Straining for the high notes

ENGLAND captain Steve Borthwick may not be the world’s greatest second-row forward but he does have a musical ear, even in the middle of a fiercely fought Six Nations clash. Last night, he claimed: “When the crowd sang Swing Low in the last 15 minutes of the game against Wales, it was the loudest and the sweetest I’ve ever heard.”

He interpreted the passion of the singing as a thank you for a job well done from the Twickenham fans and in turn, said Borthwick, “it gave us a big lift”.

One has to presume there’s a message there for Ireland as they prepared for this latest battle with the auld enemy. If Brian O’Driscoll and his team can instead give the many thousands of Irish fans in the stadium a good reason to lash out “The Fields” and at the same time shove the Chariot back down English throats, then we will know that the boys in green are on course to win the sixth of their last seven games against England.

The desire to do it is there. No victory tastes as sweet, just as any defeat by the auld enemy sends the bile cascading into the mouth.

Passion and determination, of course, do have a major part to play on these occasions but a lot more is required if success at this exalted level is to be secured. Ireland may be the favourites today but that’s because England’s form has been so indifferent, especially against Argentina in November and more recently when they scraped home unimpressively against Italy in Rome, than anything special Ireland have done of late.

Irish coach Declan Kidney is quick to step in and stress that the Pumas and the Azzurri have invariably provided difficult opposition for Ireland and that their best performances have never been reserved for these two opponents.

He went on: “England teams are always very strong. They obviously know us very well with Mike Ford (defensive coach) having coached us before. In terms of attack, they’re very hard to break down and so don’t concede too many tries.”

Like all coaches, Kidney invariably preaches caution, points out the pitfalls and talks up the opposition but these are still telling points. Indeed, skipper Brian O’Driscoll views the game in similar light as he states that “irrespective of how they have been playing, England are never a bad side”.

However, they’ve taking a pummelling in the press and when barbs of this nature are being bandied about, it’s impossible for the players’ confidence not to suffer.

There are those who insist the 2003 World Cup winning captain lacks the man management skills for the job and no matter what his captain says, there is little doubt that Johnson will come in for a huge amount of stick should his side lose this game.

Declan Kidney isn’t under anything like the same pressure as Johnson, knowing that his job is safe – and rightly so – until after the 2011 World Cup at least. However, this is still a very important game to win following on as it does from the dreadful second half performance against Italy and the drubbing by an admittedly inspired France in Paris.

A defeat of any kind today and the usual suspects will be demanding heads without any recourse to the achievements of those they want to dump and the qualifications of the replacements.

So it behoves those who have been struggling of late to step up to the plate and prove they are worthy of Kidney’s continued support. Scrum-half Tomás O’Leary is a very obvious example and knows he was fortunate to hold on for this game ahead of Eoin Reddan and Peter Stringer. O’Leary is up against Danny Care, who so recklessly challenged Marcus Horan at a crucial stage in Croke Park last year and earned himself a yellow card. Television caught Johnson in paroxysms of rage and frustration at this action, England went on to lose by a single point and Care is another who should be relieved to remain in his coach’s plans.

The out-half battle of the two Jonnies, Sexton and Wilkinson, the new and the old so to speak, will be fascinating but here again much will depend on the type of possession coming from those up front. If it’s slow – and O’Leary continues to leave the ball at his forwards’ feet as he contemplates his next move – then you have to wonder what Sexton and the fliers outside of him can achieve. Care will link time and again with his back-row runners Nick Easter and James Haskell and that in turn will pose an immense defensive challenge to David Wallace, Stephen Ferris and Jamie Heaslip.

Man for man, I believe Ireland have the edge on England. But the game is at Twickenham, England have a huge amount to prove and Kidney’s men admit their confidence suffered from that defeat in Paris. Expect to spend lots of time on the edge of your seat before The Fields finally drowns out The Chariot.