Six Nations 2024: ‘Shades of Paris as Ireland’s back-to-back bid crumbles in Twickenham epic’

At the end of 80 minutes of head-spinning Six Nations rugby, as Marcus Smith punched the air in ecstasy and the England fans toasted a win for the ages, it was hard not to be reminded of Paris as the Irish players dropped to their knees in devastation.

France, Italy and Wales all tried in vain, so it was left to England on a hair-raising evening at Twickenham to produce the best performance of the Steve Borthwick era and shatter Ireland’s hopes of becoming the first team to win back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slams.

Now Ireland must soldier through the pain once more. The big difference between Saturday and October’s World Cup quarter-final defeat by New Zealand, of course, is that they still have something to play for.

They were immediately plunged into a gloomy spell of soul-searching after that night at Stade de France, but they have a championship to claim next week.

That would have been easily forgotten looking at the dejection on the players’ faces at the end of an utterly captivating tussle with a rejuvenated England. The championship still means a lot to Ireland, but they wanted it all. They wanted the Grand Slam again and they wanted history.

Without the inspirational figure of Johnny Sexton, the challenge now for Ireland is responding to a first Six Nations defeat since France beat them in Paris in the second round of the 2022 tournament.

While they had four months to recover from the New Zealand loss, an immediate reset is required now, with Scotland – themselves bruised after going down to Italy – coming to Dublin in a week’s time.

“We will learn the lessons quickly and there’s not a problem at all about getting the lads back on track for next week,” said Farrell.

“Six Nations are unbelievably difficult to come by. To win them, you tend to have a lot of ups and downs and you look at the results today and what’s happened throughout this competition, that’s why we love it so much.

“For the neutral as well, that was a fantastic match to watch and we were on the wrong side of it but there will be no problem whatsoever getting back to work next week for a super important week for Irish rugby.”

‘A massive pressure match’

Just as they did in the World Cup quarter-final, Ireland started slowly here. While England were not devastating enough to march out of sight before half-time, their speed and enterprise rattled Ireland and stopped the visitors from settling.

That was evident in the fourth minute when Ollie Lawrence finished off a sweeping English move in the corner. It got the Twickenham crowd rocking and Ireland, in truth, never fully regained their composure.

In the build-up, England’s set-piece and breakdown threats were signposted as potential avenues to hurt the Irish.

And so it proved as Ireland’s lack of discipline was exemplified by captain Peter O’Mahony’s yellow card for cynically gifting England a penalty at a crucial juncture in the second half, giving the hosts the platform for a try which put them 20-17 ahead.

“We spoke about our discipline obviously, it was a big in for them,” said O’Mahony, who suffered his first defeat since succeeding Sexton as Ireland captain.

“I thought they were good, clinical at messing up our breakdown. We found it hard to get consistency in our phase play.

“It was a massive pressure match and massive pressure environment. They’re a quality side and they showed that in spades with the way they defended.”

Ireland’s plan was hit early on. Farrell opted to go for a split of six forwards and two backs on the bench once more, but Calvin Nash’s head injury assessment forced a reshuffle.

Ciaran Frawley came on, with Hugo Keenan moving to the wing, but after Frawley’s unplanned departure in the second half, Jamison Gibson-Park was also used a makeshift winger as Conor Murray took over at scrum-half.

Gibson-Park teed up James Lowe’s second try with seven minutes remaining, but even when Ireland were ahead, it never felt like they had seen off an England side who played as though fuelled by the criticism they absorbed after the 30-21 defeat by Scotland two weeks ago.

Ireland may not take as much criticism as England have in recent months, but the scrutiny will certainly intensify if they fail to deliver the title next week.

Keenan, though, feels Saturday’s experience in south-west London will only strengthen Ireland as they look to restore the positive vibes that have been virtually ever-present around this team.

“That’s what makes them [defeats] so tough, the hurt and that emotional dip after it,” he said.

“You always tend to dig deeper in the reviews and that’s how you get better as a team.

“We’ve been in this situation before so we know what it takes to pick ourselves up.”

For a lot of observers, Sam Warburton included, Ireland missing out on another Slam was unthinkable.

But a chaotic, breathless encounter with England has changed the landscape, and missing out on the title altogether would darken the sky above their heads even more.