Ex-Ireland player salutes 'how quickly things changed' for England

England finishing above Ireland in the Guinness Six Nations was an outcome few, if any, predicted after the Irish comfortably defeated Steve Borthwick’s side in round one on February 1.

The back-to-back 2023 and 2024 champions impressively hit back from a 5-10 interval deficit to surge 27-10 ahead before a couple of late consolation tries from the visitors gave the 27-22 result a misleading complexion that it was a tight game. It certainly wasn’t in the second half.

However, rather than the Irish striding on after that opener and winning an unprecedented hat-trick of championship titles, they imploded in round four against eventual champions France.

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That left them reflecting on plenty of ifs, buts and maybes last Saturday when England’s 68-14 humiliation of Wales secured Borthwick and co their second-place finish, one point clear of the third-place Irish.

What unfolded in recent weeks with the English impressed Alan Quinlan, the former Ireland back-rower. He has now paid tribute to their four-wins-from-five campaign which has drawn a line under a barren run of seven straight losses against tier-one opposition.

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Speaking to Plejmo, Quinlan said: “You have to take into consideration where Wales are at and with their lack of confidence, they just couldn’t get across the game line – but England’s defence was superb. For long periods against Ireland, they caused the Irish a lot of problems as well.

“I know Ireland kicked into a higher gear in the second half but England’s game has improved dramatically. To finish on a high like that, it wasn’t that long ago that were in Twickenham and Scotland’s Finn Russell had a kick to beat them. How quickly things can change. It could have been totally different if that happened, a lot of pressure on Steve Borthwick if Scotland had beaten them.

“They got it right against Wales and they grew in confidence. It was a brilliant performance from England. They finished the tournament second having won four games and they would have certainly taken that after losing to Ireland.

“They were really powerful, clinical, ruthless, aggressive and when the opportunities arose they just seemed to change gears and just blow Wales away. You just couldn’t live with them – and they could finish too.

“A powerful team like England, when they are on song and actually show a bit of ambition and attack, they have the players and great power. They were just so ruthless when they got in those attack zones and it was very impressive.

“The criticism of England sometimes is that they are bland. There is a lot of box kicking, a lot of limiting the mistakes, trying to squeeze the opposition. England fans were quite frustrated and angry with that. They were defensively poor in November, particularly in that Australian game, but their line speed – with Joe El-Abd coming in for Felix Jones – they seem to be getting it now.”

Reflecting on Ireland’s mid-table finish, Quinlan added: “It has been a disappointing Six Nations. They had probably 20, 25 minutes against England that was very, very good. The first half against Scotland was one where you were going, ‘Wow, that is a very dominant half of rugby’.

“I know Duhan van der Merwe scores just before half-time to give Scotland a lifeline but Ireland were really, really top-notch in that first half. They just haven’t consistently been able to get to that level. They started really well in Cardiff and could have been 19-3 up if they score that second try, and then they are hanging on for periods of the game.

“The attack isn’t the same, the dominance isn’t the same. Teams are fanning across the field, keeping more defenders on their feet and saying, ‘Look, Ireland, you’re not going to run through us and we are not going to bite down and get very narrow in defence. We’re just going to fan across the field’. Ireland have struggled to get over that. It looks like there’s a little bit of a zip missing from their overall game.”