AN IRELAND DEFEAT means the calls for players to be dropped will be widespread, as they always are in these circumstances.
Johnny Sexton’s captaincy will come under scrutiny, Conor Murray will be criticised, Jacob Stockdale will be written off, and more will have questions asked of them.
Not that any such arguments don’t have a basis, for this was a poor Ireland performance in the face of a superb one from England.
Ireland boss Andy Farrell is likely to have a measured view of things as he looks to ensure his men bounce back to convincingly beat Italy in two weekends’ time, in turn ensuring that they head into the final of the Six Nations in the running for a title.
The prospect of Ireland winning the championship seems unlikely in the immediate aftermath of a crushing defeat in Twickenham, but the post-match chat from Farrell and Sexton was very much forward-looking.
Cian Healy will be an injury worry for Ireland, though, the loosehead prop having been forced off in the first half.
“He’s a bit sore, yeah,” said Farrell after Ireland’s 24-12 defeat. “He jarred his hip so, like all these things, we’ll see how they settle in the next 24 hours and I’m sure that he’ll have some pictures [scans] somewhere along the line, and we’ll see how he goes.”
Farrell also confirmed that Andrew Conway went for a Head Injury Assessment in the second half, which he passed only for Ireland to decide not to send him back on.
The planning for the clash with Italy will already be underway for Ireland and Farrell will – as ever with this fixture – likely consider it as a good chance to give players who haven’t featured centrally in this Six Nations yet a starting chance.
“We’ll see, we’ll see how people pitch up, who needs a game,” said Farrell of his thinking. “We’ve got people going back to their clubs, we’ve got a fallow week and people will be refreshed anyway. We’ll assess the game and what’s best for the team.”
Having made a good impact off the bench today in Twickenham, number eight Caelan Doris will be hopeful of a start against the Italians, as will his fellow replacements Ronan Kelleher, Andrew Porter, Keith Earls, John Cooney, Ross Byrne, Ultan Dillane, and Dave Kilcoyne.
Most of them contributed to Ireland at least finishing this game strongly as they manufactured a try for Porter in the last play.
“I thought they did really well,” said Farrell of his bench. “I thought we played some decent stuff towards the end but obviously a little bit too late. You don’t want to be playing your best rugby when the game is over really.
“But having said that, you look at the scoreline and it’s pretty important, isn’t it, that we get over for the try.”
Indeed, Farrell is of the belief that every try and point counts as he now looks to ensure a win over Italy leaves Ireland positioned to challenge for the Six Nations title on the last day of the championship.
“As disappointed as we are, we’re in a competition, we are,” said Farrell. “To lose by 12 points, yeah we’ll be realistic and understand the reason why, we’ll take that apart and take our learnings from that.
“The reasons we want the learnings and to make sure that type of first half doesn’t happen again is to make sure that we’re still in with a chance to win the competition.
“That’s the reality. We dust ourselves down, don’t feel too sorry for ourselves for too long and look at the reality of stuff. We’ll see what we can do against Italy.
“If we can perform well, then who knows? We’ll see if we can take it to the last weekend. We’re still in a competition.”
