You cannot fault England’s ambition. World champions plotting the defence of their title but with an Olympic gold medal to bring home in the meantime. Pull it off in the sevens at Rio 2016 and at another World Cup a year later, and the new England men’s coach will have some act to follow; get it wrong and the RFU may consider starting another review.
Therefore, a turgid 8-3 victory against Ireland, the Six Nations champions, takes on additional significance. England are much changed from their 2014 World Cup triumph but so are Ireland – this was a test of whose depth is greater – and the home side eventually got there.
As miserable as it was, in shocking conditions, it was still a first victory on home soil to celebrate for the coaching team of Simon Middleton, who oversees both programmes, and Scott Bemand, who focuses on the XVs. There were a number of retirements after the 2014 World Cup success but with the first leg of the sevens series beginning in Dubai early next month, there is a wealth of premium players preparing for sunnier climes. Sarah Hunter, though, the XVs captain, is not complaining.
“What’s great about the squad is that there’s such synergy between the two squads. We’ve had a couple [of sevens players] in for these matches and the transition between the two is really smooth because of the culture that has been created. The ethos that we have and the way both teams play, there’s no disruption at all, it’s all on a player-by-player basis.
“ If they do come in then great, they’ll be a great addition to the squad, but if they don’t they have their world series that we’re behind. There’s a really good feel in the squad. It’s an EPS [elite player] squad, it’s not a XVs and sevens squad, we’re as one and people will move between the groups.”
Make no mistake, England deserved to celebrate Saturday’s victory. They have not won the Six Nations since 2012 – when they collected their seventh in a row – and having slumped to an 11-0 defeat in France on 7 November, they could ill afford another loss this autumn.
In relentless rain they built a half-time lead – 3-0 after Lauren Cattell’s penalty – but enjoyed their best 10-minute spell when their hooker Emma Croker was in the sin-bin for digressing when Ireland were camped on the hosts’ line.
Down to 14, England were in the ascendancy and while Ireland’s full-back, Niamh Briggs, did make it 3-3 with five minutes remaining, again England were able to raise themselves and the replacement Izzy Noel-Smith barged over after a powerful forwards drive down the right.
“When we went down to 14 players that maybe swung the game for us, that was their chance to score and from that we grew,” Hunter said. “We had one shot to win the game and we took it, and sometimes that’s what international rugby comes down to. I’m really proud of the girls for coping under the pressure. We managed to cope with it. It wasn’t pretty but we’ll move forward. We just wanted to get back to winning ways and take that momentum into the Six Nations.”
Ireland, who awarded six new caps – three in the backs and three in the forwards – will not be too downhearted in defeat, even if they may feel a first away win over England was within reach. They, too, have been weakened with Rio 2016 in mind, and whereas England had already played France, the Irish had not played since the Six Nations and were understandably rusty.
Briggs said: “It’s different for us. We’ve now got a sevens squad and they are off preparing for their first leg, so it’s going to be a difficult for us because we don’t have the numbers and the strength in depth that England have, but we’re trying really hard and our union are standing by us. The new caps were absolutely phenomenal, they did really well. We’re obviously incredibly disappointed with the finish but there were huge positives to take.”
England McKenna; K Mason, Cattell, Large, Clapp (Laybourn, 76); E Scott, LT Mason; Clarke (Cornborough, 66), Croker (Cokayne, 64), Lucas (Kerr, 78), Taylor, A Scott, Gallagher (Noel-Smith 66), Packer (Millar-Mills, 76), Hunter (capt).
Try Noel-Smith. Pen Cattell. Sin-bin Croker, 54.
Ireland Briggs (capt); Deacon, Donnelly (Stapleton, 61), Shiels, Coyne; Naoupu, Muldoon (Healy, 61); O’Reilly (Reidy, 68), Moloney, Egan, Anthony (Peat, 68), Cooney, Spence, Fitzpatrick, H O’Brien.
Pen Briggs.
Referee M Lematte (Fr). Attendance 2,500.
