This week, Malcolm reflects on a magnificent victory for Ireland over England and singles out record-breaking captain Brian O’Driscoll for special praise.
I got warmed up for the Ireland v England game on Saturday by lining out for the Ireland Legends team that took on the England Legends team in Donnybrook on Friday night and it certainly wasn’t taken as seriously as what I would have been used to a year ago! I suppose I recognised that as soon as Gary Halpin gave the pre-match speech, which was absolutely priceless in fairness to Gary!
We were 19-0 down at half-time, so we had to pick it up a bit, but we played quite well throughout and we scored a couple of tries through intercept passes that were ran the entire length of the pitch. Alain Rolland was the referee on the night and he became quite hometown towards the end and tried to give us every opportunity to win, but unfortunately we fell just short in the end.
What can you say about Brian O’Driscoll? You just have to take your hat off to the man for what he’s done for Ireland; he’s been a phenomenal leader and an incredible performer throughout his career.
He awarded a conversion that Shane ‘Munch’ Byrne took, even though I don’t think it quite went over and he actually gave his whistle to Tom Tierney at one stage and played scrum half for a while. Alain, as you may know, used to play for Leinster, so he was well able to handle himself and played scrum half for five minutes or so.
I think at one stage in the game there were 19 or 20 Irish players on the pitch. I remember packing down for one scrum and Paddy Johns, Liam Toland and Mick Galwey were all hiding in there. There was around 4,000 people at the game which was great, and all the proceeds on the night went to a couple of charities, the IRFU Charitable Trust and to a charity that looks after inner-city kids in London so it was all for a good cause.
There was some great players playing on the night, everyone was having great craic and getting stuck into the rugby and of course, it was well-celebrated afterwards.
Omens
So I suppose after all that, the omens weren’t great for the game on Saturday, but thankfully, of course, that’s not the way it turned out.
I was at the game at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday and beforehand I was doing a corporate Q and A with Paul Wallace and a couple of ex-English players, Richard Hill and Josh Lewsey. The English lads were quite confidently predicting an English win, while myself and Paul were going for a narrow Irish win, but I don’t think anyone could have forecast what actually happened on the day.
Ireland produced the performance that so many of us had said that there were capable of, but didn’t know if we would actually see them delivering. It was just so satisfying to see; everybody was so proud of what the lads did – the work ethic they put in, the discipline they showed, the intensity they brought to the game, and the desire that was there to play rugby was just fantastic.
I have to say that the atmosphere at the Aviva was sensational. I was there with a buddy of mine, Anthony Horgan was a couple of rows ahead of us, Kieron Dawson wasn’t far away as well and everyone was cheering and celebrating and it was great to see and to be a part of.
Intensity
As for the game itself, Ireland played with such intensity and seemed to dominate the contact area yet again. We had done that in previous games, but it was ruined by ill-discipline at times, when Ireland weren’t getting the ball and were growing frustrated as a result.
On Saturday, Ireland slowed England’s ball and allowed them to run at them and take them on. England have some big, physical guys, but they didn’t seem to challenge Ireland defensively.
Ireland’s intensity against England was evident in tackles such as this one by Cian Healy on Simon Shaw
Ireland seemed capable of shepherding them out to touch and put in some big hits which forced England to retreat. England struggled to recycle the ball at times as well, they were held up by the maul-type tackle that a lot of people have been talking about, when the likes of Donncha O’Callaghan and Cian Healy made the tackle and then you had the likes of Sean O’Brien in on top, getting their hands on the ball and turning it over.
I think Shane Horgan mentioned it after the game, but Ireland really got the rub of the green as well, everything seemed to go their way for once as opposed to what we had seen previously. England looked a bit like a rabbit caught in the headlights at times; they seemed at a loss as to how to break Ireland down. They made some unforced errors and turnovers, their strike runners weren’t finding a breakthrough, or the odd pass would go to an Irish hand.
Ireland seemed a lot cuter all the time, were more aware of what was going on and were quicker to react to things.
Youngs immaturity cost England
Another key aspect of the game, I thought, was Ben Youngs’ run-in with the referee. He had previously been a star in the tournament for England, but he had no influence on Saturday’s game after being sin-binned and then substituted. He got penalised for a little tap on Eoin Reddan at a scrum (I didn’t think there was much in it), and whether there was words had or something else that happened afterwards, the referee seemed to be very aware of him throughout the game.
Then he did something quite silly after David Wallace made that drive towards the end of the first half, when he threw it into the crowd, which obviously stopped Ireland taking a quick lineout, and straight away the ref was on his case.
