francois Trinh-Duc) at 10 this spring, their fly-half dilemma as telling as the Welsh. We have been saying for more than a decade now that when France work out what they mean to do, they will be genuinely dangerous. The chances of them working this out and becoming dangerous in the next 18 months seem slim.

Scotland, meanwhile, know exactly who they want to be, but can only be it at Murrayfield. Seldom has there been a more homesick side: dashing, irresistible and dogged at home, and as dangerous as a wet digestive once the smell of the Firth of Forth leaves their nostrils. Will they beat Italy in Rome? Ludicrously, that is a valid question, which says everything about their campaign. Italy’s, too — zero points is no more than they deserve and beating Scotland at home their best shot. How long until having Georgia breathing down their necks finally sparks them into life?

England   Ireland
Anthony Watson 15 Rob Kearney
Jonny May 14 Keith Earls
Jonathan Joseph 13 Garry Ringrose
Ben Te’o 12 Bundee Aki
Elliot Daly 11 Jacob Stockdale
Owen Farrell 10 Johnny Sexton
Richard Wigglesworth 9 Conor Murray
Mako Vunipola 1 Cian Healy
Dylan Hartley (capt) 2 Rory Best (capt)
Kyle Sinckler 3 Tadhg Furlong
Maro Itoje 4 James Ryan
George Kruis 5 Iain Henderson
Chris Robshaw 6 Peter O’Mahony
James Haskell 7 Dan Leavy
Sam Simmonds 8 CJ Stander

Which just leaves England, who could feasibly finish fifth tomorrow night. The most interesting bits of Jones’ speech in which he glibly trolled the Irish and Welsh were actually the moments when he described the leadership training he has been putting his key England players through. Acting classes to help players speak up, and the like.

On the evidence of this tournament, which has been somewhere between below-par and out-and-out weak, the lads need to double down on the soliloquy drills. Smashed at the breakdown against Scotland, England’s paucity of back-row options was exposed: a fundamental weakness that has been glossed rather than solved under Jones. Rudderless against France, the coach’s addiction to the absent Dylan Hartley suddenly made sense.

Is this a blip for England? Or a return to their post-2003 average? Jones is in post to win World Cups, not flirt with fifth in Six Nations at the moment when his side should be gearing up for world dominance. Alas, untimely fate! The Sweet Chariot has a puncture, and sympathy is in short supply.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in