Problems aplenty but solutions not as readily available, says D’Arcy

England in Dublin last February was a “mental failure”. Cardiff was a “capitulation”. So what does Gordon D’Arcy make of last weekend’s record defeat to England in Twickenham?

“It’s not the sign or the trigger I wanted,” he said, having urged Joe Schmidt’s men to send a worried nation a pick-me-up with the World Cup just weeks away. It is an ominous sign, it really is. From a coaching or a player’s perspective you’ll go and look at key mistakes, lineout misfiring led to tries, blah blah blah, but we were outgunned in most areas of the field, and that would be a worrying sign.”