Twelve things that made this one of England’s worst Twickenham performances

After 30 minutes, England trailed by 22 points to Ireland. Fans had seen this film before – in defeat by Scotland but also in victory – and they have never liked the ending.

The deficit was insurmountable at Murrayfield last weekend, and so it proved at the Allianz Stadium. The final winning margin of 21 points was England’s joint fourth highest home defeat and the scoreline did not flatter Ireland.

Notwithstanding the result against Andy Farrell’s side, the post-mortem for England will not be an enjoyable one. Fraser Dingwall’s score on the stroke of half-time gave England hope, after Irish tries from Jamison Gibson-Park, Robert Baloucoune and Tommy O’Brien, but things did not improve after the break. England dominated territory in the first half and were on the right side of possession but the visitors dominated and continued to do so after the interval. The victory was Ireland’s largest at Twickenham - and the most points they have scored there, too.

England’s first half was calamitous, with loosehead prop Ellis Genge saying as much to the BBC afterwards: “What do you do? Two weeks in a row conceding so many points in the first 15-minutes. There is a mountain to climb after that and everyone has to take a look at themselves.

“It opened up scar tissue from last week, we have to be better at managing that period and stop turning the ball over. No one knows what the answer is right now or we would have sorted it out.”

Here is a dissection of the English disaster.

Ford misses touch… twice

George Ford – on two occasions – missed touch when kicking for the corner, costing England valuable attacking opportunities. The first time the kick did not have the legs and the second time England’s fly-half kicked it dead. Matters took an almost comically perverse turn later on when the crowd began ironically cheering Ford for finding touch.

Inefficiency in Ireland’s 22

Numerous times England entered the Irish 22 and passes were spilt, sometimes just metres out from the Irish line. This happened repeatedly in the first half and continued after the break. England’s 12 entries into the 22 returned 21 points while Ireland’s nine entries returned 42. Steve Borthwick’s side, generally, were not clean and tidy at the breakdown. In the first half, especially, even when they were winning the ball, it was scrappy.

Line-out woes

England’s line-out struggled against the Scots and there was little improvement against Ireland, especially in the first half. Missed calls, mauls falling apart and overthrown balls all plagued England in the first 40 minutes.

Cowan-Dickie hooked

It is not like Steve Borthwick to hook a player before half-time, but Luke Cowan-Dickie was the fall-guy for the English line-out, with the hooker not even making it the 30 minute mark. Jamie George was brought in to urgently tidy up the line-out and came within inches of scoring soon after his introduction.

Aerial ailments

England have made no secret of the theory behind picking their back three, with aerial ability almost as vital and valuable in Test rugby as speed and finishing prowess. But Ireland got the better of them in the air. Steward showed some nifty distribution at times but elsewhere he was found lacking; similarly, Tommy Freeman and Henry Arundell had little joy in retrieving England’s box-kicks. Baloucoune, O’Brien and Jamie Osborne had a field day, however.

Irish try chalked off

England’s failings in the air could have been highlighted to an even starker extent, with Ireland having a try ruled out for a marginal offence by O’Brien on Steward in the air. Probably a fair call, but had the referee not spotted it live with O’Brien scoring the jury is out on whether the score would have been overturned.

Steward also hooked

Borthwick is not a man for knee-jerk decisions, but another tactical change was made before half-time. Steward briefly returned to the pitch after a yellow card but did not last much longer. The full-back was hooked before half-time and replaced by Marcus Smith. Afterwards, the England head coach pointed to Smith’s game-changing abilities but not even the Harlequin could save England. It was curious, too, that Steward should return from a sin-binning in the 37th minute only to depart in the 39th.

Midfield and edge defence

Ireland stung the English centres, with Freeman also guilty of being out of position, on numerous occasions. Ollie Lawrence will not want to rewatch his attempted tackle of Stuart McCloskey. Although, in fairness, not many Englishmen will want to watch back that first-half defensive display, where England’s tackle success rate was a measly 67 per cent, miles off where it needs to be at this level.

Other than a soft one-on-one missed tackle from Ellis Genge on Doris, the below was England’s defensive nadir (and there were plenty of other contenders). Ireland, already with a 15-point lead, attack England’s right wing. Freeman is nowhere to be seen. He is not even in shot below. 

England at this point are missing their full-back, who is in the sin bin, and clearly there is some concern about keeping the backfield marshalled, but Freeman is still too deep and too slow to react. Dingwall is exposed out wide and also errs by biting in; by the time Dingwall bites and Freeman realises that Ireland are not kicking, it is too late. Ireland are in behind and Baloucoune puts O’Brien over for the visitors’ third try.

Horror-start to second half

England started the match badly, but surely there would have to be a response after half-time? Wrong. Dingwall’s try before the break had given England hope but that disappeared very quickly. Ireland cut through England - with Caelan Doris breezing past Ellis Genge - Henry Pollock was yellow-carded for a breakdown infringement on the English line and then Dan Sheehan scored to extend his side’s lead.

Itoje taken off

For the second week running, England’s captain was removed unusually early. A great servant to English rugby, Maro Itoje’s 100th cap could not have gone any worse for his side. Alex Coles is pushing for a start but, with Itoje out of form, can Borthwick really drop his skipper? A massive call ahead of Rome.

Overplaying

England were chasing the game in the second half and, understandably, began to attack from deep. But the basic errors continued allowing Andy Farrell’s side to add points through penalties and more tries with ease.

England fans walk out

When Jamie Osborne scored Ireland’s fifth try in the 69th minute, a significant number of England fans decided it was time to leave. Fields of Athenry rang out around Twickenham as the Irish fans enjoyed their day out - and a famous victory.

[Source: Daily Telegraph]