WHILE LAMENTING THEIR own side’s disappointing performance, the English media were largely impressed by Ireland’s performance at the Aviva Stadium yesterday.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mick Cleary even went so far as to suggest they could win the World Cup — provided Jonathan Sexton stays fit.

“Ireland have Jonathan Sexton,” he writes. “And they have Schmidt. Playmaker and coach as one, an umbilical cord that cannot be ruptured. Sexton is Schmidt incarnate, scheming, assessing and wholly persuaded of the merits of the case as well as the cause.

“That is both Ireland’s greatest strength and their greatest weakness. In clover, Sexton can deliver that World Cup for Ireland. Without him, their prospects plummet. So much is dependent on his prowess. That much was evident on Sunday.”

BBC Sport’s Tom Fordyce also praised Ireland, while suggesting their style was less than sophisticated.

“This was hardly tales of the unexpected. For all the modern alchemy of coach Joe Schmidt, it was an assault familiar from the history books: sleet in the sky, a hail of high balls; out of the traps like rodeo bulls, into the tackle with eyes on stalks.”

Meanwhile, like many others, Dean Ryan in The Guardian chose to single out Ireland’s kicking game.

“Not until Ross departed after close on an hour’s hard graft did England get a nudge on. The Irish scrum won a couple of penalties — one when that was clearly the way they saw of getting themselves out of a bit of rare territorial trouble. Rare indeed, because when Ireland were in a spot of difficulty their exit strategy — getting away from their own line — was as polished as the kicking game which has become a real attacking tool, much as it is for the All Blacks.

“If Sexton doesn’t hoof it away with his right foot, Rob Kearney does the business with his left or Conor Murray takes bite-sized pieces of territory with his box kicking in his burgeoning role as Sexton’s half-back partner.”

Chris Foy of The Daily Mail was similarly generous in his praise of Ireland, suggesting they were the much better team on the day.

“Ireland remain on course to retain their RBS Six Nations title and they will go to Cardiff for a seismic showdown with Wales in the next round as the last remaining unbeaten team. They emphatically deserved to dispatch England, to match a national record with a 10th successive victory. A final-quarter dip could not disguise the extent of their supremacy in most areas.”

In The Independent finally, Sexton again was the man for whom special praise was reserved, with Chris Jones effectively labelling him the best out-half in the world.

“But let us be clear: an English triumph today would have been a travesty. They were outmuscled on the floor, finished a distant second at the line-out at the most important moments and were not even that close when it came to the kicking strategy, all of which led to costly breakdowns in discipline. Only when Sexton, the international game’s finest practitioner of the outside-half’s art, left the field midway through the third quarter with a hamstring injury did the balance of the contest shift towards the visitors.”

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