Matt Dawson column: ‘England’s Six Nations win over Ireland a statement in many ways’

[Pelican Press 0]

Matt Dawson column: ‘England’s Six Nations win over Ireland a statement in many ways’

England’s win over Ireland was a statement in so many ways.

It was statement for everyone within the camp, a statement to the doubters, a statement to the rugby world and a statement to the supporters.

I don’t think anybody, from the fans, to the pundits and the media has doubted England could play like that. It has all been about an amazing bunch of players that have been playing so well for their clubs in the Premiership and in Europe but struggling in the white jersey.

The fans are knowledgeable because they are watching rugby week in week out and there was frustration because we weren’t playing to our potential.

But we saw wave after wave of excitement, and even when Ireland were ahead and looking like they were winning, Twickenham was still jumping because of how England were playing.

If the shirt was heavy against Scotland, it was as light as a feather against Ireland.

I don’t think I can remember Twickenham being like that since 2012 when England beat the All *******. England captain Jamie George is a bright guy and he will analyse all of what has been said from the start of the campaign about wanting the fans on this journey, lengthening the walk to stadium and the music being right.

That is all well and good but you could build a tunnel from the motorway to the stadium where the fans don’t see the players until the warm-up, and they will still be seen as superstars and heralded as legends if England are going to play like that.

If you are throwing yourself out there with that intent and ******* and ultimately winning, the England fans will ***** the roof off the stadium. It won’t be England that create the fortress, it will be the fans.

That stadium will be so intimidating for everyone else that steps foot on that turf. You create this aura and it comes from the way you are playing rugby and winning. Sometimes it will be like yesterday and other times it will be by grinding it out.

‘You have to score tries to beat the best sides’

In games gone by, Ireland would have got a chokehold and the way England have been playing, they would not have been allowed out of that grip.

But they met ***** with ***** by attacking with intent, and some standout individual performances. We were not just talking about Ben Earl, we were talking about George Furbank, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, George Martin, Ollie Chessum, Ellis Genge.

The list went on and on of the players making an impact.

It all starts from the captain George, who wants to play. He realises the talents in the team and if you are going to beat the best sides you have to be able to score tries.

I think head coach Steve Borthwick has just realised the data driven analysis of getting yourself in the right position by defence and kicking the ball is all well and good, but you still have to have the ******* and score tries.

They have obviously changed their mindset and spent loads of time attacking. You don’t just change that in a couple of sessions.

It has been an obvious turnaround in their training regime and what a difference it makes getting up in the morning knowing you are practicing attacking rugby rather than defence. Their energy was in stark contrast to where it has been.

It wasn’t perfect by any stretch and there is loads of room for improvement and they will love building on that.

Your fundamentals are the set-piece, line-out and scrum and England blew Ireland away with the selection of Chessum on the flank and Martin and Maro Itoje in the second row – Ireland had nowhere to go.

That was vintage Steve Borthwick going back to his super strength of line-out knowledge. They could kick to touch at will knowing they would have a 30-40% chance of disrupting Ireland’s ball.

The Irish defence were just at sixes and sevens, they couldn’t rush up because England would truck it up with Martin, Chessum or Ollie Lawrence, and if they backed off, England were at pace and Furbank was causing havoc in the 13 channel as a runner.

It was difficult afternoon for Ireland to manage England’s wave of ******* because everybody was a threat.

‘Gibson-Park moving to the wing was an error’

I can’t remember Ireland going through multiple phases. Normally they will get into double-figure numbers of rucks, going through it at speed and then diving in at the corner. They did a couple of times on Saturday but otherwise England stopped it at source.

Possession stats were brilliant for England and they had the vast majority of the ball.

England’s defence around the fringes was so good Ireland were only getting scraps. Then the injuries and the disorganisation in Ireland’s backline meant they were just slightly off with their coordination.

Scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park going to the wing was a big error after Ciaran Frawley went off injured.

He was so much more effective at nine than Conor Murray and is electric around the fringes. Ireland lost all of that speed and momentum.

England’s defence did still worry me when they were rushing up, and they got exploited for James Lowe’s two tries, while on other occasions it looked disjointed.

But thankfully they were concentrating more on stopping the ball at source and their line speed to the first attacker was brilliant.

Smith or Ford v France?

When Ireland went back ahead England had a little wobble but then they quickly gathered their heads and that last passage was ruthless with Marcus Smith hitting the drop-goal to win it.

You have to know whether George Ford is going to the next World Cup, but if England are going to play like that with intent then all three fly-halves in Ford and the Smiths – Marcus and Fin – are very capable.

How Marcus breaks the line is a threat and a worry for the opposition. I just want to see him be a super calm general. If he had that calmness about himself he would be the number one choice by a mile.

New Zealand’s Dan Carter was probably your man as the ultimate 10 where he can do all the magic with the penalty from the touchline, the odd drop-goal and the ****** to break to the line and feed, but he had that calmness about him that everybody looks to.

I would just like to see a bit more of that from Marcus because if you add that to his vision and his physical attributes, my goodness we would have a proper superstar in the making.

And a final mention to Danny Care on becoming the sixth Englishman to win 100 caps for his country. He has shown fantastic longevity and impact on England rugby.

Matt Dawson was speaking to BBC Sport’s Mantej Mann.

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