In the gap between rounds three and four of this Six Nations Championship, the former Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy put together an interesting column in the Irish Times on the pressure weighing down England.
Having won 82 caps for Ireland – nine of them against England – D’Arcy is well placed to comment on the battle to get mind and body in the right place to play winning Test rugby.
“Now, do that 18 times in a row,” he wrote. “Or, even, 19. That is the precipice at which England find themselves. The same English players, more than less, who failed to perform under pressure at the 2015 World Cup.
“England look a team under ever-increasing strain. That’s pressure. Merely coping with it is can weigh you down. This is a very competent English squad with an enormously powerful and efficient tight five. But all players are susceptible to new forms of pressure. The looming record brings this great unknown.”
He reckoned that if you watched England’s first three championship matches you would see a pale imitation of the team who dominated 2016. And it was down to them being lost in the unfamiliar territory of closing in on a world record.
D’Arcy’s contention was that New Zealand, whom England caught up with on Saturday, had looked like a team enjoying the challenge of breaking new ground when they were putting their sequence together. And England looked haunted by the prospect.
The theory was holding water nicely until Jonathan Joseph splashed it all over Twickenham. Indeed, the pace and power with which they dismantled Scotland, combined with the tryless performance by Ireland in Cardiff the previous night, has changed the mood of a nation.
So Eddie Jones’s claim that Saturday in the Aviva Stadium will be like a World Cup final – “winner take all”, he said – is an odd comparison. At least in 2001, when Ireland halted England’s grand slam chase in the last game, they finished the campaign level on points with England but trailing on points difference.
Repeating the trick would, at best, give them the runners‑up spot. And if they lose, they would be lucky to finish third, a result that went down badly last season after back-to-back titles.
Much was made then of the attritional approach of Joe Schmidt’s side and it is getting a lot of airplay again. Certainly Ireland pass the ball a lot but when it gets to the scoring zone it is mostly to one-out runners. In his Sunday Independent column the Grenoble coach and former Ireland hooker Bernard Jackman returned to the theme.
“Ireland’s attack in the opposition 22 has been criticised and obviously it’s the hardest part of the pitch to score from, with more numbers in the defensive line,” he wrote. “The [Ireland] team struggle when they can’t maul the opposition over, or overpower them, or outwork them.
“I think the next step for this Ireland team is to look to increase their creativity and composure in this area of the field. Joe Schmidt is one of the best rugby brains in the game and he will find a solution that best fits our players’ abilities and skill sets.”
When Ireland were overturned by Scotland in the opening round they went to Rome a week later and blitzed Italy in the first quarter. It was as good a 20 minutes as you will find to highlight how to shut opponents out of a game. So Irish fans will be hoping for a similar bounce back.
The problem is that Italy are not up to much, whereas England are up to 18. And despite D’Arcy’s line that they were buckling under the pressure – “That weighs on anyone, on any team. Especially a group that has a recent history of buckling in the white heat of Test match rugby” – they have worked their way out of tight corners against France and Wales before stuttering over Italy and then obliterating Scotland.
Suddenly the debate in Ireland is about the slim chances of the hosts’ blunt edge being enough to batter England. And whether or not Schmidt can find a few sharp edges in the few days left to prepare. This is not what the buildup was supposed to be about. The preamble should have been dominated by the exorbitant sums being fetched for match tickets – the heat has gone out of that one a bit – and how Ireland were about to crown a season that kicked off with wins against New Zealand and Australia with a third Six Nations title in four seasons – doing the world a favour by derailing England in the process.
Instead the mood music is fairly sombre. It is driven by fears that the only pressure evident in Dublin on Saturday will be Ireland’s efforts in lasting the pace.
