Context is everything and Twickenham on Saturday was an exceptional Test match. Top drawer. Two sides playing to rare standard and intensity.
If you see a scoreline of 27–6 it might suggest more entertaining fare. More likely, one side couldn't cope with the other, whereas had Ireland flown out of London with a three-point win and grand slam ambitions intact, I wouldn't have complained. There were very few negatives. Where were the areas of weakness? Even Sir Clive Woodward had to admit that this might be the launching pad for England.
In the short term you'd still fancy Ireland, with Italy next and then finally France, for the championship. After Friday in Cardiff, there must be doubts about France winning in Edinburgh and they could be a busted flush by the final day in Paris, giving Ireland the title on points difference. However, for the longer term, many of Saturday's bonuses went England's way.
After Dublin and Wales, Joe Schmidt came to Twickenham with a different game plan. I guess he must have looked at England's back-five forwards, thought he wasn't going to get any change there and decided his ambitions lay wider out. Instead of the driving maul that earned him 17 points against Wales, Ireland went for the "bust" – the break off the back of a maul that took the attack to the relative lack of experience on the wings. Had Jonny Sexton's early kick to Andrew Trimble resulted in an inside pass that found Rob Kearney we might have been looking at a different game.
Instead, the wings with five caps between them grew into the game, with Jonny May dropping hints that he has learned from an apprenticeship under James Simpson-Daniel. Just wait until England sees the turn of foot the Gloucester wing possesses.
Elsewhere the lineout link between Dylan Hartley and Courtney Lawes continues to develop into something of a treasure. Not many throwers have a 100 per cent record in a Test – I know Rory Best was spot on for Ireland as well. Ditto the second-row partnership between Lawes and Joe Launchbury who, in a season, has gone from a lock who looked shattered by Cardiff in the last Six Nations, to an all-rounder who not only looks after the taxing tighthead lock slot in the scrum but now jackals with the best, wins his share in the lineout and still has the energy and pace to catch and tap tackle a wing in the closing minutes.
It is interesting that Stuart Lancaster felt Launchbury was up to shifting to the back row when Tom Wood went off. Such titbits of knowledge will be stored away, as will memories of Davey Wilson and his front-row battle with Cian Healy; the Bath tighthead lasting about 20 minutes longer than he himself had predicted. After only 47 minutes of rugby since Christmas, it was a brave performance but the bonus for England was the 10-minute cameo from the guy who replaced him, Henry Thomas.
Thomas doesn't always command a first-team slot at Sale but it won't be lost on Lancaster that the 22-year-old (very young for a Test tighthead and destined for more game time at Bath) went forward at his first scrum and Ireland immediately pulled Healy. OK, the Leinster man had scrummaged for 71 minutes but it was another plus to go alongside the growing understanding of Billy Twelvetrees and Luther Burrell in midfield and the levels of consistency and maturity being shown by the Harlequins Mike Brown and Danny Care.
In much the way that Test sides question their kicking game when they face Australia's Israel Folau and New Zealand's Israel Dagg, England's opponents now know they can expect sloppy kicks to be returned with interest by England's full back, while back rows know they are putting defence in peril if they take their eyes off Care.The quality of England mirrors that of the two Harlequins and if Saturday's first try was a replica of Leinster versus Clermont Auvergne two seasons ago – with Paul O'Connell added to open the gate for Rob Kearney – then England's response was all Harlequins: Chris Robshaw making the space, Brown calling for the ball and Care getting alongside his full-back.
If you want to nit-pick, then it would be worth pointing out that Brown's breaks too often go unsupported. However, if that's something England can work on then it's a minor matter when you consider where they have come from in the past two years.
Not so long ago a try like Kearney's might have sent England into terminal decline. Against France, and now Ireland, we know there is more in the mindset than a default position that involves sticking it up the jumper.
And things can/should only get better. With Marland Yarde approaching fitness, Chris Ashton doing it for Saracens and Christian Wade in the mix, plus Jack Nowell reaching levels I never suspected, yet another position of apparent weakness has become one of some strength. Manu Tuilagi will soon be out of the sick bay (where do you put him?) not to mention Tom Croft, Geoff Parling, Alex Corbisiero, Ben Foden …