Normally, it’s the sort of thing you might get away with, but the referee saw it as professional foul and was sin-binned as a result. I thought that it was a key blow for England, it compounded the pressure they were under already and they were going to have to dig really deep to get back in the game after that.
From an Irish perspective, some players had incredible games. David Wallace was excellent and almost got in for tries on two occasions, once after completely stripping the ball from Nick Easter, but unfortunately, none of them came about.
Malcolm on Brian O’Driscoll and the future for this Irish team
In BOD we trust
Brian O’Driscoll, of course, broke the Six Nations try-scoring record and I think we should just take a moment to pay tribute to the man. To play the way he has for Ireland over the course of 12 years and 112 caps, and to score 44 tries, has been absolutely amazing.
They showed every try he’s got in the Six Nations over the years after the match on RTE yesterday and you may have noticed that I started him off on his run by putting him in for the first of his three tries in Paris back in 2000.
Who knows what Brian O’Driscoll might have become had I decided to dummy and go back inside rather than pass it on to him? I’m joking of course. What can you say about Brian O’Driscoll? You just have to take your hat off to the man for what he’s done for Ireland; he’s been a phenomenal leader and an incredible performer throughout his career.
Smashing
Alongside him, I thought Gordon D’Arcy played his best game in a long time, but all over the field Ireland were just in the zone. There was one stage during the game when Matt Banahan was attacking for England and he was running slightly across the pitch when Brian O’Driscoll just lined him up and absolutely smashed him.
He tried to come back inside, but ran straight into D’Arcy, who also smashed him, and in the corner of the shot you could see Andrew Trimble hammering in, quickly followed by Jonny Sexton and Banahan just got smashed into touch.
Gun-flashing Gordon D’Arcy was excellent alongside Brian O’Driscoll in the centre
Ireland played with such intensity that they were like a pack of mad dogs and when Ireland play at that level of intensity there are few teams that can live with them. I do think England didn’t play great at all, but Ireland didn’t allow them to either.
While Ireland were being written off somewhat prior to the game, England were being hyped up, but I didn’t think they were as good as they were being made out. I had said before that England hadn’t really been tested.
Hype flattered England
OK, they won their three home matches and had a good win against Wales, but we have seen since how unconvincing France were, Italy had an off day against them and they just got over the line against Scotland. It was always going to be a big challenge for them to win a Grand Slam against Ireland in Dublin, but I don’t think anyone would have forecast the manner of Ireland’s victory.
Momentum is a big thing. You had an England team coming off four wins on the bounce against an Irish team that weren’t playing with any real fluency, but this Irish team has a lot of confidence in their own ability. There are a lot of senior players there that would have believed in themselves.
England never got going. I would have thought that they would have at least looked to have challenged the likes of Keith Earls at full-back and tested him out early on, but there wasn’t one bomb sent in his direction.
The scrum was excellent again. Mike Ross and Cian Healy in the front row, and obviously the rest of the pack as well, looked to dominate from the off and were incredibly powerful and strong in that area.
The English players seemed happy just to shift it on to the next man and were waiting for something to happen, but Ireland knocked them back all day, slowed the ball down and showed greater physicality in the exchanges. As I said, I was very disappointed with England, but Ireland have to be given credit for that as well.
The scrum, for example, was excellent again. Mike Ross and Cian Healy in the front row, and obviously the rest of the pack as well, looked to dominate from the off and were incredibly powerful and strong in that area. It’s a testament to where the Irish scrum has come, but it has to be said that Ireland struggled a little when Ross was taken off and his irreplaceability is something the management will have to be aware of going forward.
Regrets? Ireland will have a few
Looking back at the tournament, I think the Irish team will probably rue some of the losses, obviously the Wales one in particular. For me, that match was very disappointing in terms of Ireland’s lack of assertiveness, whereas against France, indiscipline was the issue. Maybe because of what happened in the Wales game, they learned where their strengths lay when they faced England and you would hope that they would take that on board in the future.
You’d like to think that Ireland have shown that they have the potential to do well come the World Cup. They certainly showed they have the ability to produce a big performance at home, but they are going to have to do it in New Zealand in the autumn. When you look at what Italy have brought to the Six Nations this year, they’re certainly going to provide a tough game in the pool stages.
I think something else worth bearing in mind is that Ireland can’t spend the four warm-up games they have prior to the competition to get their game in order; they will have to deal with and react to the issues in hand quicker than that.
Hopefully, this tournament will really have stood to them in that regard. You always want to finish the tournament well and they certainly did that. It will be a massive confidence boost for the squad and it should get the media off their backs for a while as well!
LISTEN: You Must Be Jokin’ podcast – listen to the latest episode now!
