After three games of the Championship, we are languishing second from the bottom of the table, just above Italy, with a solitary point after three games and left to wonder whether the glass is half-full or half-empty.
When you include our Rugby World Cup exit to Argentina, Ireland have accumulated three losses, and just one draw, from our past four games. From a distance, it may seem as if we have returned to the darker days of the Nineties when the glass was neither half-empty nor half-full and when we were just happy to have a glass. But that would be a wildly inaccurate framing of our position in the rugby world.
The injury situation has been a constant narrative throughout this Championship, and understandably so. The new caps CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier, Ultan Dillane and Stuart McCloskey have acquitted themselves well and that is a positive development. But it is ironic that the injury crisis has forced the hand of the coach into introducing some fresh blood. If Peter O’Mahony, Seán O’Brien, Mike McCarthy and Jared Payne were fit, it is unlikely that the newbies would have seen much game time.
“The defence in the first half last weekend was excellent, at times heroic
As Joe Schmidt is discovering with Ireland, developing depth in the squad is, more often than not, through necessity rather than design. As expected Mike Ross, Cian Healy and Keith Earls were parachuted back into the team for Twickenham as soon as they were available. With selection, pragmatism always trumps romanticism.
But to the coach’s credit he has chosen wisely with the new caps that he has introduced, and they are certain to feature again in the future with Ireland, even after the walking wounded return to full health.
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In this Six Nations, the set piece has had mixed fortunes but not as we had expected. The scrum has proven to be an Achilles heel for Ireland against Wales and France. We were expected to struggle against England but fared much better apart from one poor, albeit important, scrum near the end of the game. But that could have been down to a one-off lack of concentration, fatigue or both.
But it was at the line-out where we really came unstuck against England. Previously it had seemed that Devin Toner had managed a seamless transition from Paul O’Connell in his line-out calling. Against Wales and France we were rock solid in this department. But last Saturday, the line-out creaked badly at crucial times in the game. Did England figure out our system? Did Toner make some bad calls? Or was Rory Best’s GPS off? It is difficult to say, but the bottom line is that this is an area of concern for the first time in a while.
The defence in the first half last weekend was excellent, at times heroic. Holding the score to just six points for 40 minutes was an extraordinary achievement, given the possession and territorial dominance that England enjoyed. Eddie Jones will not be happy with the three or four opportunities they butchered in the opening 40 minutes.
But in the second half, England scored two tries in just five minutes. This killed the game as a contest but also raised the spectre of Ireland’s defensive vulnerabilities which arose against Argentina in the Rugby World Cup.
Maybe it was the cumulative pummelling that we endured in the first 40 minutes that wore out our defence in the second half. But the English tries, when they arrived, were clinical - and we looked helpless to prevent them. If not an immediate concern for the remainder of the tournament, it is certainly a concern in the long term.
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In attack Ireland passed the ball more than we have done since the final day of the Championship against Scotland last season.
At times it could be argued that we passed too much and played too much in our own half. Maybe the jibes from Jones about our over-reliance on kicking may have goaded us into running from so deep. But that is unlikely. From the backrow Schmidt selected, we were set up to run for the get-go.
Unfortunately, our running game never really caused England too much discomfort. We created an impressive early line break from deep with a pre-rehearsed set move. But there was a hint of blocking and when we repeated the move later in the half, the referee, Romain Poite, called a penalty for obstruction against Robbie Henshaw on Owen Farrell.
Other than that, and throughout the game, we struggled to break England down from deep, which allowed them to keep their back three intact, and mop up Ireland’s kicks with a fair degree of comfort. A lot of those kicks were neither fish not fowl. Too far to be contestable and too shallow to pin England back. Plus they brought England onto us when they counterattacked and that demanded long periods of lung-bursting defensive sets.
Ireland did have their moments in the second half - Henshaw, Van der Flier - but we never delivered those threats consistently enough to deliver a game-winning performance.
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So is the glass half-empty or half-full? Well, like any complex question in life, it depends on which part of the glass you are referring to.
Yes, we have blooded some new, exciting players into the squad; but now with the Six Nations a beaten docket, should we continue with building depth into the squad for the remainder of the tournament? Is it time to introduce Garry Ringrose and others to the fray and let them cut their teeth in the full cut and thrust of the Championship, albeit against the two weakest teams?
The coach has asked for patience as he believes “we are not a million miles away”. Inevitable victories over Italy and Scotland will follow, but that will hardly change the trajectory of the team’s development. Should he decide to take the opportunity to use the two final games to deepen the squad, then that would certainly go some way to leaving us with a fuller glass.