Captain’s call to arms

After all the pre-tournament talk of reigning champions Ireland as RBS 6 Nations favourites, last week’s opening round of games was nothing if not a levelling of the field. 

Injury-hit England, disjointed in the autumn, were the only side to have hit the ground running in their overcoming of Wales in Cardiff, with the wins for Ireland in Italy and France at home to Scotland far from spectacular.

The English performance prompted Ireland head coach Joe Schmidt to suggest his own side would have struggled to live with Stuart Lancaster’s players and that the men in green were 15 to 20 per cent off the pace.