Comment: County Kiwi contingent comes through again for patchy Ireland

Enjoy Lowe, Aki and Gibson-Park, and thank the gods for them, while we can.

J-LOWE: Tempers flare between Ireland’s James Lowe and Tommy Freeman of England. Pic: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland

Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss?

With a smiling Andy Farrell sitting in the Aviva Stadium stands and shaking hands, it fell to Simon Easterby to steer the good ship Ireland through these Six Nations waters. What difference would this boardroom reshuffle make? No-one knew.

Rob Howley delivered a title the first time Warren Gatland took his own Lions leave then got stuck with a wooden spoon the next time he filled in. As frameworks go it offered precious few clues as to what we could expect here and now.

Thirteen of the players who had started Farrell’s last game in charge, against Australia just over two months before, got the nod again here. In all, 18 of the 23 was back in action and it was injury and suspension that caused three of the five changes.

Farrell’s tenure in charge of Ireland has been overwhelmingly positive.

He resurrected a team whose confidence was in its boots after the calamitous last season under Joe Schmidt in 2019, delivering two straight Championships – one of them a Grand Slam – and historic efforts away to New Zealand and South Africa.

Even the habitual World Cup quarter-final exit had been a close-run thing. Farrell’s soft skills would be missed. And his fingerprints on Ireland’s attacking game at a time when the team has been berthed a few feet below its usual waterline.

Would Leinster’s new defensive approach help or hinder? Is this team slightly over the hill with their best days back in 2022 and 2023? How much would the absences of Tadhg Furlong and Joe McCarthy depower them?

Would their discipline improve from November? What about that misfiring lineout? Could their attack click back into gear? So many questions for a team chasing a third straight Championship. And that was before England were added to the equation.

England’s defence was excellent, and their aggression discommoded Ireland and put them on the back foot to such an extent that the visitors led 10-5 at the break, but Ireland were enduring some familiar frustrations.

The lineout, given a virtual free pass by Steve Borthwick with a team selection predicated on the breakdown battle, was much better. So was the discipline, but Ireland’s attack lacked its old crispness of thought and execution.

The kicking game was loose and difficult to figure out. Time and again a player was caught behind the gain line – deep behind the gain line – on the few occasions when they looked to run the ball through a series of hands.

Ireland's Jamison Gibson-Park on the way to scoring his side's first try.  Pic: Brian Lawless/PA Wire.

The major issue was a bad dose of white line fever. Six times they pushed deep into the England 22 in the first-half. Only once did they manage anything to show for it. It was the same in the third quarter when they huffed and puffed for an age without reward.

So much of the discussion around this Ireland team in recent weeks has centred on the imbalance in player representation between the Leinster core and the other three provinces but the turning of the worm here came courtesy of County Kiwi.

Both of Ireland’s opening tries were sourced from the Land of the Long White Cloud.

James Lowe barrelled through Alex Mitchell before Jamison Gibson-Park sidestepped Freddie Steward for the first. Then Bundee Aki bullied his way past Marcus Smith, Mitchell and Tommy Freeman to claim the second.

This trio brings a combined age of 98 and over 130 caps to the table for their adopted country but their worth can’t be measured in mere numbers. Time and again they have been the spark that has ignited Ireland. That tendency was writ large here.

Those tries weren’t about systems or habits.

The third was made in New Zealand too, Gibson-Park delaying his feed from the base of a ruck just long enough to invite a crack in the English line and for Lowe to burst through before feeding the supporting Tadhg Beirne.

Lowe played another leading role for the fourth and all was well again, but forgive us the dose of reality here by pointing out that the five-year residency rules mean that we will literally never see the likes of Lowe, Aki and Gibson-Park in green again.

Enjoy them, and thank the gods for them, while we can.