In a week where Ireland started by patching themselves up having fallen out of the championship race in Cardiff and Eddie Jones hopped into the space with another instalment of his world leaders mantra, we are back to a familiar shape to this fixture: England looking to assert their dominance; Ireland on a mission of upset.
That is how it used to be long before the game went professional. In the early 1970s, Ireland managed a winning streak of five games in this match-up. At the time we inquired innocently how such a thing could happen against a country with vastly bigger resources. The response was succinct: “They couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery.”
By the mid-80s they had become more careful about not spilling beer. It has not been a pooper-free party since then but for England to win six of the past seven meetings – two of them World Cup warm-ups – reflects a numbers game where one country has a playing base of 2.1m and the other is at 190,000. Once you have some sort of coherent system in place to manage and develop those numbers then England coaches should be beating off candidates with a stick. And they are.
In which case there should be enough depth to obviate panic when you lose a key player. So Billy Vunipola is delayed getting to the startline? No problem, tell Nathan Hughes you have good news for him. In Ireland, the pool does not run so deep.
Back when Declan Kidney coached the side we used to joke about his capacity to find slivers of silver lining on great swathes of cloud.
“Declan the changing room is on fire.”
“Well isn’t it a great opportunity for the firemen to show us what they’ve got?”
Joe Schmidt reached into the same locker to cover over the absence of Conor Murray. It is a great opportunity for Kieran Marmion but Schmidt loses sleep over the country mile that separates Murray from those who want to take his place in the Ireland side.
So, what can go wrong for England? Interestingly, this is the 10th anniversary of the opening of Croke Park, the national GAA stadium, to rugby. Understandably, it has received a lot more attention in Ireland and the theme was simple: the tide of emotion created by that controversial decision would wash over England in 2007. It helped that Ireland were in the middle of a uniquely successful period in this fixture – seven wins from eight between 2004 and 2011 – but had they been coming off a losing streak as long as your arm it still would have had a happy ending that day.
“I always remember them [Ireland v England] being very special days – obviously the Croke Park game,” said the prop Jack McGrath. “They were games that when you’re a kid you’d be thinking you’d love to play in them because there was always a lot of emotion. There’s always a special aura around the stadium and the country on those special days.It’s nice to be involved because there are not many days that it’s like that. It would be nice to be remembered.”
Like his team-mates McGrath is on message not to give England anything. His immediate opponent, Dan Cole? “He’s a very good operator. He’s been around a long time and he’s shown his worth in that England team.”
Dylan Hartley, who will be assisting his immediate opponent in attempting to destroy McGrath? “I still rate him as a top-quality player. He’s the captain of a really successful England team and that’s no mean feat.”
For a week Ireland’s players have recited lines about small margins, belief in the plan, cutting out basic mistakes and the benefits of flossing before bedtime. What they have kept to themselves is a game plan that will rely on keeping England busy between the touchlines. Dropping Devin Toner – a beacon out of touch but a low impact player around the field – in favour of Iain Henderson gives Ireland, potentially, a carrier of industrial loads. Henderson, however, failed to deliver when he started against Scotland, carrying six times and making eight tackles before being hauled off early and then dropped.
He will be under no illusions about what is required of him. Defeat in Dublin on top of a Wales win in Paris would mean Ireland slip out of the top band of teams going into May’s draw for the 2019 World Cup. Victory would soften England’s cough and change the complexion of a season.
