RESILIENCE & RENEWAL
How Ireland retained their Six Nations crown
IRELAND’S run to back-to-back Six Nations championships was trademark Andy Farrell.
The manager’s First Commandment centres on momentum and, opening the competition on a Friday night in Marseille at the start of last month, his side took a seventh-minute lead and never looked back.
Consider the sliding doors; two traumatised teams needing a boost following a RWC where both exited at the quarter-final stage, Ireland to the All Blacks and hosts Les Bleus to eventual champions South Africa.
Holders Ireland began their 2024 spring campaign with a 38-17 win and their fans will talk of the victory for a long, long time to come, a triumph which came at an exotic location FFR chose as Stade de France was being refitted for this summer’s Olympiad.
Overarchingly there was the implausibility of a 21-point winning margin, the lingering Velodrome’s love for Cranberries stomper Zombie and the city’s best-kept secret, the waterfront bar where they filmed the mezzanine scene with the proposal from Love Actually.
After being smitten by Farrell/ Johnny Sexton’s 2023 Grand Slam and falling out of love on the back of World Cup heartbreak, this was a chance to say ‘I do’ again.
RWC 2023 pain was honed, sharpened, weaponised; Ireland being led up front by Caelan Doris, Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne and behind the pack by Jamison GibsonPark and Bundee Aki. McCarthy, making his first Six Nations start, was Man of the Match.
Victory
Ireland held France scoreless for the last 28 minutes and while there was the expected victory against Italy (36-0), it wasn’t notable for a big score but for keeping the opposition scoreless, an Irish first since 1987 when they beat England 17-0.
That February day against the Azzurri, James Lowe picked up the Man of the Match, the Irish front-row were outstanding — their best performance in 18 months — and rookie out-half Jack Crowley was fitting in more and more.
England 1987, by the way, were wooden spoon fodder; this Italy 2024 would be undefeated for the rest of the Six Nations.
The arrival of the beleaguered Warren Gatland in Dublin — on his way to the 2024 Wooden Spoon — in the middle Six Nations weekend brings out the Jekyll and Hyde in Irish rugby.
We love his giving Brian O’Driscoll an Ireland debut ahead of his Leinster bow, respect the three Six Nations Grand Slams, Heineken Cup and three English Premierships — but there is that dropping of O’Driscoll for the last Lions Test in New Zealand festering... so we are okay with thrashing the former Ireland boss any chance we get.
A callow Wales side were afforded little break or sympathy as, racing into 17-0 half-time lead the prospect of a second win-to-nil was engaging Irish minds, albeit Italian referee Andrea Piardi would take an odd view two minutes after the restart.
Tadhg Beirne was, indeed, in the wrong conceding a penalty but it had been away from the focus of Italy’s attack; Beirne had not prevented a Wales score yet Piardi saw fit to award a penalty try. But for the penalty-try, Ireland would have accumulated 188 minutes without conceding a score; as it stood the clock had to stop at 150 minutes — notable enough by modern times.
Ciaran Frawley had an outstanding Six Nations debut in the fivetry 34-7 win, Aki picked up the Man of the Match (and attracted too much attention from England defence coach Felix Jones, as it turned out), Andrew Porter had his best game for Ireland while Gibson-Park, Dan Sheehan and Doris were truly outstanding.
Warning
Two weeks later, Irish fans in London could have caught Echo & The Bunnymen in Camden’s Roundhouse on the Friday night where the warning was clear in Rescue: “Things are going wrong, can you tell that in a song...”
Ireland’s avant-garde six-two bench split was put under immediate scrutiny as Calvin Nash lay poleaxed on the ground following a fifth-minute tackle on Tommy Freeman, insult added to injury as England’s Ollie Lawrence scores on the overlap as the Irishman lies on the surface.
This sets a domino effect of Irish problems in train; the free-flowing Hugo Keenan moves to the wing, the more rigid out-half type Frawley is now
full-back and he doesn’t work the same lines or patterns.
Crowley is nervous about the back-play calls and keeps it simple.
Enter Jones.
The England defence coach has clearly identified Aki as Ireland’s biggest threat and has a plan to stop him early.
Suddenly, with Keenan marooned on a touchline out on the right, Ireland are ‘only’ using the Plan A, Plan Aki.
Maybe adrenalin-buoyed by his try, Lawrence has a stunning defensive day out and will make 14 tackles.
Aided by his back-row, this stunts Ireland at source (if you watch Lowe’s first try it is Doris who makes the key break through the centre area).
Still Ireland are ahead at half-time, two scores ahead at one point in the secondhalf and ahead with two minutes to play thanks to a second Lowe try but bungle their game-management at the close and Marcus Smith clips over a winning dropgoal (23-22).
Lowe’s two tries are yet another solid return from him, Porter is excellent again, Tadhg Furlong puts in a performance reminding us of why there was a move to have him declared a national treasure 12 months back and Doris was dominant too.
Ben Earl gets Man of the Match and his influence was undeniable; England secured a match they would have lost had Ireland husbanded the end-game better.
The feisty Scots are in Dublin for the St Patrick’s Day weekend finale and the pregame feeling is that they have let themselves down in the previous year’s Netflix documentary with ra-ras along the lines of ‘Ireland don’t respect us’, ‘they think we are soft...’.
Succeeded
You’ve just lost nine in a row to Ireland dating back to 2017, 13 of 14 dating back to 2013, have not won in Dublin since 2010 and now you have succeeded in reminding Ireland not to be complacent!
There is not much in the first-half scramble, Ireland are ahead 7-6 at the break, and Farrell by all accounts calls the attitude to account, ‘don’t you want this enough?’
Ireland fly at Scotland after the break, dominate territory and possession to an incredible extent.
Porter smashes over for a close-range try from a training ground move that, notoriously, never goes right in rehearsal!
Robbie Henshaw and Furlong both get across the line but have the TMO rule out their ‘scores’.
Scotland coach Gregor Townsend admits afterwards he had never seen such ferocious, brilliant, last ditch defending from a Scotland side before, that part of their game had been exceptional, world class.
Gibson-Park, Lowe and Sheehan are the stand-outs on the day but Porter, Furlong and Doris are prominent too while the skipper Peter O’Mahony — with 12 tackles, excellent line-out work and the third best ball carrier in the Irish pack has his best game of the tournament.
He gets to lift the trophy.
Well deserved, one of Irish rugby’s greatest servants.
‘Suddenly, with Keenan marooned on touchline out on the right, Ireland are only using the Plan A, Plan Aki’