Whither the red rose?

BRIAN ASHTON must feel that if he is never to see Dublin again, it would be too soon.

After his miserable 21-month role as Irish team coach back in the 1990s, he led his England team into the fabulous Croke Park stadium shortly after 3 o’clock on Saturday. Some six hours later, he trudged forlornly out of the fabulous GAA headquarters — now that we’ve savoured it, can we ever leave again! — like a man in a trance having, to use his own word, been “stuffed” by an Irish team full value for every one of their record thirty points winning margin.

It’s history now how England’s shortcomings, already evident against Italy, were cruelly exposed by a rampant Irish XV. Eddie O’Sullivan was being both charitable to the opposition and paying due tribute to his own side when he suggested that “this was more a case of Ireland playing well than England playing badly.”

In fact, there was a considerable amount of truth in both points of view. Ashton acknowledged that Ireland were the better side by a distance and that he and his team have a mountain to climb if they are going to make any impression in the World Cup next September. The final insult came when O’Sullivan emptied his bench five minutes before the end with the game over as a contest.

Whither England after this debacle and their fourth successive loss against Ireland? Individually and as a team, they were a ragbag at Croke Park on Saturday. Those pundits who criticised Ashton for omitting Julian White from the starting line-up seemed to have their view vindicated as the Irish front five gave more than they were taking in the first half . But the notion that White’s arrival on the 44th minute would make all the difference immediately fell flat on its face. Ironically, fourteen minutes elapsed before the first scrum involving the Leicester Tiger got primarily involved and England were penalised for a crooked feed to the scrum by Harry Ellis.

In the loose, the much lauded White was as ponderous as ever. His contribution to the English cause was more or less negligible. Just as ineffective were the likes of Danny Grewcock, whose hair-trigger temperament makes him a liability, the new captain Phil Vickery and Martin Corry, a trio on whom a major responsibility rested. David Wallace literally burst through and over the hapless Joe Worsley for a crucial first half try.

As for the English backs, they never had a fair chance so the big question now is where they go from here.

THE CLUB v country row rolls on with Ashton muttering at his press conference that his players weren’t as “fresh physically or mentally as the Irish” and how his “time for preparation was limited” before lamely insisting he was neither embarrassed nor humiliated by the 43-13 scoreline — as he should have been.

In the context of England rugby, Ashton has a point. Whereas the entire Irish squad had their feet up at home seven days earlier, seven of the original England side and the entire bench started Premiership League games. That may change in time with the deal between the clubs and the RFU due to be renegotiated in 2008, the idea being that the elite players would be protected in the autumn and later in the build-up and during the Six Nations and World Cup.

However, few have faith either in the clubs or the Union. The latter made a bit of an ass of itself when lashing out an amazing £1m in a four-year contract for Rugby League player Andrew Farrell. He was king of the 13 man game, but as a Union centre and over thirty years of age, he’s a total misfit. He intercepted a ball on Saturday but was like the QE2 trying to turn and take advantage.

Neither can Mike Tindall be described as a speedster. Even Jonny Wilkinson can be rendered ineffectual when denied a clean service and there are those in the know who wonder if he is actually back to full fitness — or indeed if he ever well be.

So, can the world champions change things round in time for a respectable defence of their World Cup title? Not so, according to an English colleague, who was forced to admit that Ronan O’Gara was very much on the mark in his controversial comments earlier this season regarding the standard in the Premiership and Magners League.

“Phil Vickery is a shadow of the player he was, Corry is past thirty and has far too many miles on the clock, you’d hardly know Freshwater was on the field”, I was told. “There’s not a great bloody pool of players. The Premiership is full of Samoans, Fijians, Kiwis, Aussies, Irish. The opportunities are not there for the youngsters coming through from the academies. English rugby just doesn’t seem able to get anything right. Saturday’s performance made that very point.”