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TIME FOR CHANGE 
England 33 - Ireland 10
Eddie O’Sullivan has reached the end of the road as coach.
End of an era? It had all the trappings of exactly that at a drizzly
Twickenham on Saturday. Ireland lost to England for the first time in
four matches and posted their worst showing in the tournament since the
Five Nations became Six back in 1999 but it wasn’t necessarily the
23-point defeat that warrants O’Sullivan’s sacking, nor the
performance.
It’s a combination of 13 below average performances in a row dating
back to Ireland’s summer tour of Argentina and the fact that the
coach, fairly evidently, has lost the confidence of his players. To put
a favourable slant on it he’s simply been there too long. There’s
a sense that had O’Sullivan been culled two-and-a-half years ago
after an abject November in 2005 that this group of players would have
a lot more to show for their talents than a trio of fairly meaningless
Triple Crowns.
But there’s little point in looking backwards and you can only hope
that the IRFU now have the necessary bottle to tear his four-year contract
extension up into tiny pieces. Word around Twickenham was that O’Sullivan’s
contract had a performance-related clause that would be triggered some
time this week and that the coach would be out of a job by next weekend.
Let’s hope they don’t even wait that long because this talented
bunch of players deserve a new coach with fresh ideas applicable to the
modern game. We saw, in brief patches, how dangerous a playmaker Ronan
O’Gara can be when granted the opportunity to use his full range
of skills and also that in Rob Kearney and Luke Fitzgerald Ireland have
a couple of runners a good deal more dangerous than anything England had
to offer.
Indeed the very fact that we learned those things from the game proves
that the players were playing to their own tune and not O’Sullivan’s,
particularly in the game’s opening half.
The Irish coach we know well at this stage would never have sent his team
out with the ambition they showed in the game’s early stages and
it’s clear that O’Gara’s input was most influential
in how Ireland played the game. They got the just reward for their daring
early on when Rob Kearney crossed for a cleverly-worked try in the left-hand
corner on four minutes and once O’Gara landed the conversion and
a further penalty moments later Ireland were 10 points up and good value
for it.
England had hardly laid a hand on Ireland at this point but then Danny
Cipriani got his grip on the game. The young England out-half was easily
the game’s outstanding performer, making everything look wonderfully
simple with his effortless distribution and composed decision making.
It was from one such outstanding offload from Cirpriani that put Nick
Easter through a hole in Ireland’s defence and only for an opportunistic
interception from Kearney, England would have been over the line. The
out-half did land a penalty minutes later to get his side on the board
and there was little surprise when they breached Ireland’s line
just before the 20-minute mark.
It started with a soft break from Paul Sackey up the centre and some 10
phases later, after the Irish defence had been drawn left and England
shifted the ball right, the same player popped up on the end of a Balshaw
pass wide-right to run in.
Cipriani’s conversion levelled the score and right on the half-hour
mark the England out-half revelling in his role as starting No. 10 slotted
a second penalty between the sticks to give his side a three-point lead.
It was a lead they took into the interval despite Ireland enjoying a bit
more territory in the half’s last 10 minutes and one the home side
extended immediately after the interval when Stuart Dickinson —
not for the first time in the game — penalised Ireland at the breakdown
and Cipriani knocked his third penalty between the sticks.
O’Gara had a chance to cut that lead back to three on 50 minutes
but the out-half’s penalty drifted wide of the right hand post and
Ireland’s early second-half pressure, initiated by some fine, fearless
running by Kearney and Fitzgerald, went unrewarded.
Cruelly though, not only did that five minutes of adventure go unrewarded,
Ireland were also punished for not making the most of it soon after. From
a scrum wide on the left on the Irish 22 England swung the ball right
through the hands of their backs and blood sub Matthew Tait brushed past
a confused Kearney near the touchline to cross for the try.
Cipriani even managed to land the conversion despite slipping such was
the day he was having and the 13-point difference looked terminal for
Ireland. That’s exactly how it worked out.
On 70 minutes Jamie Noon bashed his way over the Irish line from 10 yards
after England explored the blind side off a scrum and in the dying minutes
Cipriani brought his tally to 18 points with his seventh successful kick
of the game. O’Sullivan emptied the bench in the game’s final
minutes and with any luck it will be his last act as Irish coach.
The time has come for a change. |
