Steve Borthwick, known as a coach who rates England’s rugby after Tests as neither too low nor too high, said the furthest away at Twickenham was “very disappointing” after the record 42-21 defeat to Ireland.
A week after England’s 12-Test winning streak ended with a shocking 30-21 defeat to Scotland at Murrayfield, Ireland’s sensational attacking display left England’s Six Nations campaign in tatters with a 42-21 win over Twickenham.
Below we take a look at where England struggled and where Ireland excelled.
England’s Six Nations campaign falls apart with defeats to Scotland and Ireland
A humming attack that tore apart a leaky defense.
Similar to last week’s game against Edinburgh, England faced an Irish attack that looked to maintain possession and target opponents.
Like Scotland, Ireland also proved deadly in cutting through England’s defence, scoring five tries through scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park, wingers Rob Balkoon and Tommy O’Brien, hooker Dan Sheehan and full-back Jamie Osborne.
Again, like Scotland, Ireland had 22 fewer entries than England, with nine visitors to England’s 12. However, he felt the vulnerability of the English front and grew more confident as the Test dragged on.
Jamison Gibson-Park named Player of the Match after electric bulletin board
With half-backs Jack Crowley and Gibson Park returning to lead Ireland’s attack and shore up their own defensive weaknesses, the ability of Ireland’s forwards and backs to connect flat to the line was back to its best.
Ireland made eight line breaks, beat 28 defenders and made 10 offloads, while the likes of Stuart McCloskey, Caelan Doris and Joe McCarthy ran riot during contact, with the Irish shooting an incredible 289 meters after contact.
Ulster center Stuart McCloskey gives Ireland a sensational win
The start of the contest was also meaningful. England had fallen quickly and significantly down the scoreboard for the second week in a row and had previously been involved in a series of close games, but their bench kept them in good form in the closing stages.
Perhaps upset by the defeat at Murrayfield, Borthwick started Tom Curry and Henry Pollock, and brought on Jamie George and Marcus Smith midway through the first half in the 22-0 defeat to Ireland. There were no Poms squad and England proved once again that this team is not yet a good team to chase.
“It was very disappointing but a big credit to Ireland. They took their chances and their kicking game was great,” Borthwick said after the game.
“Unfortunately, we gave ourselves a mountain to climb, given that our opponent has scored so many points and not been able to get a presence on the scoreboard over the last two weeks.
“We’re going to look at that closely and consider how we can set up our team to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
Lots to ponder for England head coach Steve Borthwick after two heartbreaking defeats
Discipline remains a big (and costly) issue | Ireland dominates the breakdown
At Murrayfield, England were forced to play with reduced numbers for the first 30 minutes after winger Henry Arundel was shown an early yellow card and then a red card in the 20th minute. These were the days when Scotland produced hay.
England were again shown two cards against Twickenham on Saturday when full-back Freddie Steward and back-rower Henry Pollock were sin-binned in either half for cynical play on the ball on England’s try-line when under pressure.
Ireland earned 14 points in this match as England beat one man and Borthwick’s sins were once again avenged.
Henry Pollock became one of two England players to be found guilty in the defeat as discipline was once again poor
England also conceded around 14 penalties in the Test, which is far too many despite clearly having the best scrummaging as against Scotland.
Ireland weren’t entirely clean either, with Osborne guilty of attacks similar to Steward and Pollock, but they showed grit and exploits in defence, thwarting England’s attacks time and again.
Turnovers and breakdowns have been as one-sided an area as we’ve seen in testing. England had around 18 turnovers compared to Ireland’s 11, while the visiting team had seven breakdown steals compared to England’s only one.
Tajig Beirne, Doris and Josh van der Flier were absolutely bosses in that area, which regularly led Ireland to the upper hand and allowed the visitors to relieve a lot of pressure.
Tadhg Beirne and Ireland completely overwhelmed England in terms of breakdowns and turnovers.
‘Heads may soon be able to play for England.’
Speaking after the match, former England captain Chris Robshaw warned that a “leading group” could emerge soon after two successive Six Nations defeats.
“What was really disappointing today was that we looked a bit flat. Especially with Maro Itoje’s 100th game and losing last week, there was a lot of talk about how quickly we needed to start, but the Irish side are under pressure so I wasn’t expecting that performance at all.”
“It might happen once, but it’s really disappointing to see it happen two weeks in a row.
Ireland posted a record points total and margin of victory against Twickenham, but England suffered their first home defeat since 2024.
“Maro needs to look inside the team now and they need to take ownership, because as far as the coaches can prepare the players, they need to step up, analyze themselves and be really critical.”
“Unfortunately, you might see more heads in the block behind it, and this is not a good place to be when that happens.”
World Cup winner Jonny Wilkinson said: “Maybe before the tournament you’ve planned your route, not everyone is looking too far ahead, but now you’re thinking, ‘What does this match mean?'”
Winger Robert Balkoon was also part of Ireland’s attack.
“I said after the Scotland game that this game against Ireland looked a bit different, but now that we’ve played both games it looks different against Italy.
“I think there’s a danger that maybe teams are starting to think that England are susceptible. There’s no doubt that England have talent in their squad, but if you don’t have that underlying ruthlessness, teams really enjoy playing against you. They feel like, ‘Are you really there?’ when you walk on the pitch.”
Genge: Maybe I believed the hype.
Loosehead prop Ellis Genge has apologized to England fans for the defeat, admitting his team cannot explain how they made the same mistake a week after losing to Scotland and allowed Ireland to storm.
“What is your occupation?” Genge told the BBC. “For the second week in a row we conceded so many goals in the first 15 minutes.
“There’s a mountain to climb after that, and everyone has to look at themselves. At this point, no one knows what the answer is, or we would have found it.”
“The scar tissue has opened up since last week and we have to manage that period well and stop turning the ball over.
Prop Ellis Genge (second from right) concedes after England ‘probably believed the hype’
“This is a brutal professional sport. If you’re 5% wrong, you lose. We probably believed too much of the hype from the first week. We can’t afford to let the noise go now.
“I’m sorry to the fans, you guys were great. We let you all down. We’re sorry and we’re committed to making things better. We’re going to go away and do everything we can to make the situation right.”
When asked about the end of her title shot, Genge said, “I’m disappointed. I wanted to win. It’s tough, but that’s what professional sports are. She’s a mean mistress sometimes.”
Farrell: Special day for Ireland: ‘It was a great day’
Ireland head coach Andy Farrell said after the game:
“It’s 100 per cent a special day to come here and perform like that. We’ll obviously be happy about it.
“But more than that for us, I thought the respect the players showed for each other on the field was invaluable, the respect they showed for the jersey and what it meant to them and the people of Ireland.
“Learning lessons and growing as a team was the most important feeling for me. We talked as a group afterward as well. That’s special.”
Andy Farrell’s team produced their best performance and victory under him.
“I told the players that I don’t care if we win or lose, it’s just about whether we’ve grown as a group or not, because we know where we want to go, and winning just happens to be important to the Irish people.”
“It brings a little bit of joy to everyone’s faces, so it was a huge thing for them – the crowd, the people that came together. I hope everyone at home is just as proud.”
What’s next?
England next face Italy in the Six Nations fourth leg in Rome at the Stadio Olimpico on Saturday 7th March (kick-off 4.40pm).
Ireland host Wales at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin on Friday 6 March (kick-off 8.10pm) in their fourth Six Nations fixture.
