A whole haberdasher’s worth of experience, led by the peerless Gibson-Park, fairly tormented their younger and more hopeful hosts
So it looks as if it might have been a bubble. England’s 12-match winning run came to a shuddering halt last week, but it was possible to believe that flop might prove a one-off – a chastened Scotland at home, after all, has been the downfall of many an England team.
Well, there are scattered strips of latex all over Twickenham now, England’s balloon more than spectacularly popped by an Ireland side who are hardly afraid of inspirational rugby against this lot themselves.
Just as England had been riding high before last week, so Ireland had been looking a little lacklustre. We thought they might be a team in transition – and they may yet prove to be – but they brought back a whole haberdasher’s worth of experience, led by the peerless Jamison Gibson-Park, and fairly tormented their younger and more hopeful hosts.
England had been the noisier in recent times, the future all theirs, but it turns out there is no substitute for calmness and authority. Henry Pollock, the most obvious embodiment of a brash future, had to bend his knee to Caelan Doris here. It turns out there is a way to go yet.
