Six Nations 2025: Champions Ireland grind through gears against England before finding groove
2025-02-02
Category: sports

It took just one game of their 2025 Six Nations campaign for Ireland to rediscover a quality that had eluded them through all of last autumn - the ability to work themselves into a rhythm.After stumbling out of the blocks in their November opener, a sobering defeat to the All Blacks that cast a long shadow over the remainder of the month, there was a sense that Ireland never found their groove even in subsequent victories against Argentina, Fiji and Australia.Mistakes felt contagious as the harder Andy Farrell's side tried to turn things around, the more they seemed to struggle.In their 27-22 victory over England on Saturday, in contrast, the most pleasing aspect of a marked turnaround by the home side was their ability to problem-solve in real time.Handed a blockbuster fixture to kick off their championship, Ireland started and finished poorly.Yet the team led by interim head coach Simon Easterby were so superior in between that there was a feeling the five-point margin flattered the visitors.In the opening quarter of the Test match, Easterby's side had struggled to get to grips with an English plan designed to slow their ball and knock them from their attacking rhythm.Few at that stage would have predicted they would hold a 17-point lead going into the closing stages."We kicked on," said Easterby, who has stepped in while Andy Farrell spends much of the year on British and Irish Lions duty.He was referring to the 35-minute stretch directly after half-time that yielded 22 unanswered Irish points."We were a bit smarter in the way we played early in the second half," Easterby said, "and that continued for a good chunk of that second half, resulting in a lot of the scores off the back of that."
Switching to the national side from playing for Leinster, as 11 of Ireland's starting side do in their provincial careers, has perhaps not required such a change in style since before Joe Schmidt first pitched up in Dublin 15 years ago.Initially at least, it looked as if going from blue to green was again producing something of a shock to the system.Before his short-term promotion, Easterby served as Ireland's defensive specialist. He cannot have been pleased to see such gaps appearing across the Aviva Stadium pitch through the period that saw Cadan Murley's debut try give the Red Rose a deserved lead.That is not to dismiss England's contribution to Ireland's early struggles.Steve Borthwick's tactic of deploying three fetchers in his back row wreaked havoc on the hosts' breakdown, and England's line speed in defence contributed to the errors that brought several promising attacks to abrupt conclusions."The first half felt like the first round of a Six Nations, which is always tough," said Easterby, whose side trailed 10-5 at the break."There's so much at stake. Everyone has a lot of energyÂ and enthusiasm."It was tough going, because we felt at times we didn't make the most of the opportunities that we had.Â They defended well at times and stopped us getting momentum."
Bench sparks turnaround for hosts 
Rather than allow mistake to beget mistake, as they so often did across the autumn, Ireland moved slowly through the gears before finally reaching cruising speed.Aided by Marcus Smith's yellow card, the men in green were showing signs of getting to grips with proceedings before the turn, but it was only in the second half that they truly looked like two-time reigning champions of this competition.England's Borthwick said it was "hard to quantify" how much the effort expended in negating Ireland in the first half had left his side fatigued but, as their challenge faded, Ireland's energy levels only seemed to rise.England got little from their six-two bench as Ireland's replacements turned the game in the home team's favour.Benefiting from forward depth that meant last year's skipper Peter O'Mahony did not even make the Irish 23, Easterby was able to call upon two players who missed the autumn through injury in hooker Dan Sheehan and back row Jack Conan.Both were superb after coming on in the 50th minute to highlight a quality bench effort across the board."I thought the guys that started laid a really strong foundation and it wasn't easy going. It was tough at times," said Easterby."The guys that came off the bench benefited from the work that had been done in the first 50, 55 minutes."To be fair, the guys that came off the bench were brilliant, they really impacted the game."The two late tries conceded to allow England a losing bonus point will be a source of consternation for Easterby.As will the injury to Finlay Bealham that means, with Tadhg Furlong already struggling with a calf complaint and Tom O'Toole suspended, Ireland could be going to Murrayfield next week with their fourth and fifth choice tight-heads.Of course, Ireland are currently enjoying a 10-game winning run against Scotland, and when they last visited Edinburgh two years ago they needed flanker Josh van der Flier to throw into the line-outs with prop Cian Healy scrummaging at hooker and still managed to come out on top.The Six Nations is often said to be a tournament where momentum is paramount.Having struggled to find it all autumn long, after such an emphatic second half on Saturday, it suddenly feels Ireland have plenty once again.