Ireland must find formula to stop England

Aa expected the class of England was too much for Scotland and if Ireland does get to play the Calcutta Cup champions in this year’s Six Nations, serious consideration will have to be given to ways and means of countering England’s impressive attacking game.

Although at the start of the game Scotland attempted to place Iain Balshaw under pressure through high up and unders, the quality of both the kick and the pressure was not good enough to cause the young full back concern.

Balshaw is an outstanding talent with the ball in front of him and Scotland was never able to turn him sufficiently to blunt his attacking skills.

I still think a more old fashioned set piece orientated game is perhaps the best option for containing England. Kicking long but not looking for the touchline is asking the English back division to attack you and they will be only too happy to oblige.

Scotland looked thoroughly beaten in a phase of play that used to be their forte.

The shifting of the point of attack and the continual quick ruck ball which has been their game looked completely beyond them in the face of the overall speed of the English pack.

Scotland needed to generate some forward momentum to allow Budge Pountney and Martin Leslie to have any chance of reproducing the quick ball and continuity that they had shown in the second half against Wales two weeks ago.

Not given that platform the two flankers, along with No 8 Simon Taylor, gave the worst backrow performance of the current Six Nations tournament.

Interestingly, with the overall speed of the England forward pack even Neil Back is becoming less obvious in open play. Not always needed to forage for possession he was seen often last Saturday in the role of a second string scrumhalf, clearing the ball from rucks that other English forwards had already won.

Scotland were not helped by a slow, bumbling display at halfback from Andy Nicol but the whole backline looked devoid of pace and ideas.

Without last season’s combination of Gregor Townsend inside and Alan Tait outside, even the accomplished John Leslie looked sadly pedestrian.

On the other hand Mike Catt looks more at ease as an inside centre with every match.

The Ireland v England match will be by far the most significant northern hemisphere clash of this season. Bernard Laporte admitted immediately after France’s win against Italy that the result was by far the most important aspect of the match and that was obvious because the encounter in Rome was far from a spectacle.

While France conceded only one try they still gave Italy’s Diego Dominguez four penalty attempts which kept the home side in the match right into injury time.

As against England in the previous match, it was again pace out wide, this time from Frenchmen Philippe Bernat Salles, Christophe Dominici and Jean Luc Sadournay, that did for the Italians.

Italy was able to produce a competitive forward display which never allowed the French a good supply of attacking ball. However, the outside backs speed was enough to take advantage of the few scoring opportunities.

A surprisingly ineffectual performance from scrumhalf Alessandro Troncon negated Italy’s chances of using their hard won possession well.

Although France had changed their centre combination the best midfield back on the pitch was Italy’s Denis Dallan.

Having now won the match, with the added significance for the French of winning away from home, they have to make serious improvements before the next round of matches.