David Corkery on rugby: Ireland need to shut up Eddie Jones and England

HOW quickly people forget.

Less than four years ago the bold, arrogant yet entertaining Eddie Jones labeled the Irish rugby team as the “scummy Irish” and now all of a sudden, he views them as “the most cohesive side in the world”. 

He has also installed them as favorites for Saturday’s Six Nations showdown at the spiritual home of English rugby, Twickenham.

Jones’s controversial comment had arisen a few days out from Ireland’s 2018 visit to London to take on England in an attempt to complete a Six Nations Grand Slam and Jones was bitter that Ireland had stopped England from achieving the very same feat the previous year. On that day he also had a go off the Welsh identifying their country as “a little shit place”.

So, when Ireland beat them a few days later and completed their historic season, Jones was left with a massive amount of egg on his face, and it was so satisfying to see that both Jones and the English Rugby Football Union were made to unreservedly apologise to us and our Welsh cousins.

I guess a lot of water has passed under the bridge since then and lots of coaching and playing personnel have come and gone on both sides of the Irish sea, but do not be fooled by the mind games Jones loves to play, especially when he refers to Ireland as having the favorites tag pinned to their dressing room door.

Jones may be Australian by birth but has spent enough time in England for his blood to have been transfused with the egotism that makes English rugby the brand everyone wants to emulate but also loves to hate.

I can promise you that Jones, his players, and every one of the English backroom coaching ticket will categorically believe they can blow this Irish team off the park because their DNA will not allow them to think any other way.

Just like the enhanced performance that Munster get from playing in Thomond Park or France receive when they run out on the spiritual turf of Stade de France, so too will England feed from the compressed and impenetrable atmosphere that Twickenham produces. If Ireland are not prepared to stand toe to toe and find a way to feed off the adverse setting, the rose will blossom and bloom, and the shamrock will wilt and die.

If we are to believe the number-crunchers, England have the worst scrum in this year’s tournament and out of all the positives that Ireland hold going into this game, I believe they will look at the power of their scrum as one of their top armaments.

DEPTH

The unavailability of powerhouse Andrew Porter because of injury is not great timing. Yet his absence will be a good test of Ireland’s reserve front row replacements and as the front row is one of those positions where like-for-like cover is non-negotiable, Andy Farrell should look at this opening as a positive rather than a hindrance. It will allow for him to mix and match and give some priceless international game time to Finlay Bealham and Dave Kilcoyne.

The head-to-head between the old and wise king Johnny Sexton (36), and the young prince Marcus Smith (23) will probably be one of the main side shows tomorrow and whilst we would like to think that Sexton's incredible inventory of knowledge and experience will give Ireland another advantage over the auld enemy, Smith is very quickly becoming a world-class player.

Only a fool would think that Ireland won't test Smith very early on by sending someone like Bundee Aki or Tadhg Furlong directly down the young fly-half's channel. Smith has had to deal with this kind of attention before and whilst he is not the biggest man in the world, he is well able to handle himself and where possible he will have one of his big-hitting forwards standing very close by to aid him in the contact zones.

A large part of Ireland’s transformation under the guidance of Farrell has materialised through the rapid-fire passing of the ball from scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park.

Thankfully long gone is the slow and methodical approach to playing the game that Joe Schmidt looked to instigate and while his gameplan was successful and worked for a reasonable period, it was never going to be sustainable without constant alterations and it didn’t take long for the other coaches to find it’s measure.

England are undeniably a team that are in a transition period and without the bulk of players like Manu Tuilagi and brothers Billy and Mako Vunipola, their once irrepressible methods of making holes in opposing defenses are rather restricted. 

Maybe Jones has some kind of masterplan up his sleeve that will be ready for the 2023 World Cup, but from what I’ve seen of them this year they are the second poorest team in the competition.

Unless England get the rub of the green early on and Ireland have a Murphy’s Law Day, I truly believe that Sexton and co will beat this English side that seems to be lost in trying to identify a successful way of playing the game.