Borthwick’s bold plan crumbles to dust in Dublin

Steve Borthwick has a good poker face despite the scars left by a second-row life.

He doesn’t have many tells, keeping his emotions under tight rein and his thoughts to himself.

But Tuesday was no bluff.

Borthwick challenged Ireland to prove his mistake by naming his team two days early, putting his cards on the table.

England chose debutant Cadan Murley on the wing and placed Ben Earl, Tom Curry, and his twin brother Ben in the back row, keeping the match at fly-half and Freddie Steward at full-back.

The decision was intended as a win-win situation, a slam dunk for Ireland’s speed with a nuisance ground game, and to cover their attack defensively.

For 40 minutes, Borthwick’s plan paid out.

England opened the scoring early on with a kick that was recovered by Smith, Ollie Lawrence, and Henry Slade’s adorable grubber.

Earl and the Twindaloo – Sale fans ‘ nickname for the Curry brothers – were causing Ireland’s attack indigestion.

As potential attackers were drawn in to secure the supply lines, they steam into the breakdown, bringing the ball into slow motion.

The defence was up flat and fast, scattering Ireland’s attacking patterns. And by shortening the line-out – a potential area of weakness – they thinned out Ireland’s thicket of jumpers.

With no other choice but to score an Ireland try, new skipper Maro Itoje exhibited his captaincy smarts by making sure Ben O’Keeffe heard and saw Tadhg Beirne’s sly hold of his leg.

It was promising.

England advanced 40 minutes, five points clear of the break in each Six Nations game from last year.

It could have been even better.

They were hobbled by Smith’s sin-binning for 10 minutes.

Ireland only managed to score on that power-play after some brave defense as James Lowe fumbled off Alex Mitchell like a wet cagoule to put in Jamison Gibson Park.

The Aviva jangled with nerves at the interval.

Memories of 2019, when an unfancied England side plotted the perfect opening-day heist to derail Ireland, suddenly seemed more vivid.

They say you go bankrupt two ways, slowly, then all at once. That was exactly how England’s plunged into scoreboard red.

Bundee Aki ran away from the pressure of a high ball and lost her balance as a result.

England were taken out of the Ireland 22m by Slade in the back of Mack Hansen by two needless pushes, one of which came under the lineout by Itoje at the lineout.

Hugo Keenan was caught in the air by Chandler Cunningham-South off the bench, and Beirne was the only one to score for Ireland with a 20-10 lead.

Another high ball was fluffed by Murley, and Harry Randall’s shanked a box-kick straight up in the air, adding more errors. Ireland chopped, changed and charged away to victory.

England’s replacements, by contrast, couldn’t add impetus.

Having seen his bold plan promise so much and deliver so little, Borthwick pointed to Ireland’s greater depth of experience.

He described his own team as “watching a team that is learning how to really move the ball and develop our attack.”

“Ultimately we came up short, but I think there’s elements we’ll take and build that show the progress.

Ireland also benefit from a coherence that comes from four provinces, compared to 10 Premiership clubs.

The biggest structural issues are those, but test rugby is a maze of elaborate plans and tiny details that require coaching to extract.

And there are plenty of problems that fall firmly in the Borthwick’s in-tray.

Most pressing is England’s inability to deliver an 80-minute performance.

The conditioning expert Aled Walters, who left England for Ireland last year, will have enjoyed watching his current team outshine his former one, who watched from the sidelines.

If it is an issue around the quality of players, rather than their conditioning, is the bench right?

Should those fringe players have had more run-out in the two meetings against Japan this year if it’s more about experience than quality?

As it stands, two wins over the Brave Blossoms are England’s only victories in their last nine matches. Under Borthwick, England’s winning percentage is less than 50% after two years in the job.

France, buoyed by Antoine Dupont’s return and experience of a 53-10 win on their last visit to Twickenham, loom next weekend.