Arrogant Ireland cheerleaders brought down to earth with a slap

It is unbelievable to think that after one swing of Marcus Smith’s right foot, England can be crowned Six Nations Champions in Lyon next Saturday night, especially given all of the negativity surrounding Steve Borthwick, his team selections, tactics, performances and the overall state of the game in the country.

A bonus-point win over France and a victory earlier in the afternoon for Scotland in Ireland could see Borthwick’s side pull off one of the most unlikely Championship wins in recent years. This is all the more remarkable, considering how deep they needed to dig in the second half to see off Italy by the narrowest of margins in their opening game.

Another second-half comeback was needed to beat a youthful Wales team in their second game, but the knives for Borthwick and his side well and truly came out when Duhan van der Merwe’s hat-trick saw Scotland claim a fourth successive Calcutta Cup victory.

England were the architects of their own downfall at Murrayfield after making 24 handling errors and turning the ball over 22 times, and it seemed that Ireland only had to turn up in South-West London to continue their march towards becoming the first team since England in 1992 to secure a second successive Grand Slam.

It was certainly the case for the Irish media, who have been claiming for over a month that Andy Farrell’s side are without equal in Europe and were going to coast through to the Grand Slam with the breathtaking air of arrogance that they have so often levelled at England and their fans down the years.

Jamie Heaslip - PA

And then you have the talking heads; former players saying silly things in the media in return for a payday. Peter Stringer, who clearly needs to give his head a wobble after claiming no England player gets into the Ireland team, or Jamie Heaslip proclaiming  Ireland would need to go down 13 or 14 men for England to win. Talk about getting ahead of yourself.

But probably the worst piece of cheerleading of the lot was Simon Zebo's ridiculous prediction that Ireland would win by 35 points. Did he honestly believe that, or was the former prankster of the Irish camp just singing for his supper? If he believed that, then the men in white coats will be around shortly.

Maybe Borthwick, instead of giving a Churchillian-style pre-match address to his troops could have just read out a choice selection of the nonsense coming from across the Irish Sea. Then again, Farrell’s team might just have read what was being said and started to believe their own publicity.

For the first 35 minutes, they were given what is known in south-east London as a proper slap, but Ireland, to their credit, kept the scoreboard ticking over, as all good teams do. England were more direct and decisive - and had they been more clinical and not missed a couple of penalties - would have been comfortably ahead.

The second half was equally enthralling, swinging one way and then another before Smith, the poster boy for English rugby, stepped up with a last-gasp drop goal to deliver the kind of knockout blow that is estimated to have earned Anthony Joshua £40 million against Francis Ngannou just 16 hours before.

In the grand scheme of things, it might not have been as significant as Jonny Wilkinson’s World Cup-winning drop goal in 2003 or the three drop goals that George Ford slotted over against Argentina in the World Cup earlier this season, but it could very well kickstart the belief that England under Borthwick can be a force.

But unlike the Irish media - who I understand were pretty crestfallen in the Twickenham media centre after the final whistle - let’s not get too carried away. This is very much a work in progress, but the likes of Smith, Ben Earl, Immanuel Feyi-Waboso, George Martin, Ollie Lawrence, Tommy Freeman, Chandler Cunningham-South and Ollie Chessum certainly have age on their side, and there is no shortage of talent in the English game.

Fin Smith and Jack van Poortvliet are both injured. Freddie Steward, arguably their best player in the first two games, dropped. Then you have the likes of Asher Opoku-Fordjour, Greg Fisilau, and Olly Hartley, who are all hotly tipped to win caps in the near future, waiting patiently in the wings for their chance.

Earl rightly attacked England’s critics after the Ireland win, saying the result wasn’t ‘bad for England’s worst-ever team.’ But anybody who claims this is England’s worst-ever team should look up the 1966 team that didn’t win a game and only claimed a draw with Ireland.

If anything, yesterday’s result has taught me to focus less on social media likes for criticising Borthwick and give him time to prove us all wrong by building a team that gives us regular moments of euphoria like the one we felt when Smith’s kick sailed between the uprights.