We knew that looked familiar…
Boring old Ireland were expected to dig in for a dogfight at Twickenham. England, we were told, would pin Ireland back and try to play on their nerves.
What nerves?
Ireland raced into a 14-0 lead and, even after Elliot Daly had scored, they kept pushing forward; kept attacking. Their reward was a 21-5 half-time lead that effectively sealed their Grand Slam victory.
One of the plays of the game was Ireland’s second try – a smart CJ Stander dive to touch the ball off the base of the post – and it was something England should have seen coming. Joe Schmidt revealed, post-match, that his side first sprung on the English back in 2015, when Stuart Lancaster was their head coach.
Following ireland’s 24-15 win, Schmidt told us:
“We played the identical move against England three years ago in Dublin, and Robbie Henshaw went through and fell over.
“They are the only two times we’ve played it.
“The way they come up defensively we thought it would work again. Sometimes you get double jeopardy.”
Double jeopardy it certainly proved and it took tight-head prop Tadhg Furlong to piece it all together.
Ireland centre Garry Ringrose – who rated 10/10, along with Furlong – commented:
“We’d run that move a couple of times in training, and Tadhg defies logic for a tighthead with how mobile he is and the deft skills he has.
“So I knew I was chasing on the outside of Bundee [Aki], who did exceptionally well to find CJ on his inside, and he too was able to produce a very intelligent finish against the post.”
Robbie Henshaw was one of the injured Ireland players present at Twickenham today and it was only fitting to see him up on the main stage celebrating a Grand slam that he was instrumental in securing.
Henshaw may not appreciate the reminder from memory man Schmidt of a mistake he made back in 2015.
That, in many ways, sums up this team and their coach.
