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Arrogant Ireland cheerleaders brought down to earth with a slap
By Neil Fissler
It is unbelievable to think that after one swing of Marcus Smith’s right foot, England can be crowned Six Nations Champions in Lyon next Saturday night, especially given all of the negativity surrounding Steve Borthwick, his team selections, tactics, performances and the overall state of the game in the country.
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A bonus-point win over France and a victory earlier in the afternoon for Scotland in Ireland could see Borthwick’s side pull off one of the most unlikely Championship wins in recent years. This is all the more remarkable, considering how deep they needed to dig in the second half to see off Italy by the narrowest of margins in their opening game.
Another second-half comeback was needed to beat a youthful Wales team in their second game, but the knives for Borthwick and his side well and truly came out when Duhan van der Merwe’s hat-trick saw Scotland claim a fourth successive Calcutta Cup victory.
England were the architects of their own downfall at Murrayfield after making 24 handling errors and turning the ball over 22 times, and it seemed that Ireland only had to turn up in South-West London to continue their march towards becoming the first team since England in 1992 to secure a second successive Grand Slam.
It was certainly the case for the Irish media, who have been claiming for over a month that Andy Farrell’s side are without equal in Europe and were going to coast through to the Grand Slam with the breathtaking air of arrogance that they have so often levelled at England and their fans down the years.
And then you have the talking heads; former players saying silly things in the media in return for a payday. Peter Stringer, who clearly needs to give his head a wobble after claiming no England player gets into the Ireland team, or Jamie Heaslip proclaiming Ireland would need to go down 13 or 14 men for England to win. Talk about getting ahead of yourself.
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But probably the worst piece of cheerleading of the lot was Simon Zebo’s ridiculous prediction that Ireland would win by 35 points. Did he honestly believe that, or was the former prankster of the Irish camp just singing for his supper? If he believed that, then the men in white coats will be around shortly.
You ok @SimonZebo?! 35 points?! @BoyleSports 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/o9vQccXdtM
— Andy Goode (@AndyGoode10) March 9, 2024
Maybe Borthwick, instead of giving a Churchillian-style pre-match address to his troops could have just read out a choice selection of the nonsense coming from across the Irish Sea. Then again, Farrell’s team might just have read what was being said and started to believe their own publicity.
For the first 35 minutes, they were given what is known in south-east London as a proper slap, but Ireland, to their credit, kept the scoreboard ticking over, as all good teams do. England were more direct and decisive – and had they been more clinical and not missed a couple of penalties – would have been comfortably ahead.
The second half was equally enthralling, swinging one way and then another before Smith, the poster boy for English rugby, stepped up with a last-gasp drop goal to deliver the kind of knockout blow that is estimated to have earned Anthony Joshua £40 million against Francis Ngannou just 16 hours before.
“I don’t think he’s got what it takes to deliver the killer blow against those top sides.”
😳 #ENGvIRE | #sixnations pic.twitter.com/zyZrxdoYYI
ADVERTISEMENT— RugbyPass (@RugbyPass) March 9, 2024
In the grand scheme of things, it might not have been as significant as Jonny Wilkinson’s World Cup-winning drop goal in 2003 or the three drop goals that George Ford slotted over against Argentina in the World Cup earlier this season, but it could very well kickstart the belief that England under Borthwick can be a force.
But unlike the Irish media – who I understand were pretty crestfallen in the Twickenham media centre after the final whistle – let’s not get too carried away. This is very much a work in progress, but the likes of Smith, Ben Earl, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, George Martin, Ollie Lawrence, Tommy Freeman, Chandler Cunningham-South and Ollie Chessum certainly have age on their side, and there is no shortage of talent in the English game.
Fin Smith and Jack van Poortvliet are both injured. Freddie Steward, arguably their best player in the first two games, dropped. Then you have the likes of Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Greg Fisilau, and Olly Hartley, who are all hotly tipped to win caps in the near future, waiting patiently in the wings for their chance.
Earl rightly attacked England’s critics after the Ireland win, saying the result wasn’t ‘bad for England’s worst-ever team.’ But anybody who claims this is England’s worst-ever team should look up the 1966 team that didn’t win a game and only claimed a draw with Ireland.
If anything, yesterday’s result has taught me to focus less on social media likes for criticising Borthwick and give him time to prove us all wrong by building a team that gives us regular moments of euphoria like the one we felt when Smith’s kick sailed between the uprights.
The irish pundits are hilarious. The worst thing in the world was english or AB or saffa “arrogance” for them but now they double down and are so much more insufferable, and they don't even have the results to back the cheques they write, WC results lol.
Almost done with this ludicrous site. Is this a clickbait site or a serious rugby site?
Does this count as journalism?
Lazy and insulting article. ALL of the people saying Ireland were the best team in the world were British not Irish. The bookies had Ireland at 4-1 on. This man trawled Irish media and surprise surprise was able to find a few quotes to base his ClickBait article on.
At the very end he admits he was one of the people sh1tting on Borthwick for clicks (his expression).
If he had trawled British journalists he would have found a far higher concentration of pro Irish anti England takes.
Ireland has developed an excellent attacking pattern over recent years. However teams have analysed it now and worked out ways to defend it. As my team the All Blacks both showed and experienced themselves previously. To dominate the modern game teams must continually evolve their attacking templates. To me Ireland have become a bit predictable. A great team though to be sure if you don’t contain them they will take you apart.
What nonsense. You can talk about the ridiculousness of a prediction from the comfort of knowing the result.
England were muck for the first 3 games but were excellent for the last game. It wasn’t Irish hubris that was predicting an easy win it was working off the evidence.
Its really easy to be wise after the event but let’s not claim that it was only the Irish who believed that England wouldn’t cope with the Irish. Let’s not make it personal.
England deserved to win. They played their best match for 5 years, IMHO.
Well lets be honest now, the Irish media were having a laugh and now the joke is on them. England are not a bad team, there is talent there and they were playing at home and were rightly fired up for this one. Ireland looked like they underestimated them but also pitched up and played fairly well. England put them under pressure and deserved the win. They played the better rugby on the day. You cannot underestimate a proud rugby nation when they play at home. You do so at your own peril
Question is, will England maintain that intensity and attacking intent in Paris next week or withdraw into their shells?
My suggestion to the Irish Media is maybe get past a quarter final before you start signing from the hilltops.
In 50 years from now, nobody will remember and care that you were consistently the best team in the world for a 10 year period. In 50 years from now the only thing people will remember is that the Springboks won 2 World Cups in that same 10 year period.
This Ireland team is unbelievably good and definitely better on the eye than everyone else. A world class team without a doubt.
But here’s the catch, you have to earn your right to be arrogant. You have to earn the right to talk trash.
And simply put, Ireland haven’t earned that right yet.
Hot and cold Scotland can absolutely beat Ireland on the day. They just need to watch how NZ and England did it.
And England can without a doubt win the 6N. They have the grit and now the belief they can win.
Then let’s hear how great Ireland are.
Once again the most influential players for Ireland were 3 Kiwis.
Difficult time to play England in all honesty. If they’d met in R2 the result would have probably been very different. England were due a good game and looks like the defeat to Scotland provided the bounce they needed.
Game was ultimately only decided by a point, so Ireland shouldn’t feel too aggrieved.