Donal Lenihan: Unless Ireland shore up defensive errors, England will tear us apart
The Ireland team huddle ahead of the clash against Scotland. Despite leaving Murrayfield with a win, the performance must improve before the English come to town, says Donal Lenihan. Picture: INPHO/Tommy Dickson
Playing Scotland is fraught with danger for an Irish coaching ticket these days.
While the customary platitudes are voiced by all teams in advance of facing Italy, everyone knows it’s a game you’re not going to lose.
The Scotland game is different. Despite the fact that they had only beaten Ireland four times since the Six Nations format was introduced in 2000, Andy Farrell was painfully aware coming into this one that if Scotland were allowed lay the foundations up front, which created the platform to defeat England in Twickenham for the first time in 38 years, then overturning Ireland was well within their capacity.
England’s narrow win over France in a riveting contest on Saturday makes next weekend’s clash against them even more difficult and, if anything, put more pressure on Ireland to win in Edinburgh yesterday.
We expected that it might go down to the wire and while Ireland will be thrilled to have escaped with an all important victory, they will be forced to ponder how it all came down to a clutch penalty kick from captain Johnny Sexton, metres from the touch line, with three minutes left to squeeze home.
Having stretched their lead to 14 points after taking a stranglehold of the game in the key third quarter, it looked only a matter of the margin of victory at that stage. It is therefore hugely worrying that Ireland allowed a Scottish side back into the game at a point when they had a makeshift out-half directing traffic in the final quarter in Stuart Hogg covering for Finn Russell, a No8 in Nick Haining pushed into service in the second row, and a reserve scrum half in Scott Steele who looked all at sea offering emergency cover in the back row.
While Scotland deserve great credit for drawing level with five minutes to go, once again Ireland’s defensive frailties played a major role in that. When the dust settles, James Lowe’s role in two of those Scottish tries must be called into question, in particular a shocking missed tackle on Hugh Jones for their second.
To Ireland’s credit, with just three minutes on the clock after the brilliant Hamish Watson touched down for Scotland’s third try, which Hogg converted to draw level, Ireland held their composure to find a way to win the game right at the death.
For that they can thank the freakish athleticism of second row replacement Ryan Baird, who chased down the restart to put all the pressure on Ali Price, eventually forcing him into conceding the match-winning penalty. Baird is reported to be faster than a number of the backs in the squad and his impact proved crucial in the end.
For the third time in just over a year, this contest carried all the traits of a must-win game for Farrell. Having come out on top in the first two clashes with the aid of home advantage, his first encounter as head coach at Murrayfield promised to be the most challenging. And so it proved.
That said, it should never have come to that. Ireland have a formula for beating Scotland and such was their dominance in the opening quarter, you could see nothing other than an Irish victory. They were masterful in that period.
Understandably, Ireland didn’t deviate too far from the blueprint that has delivered five straight wins on the bounce in this fixture and, once again, early dominance of the set piece and ability to keep Scotland pinned deep in their own half of the field suggested nothing other than a convincing Irish win.
Coming into the game, Ireland were fully aware that, working off front foot ball, Finn Russell and Stuart Hogg could become weapons of mass destruction. The aim from the outset was to make sure that wasn’t going to happen. Step forward Paul O’Connell.
His work with Ireland’s lineout, specifically their defensive lineout, has been spectacular. Scotland’s lineout, consistently out of touch coming into the game, was impressive, yet, such was the pressure Ireland exerted in the air on George Turner’s throw, the home side lost seven lineouts in total.
Normally it would be impossible to win a Test match with such a dearth of attacking ball out of touch, which begs the question from an Irish perspective how Scotland came within touching distance of drawing the game after looking dead and buried after 55 minutes.
In terms of making a positive statement from the outset, especially on the road, Ireland’s opening quarter of rugby could not have gone much better.
They exploded out of the blocks right from Sexton’s high hanging kick off, fumbled in the air by Jonny Gray, which enabled the visitors to lay siege on the Scotland 22.
At one stage it looked as if they might even beat France’s 67-second try scoring opening in Twickenham on Saturday.
Ireland’s kicking game succeeded in putting huge pressure on Hogg in the back field and was geared towards undermining one of Scotland’s key figures. The chase and contest in the air offered by Keith Earls and Hugo Keenan created all kinds of pressure while Sexton’s pinpoint cross field kick which Earls contested against two much taller men in Hogg and Duhan van der Merwe led to a fortuitous opening try for Robbie Henshaw.
Then again, you eventually get what you deserve when you chase lost causes and Henshaw deserved that break. We was magnificent throughout this contest, his carrying explosive, his tackling devastating and his awareness of space excellent.
Unfortunately, as a collective, Ireland missed far too many tackles, 25 in total, and on the evidence of Saturday’s showing, England, who look as if they have rediscovered their long lost attacking intent just in time for their visit to Dublin, could do major damage.
Unless Ireland shore up those defensive errors, which are happening far too often, England will tear us apart. They will be looking to finish what, for them, has been a very disappointing championship and will view us as the perfect opposition.
In the same way that we have the Indian sign over Scotland, Eddie Jones and his players appear to have it over Ireland.
On the positive side, once again, Ireland’s newly constructed back row of CJ Stander, outstanding on the occasion of his 50th cap, Will Connors, and Tadhg Beirne, who has answered all his critics with his ability to function across the second and back rows, put in a massively productive shift.
The onlooking Lions coach Warren Gatland could not but be impressed with what Beirne has delivered throughout this tournament, in two different roles. He must have secured a place in that Lions squad if the tour, in whatever guise, proceeds.
Sexton, too, came out on top of his individual duel with Russell who, not for the first time, mixed the good with the average.
It will come as some relief to Gatland that a number of England players, who looked certainties to be included in his squad but whose form in the earlier rounds wouldn’t justify it, appear to be coming good at the right time.
No doubt Farrell will have come to the same conclusion in advance of England’s visit. With just a six-day turnaround to focus on that game, Ireland, who somehow find themselves in second position on a championship table distorted by the cancellation of Scotland’s game against France, can take some solace from their lofty status.
The problem here is, if they fail to address their defensive frailties and fall off as many tackles against the Vunipola brothers, Maro Itoje, and the rest of England’s big ball carriers in Dublin next weekend, they could find themselves sinking towards the bottom end of that table fairly quickly.
