ENG 21-10 IRE- The Billy Vunipola show!

Eddie Jones has had, arguably, the easier of introductions to England coach life having had Scotland and Italy as his two first opponents. This week, however, put him up against the reigning champions Ireland and I think the whole of Europe was looking at England to see if they can beat the big boys in the 6 Nations.

Well, they showed they could still play against the big teams, even if Ireland are riddled with injuries at the moment.

ENG 21-10 IRE.

It's a scoreline that probably is a fair evaluation of the match. 

Ireland did look a little lost without many of their usual starters and England did look inspired by the Twickenham crowd. 

But what can we take away from the match as whole?

Well I think the win is the first thing to look at. Regardless of Ireland's struggles in this year's 6 Nations, they are still the team to beat and England did this with relative ease. This isn't to say the win was easy but England certainly looked like the probable victors throughout the match. They looked creative, confident and powerful in defence and well structured. But regardless of the entire team's performance there's only one man who can be talked about.

Billy Vunipola.

What a performance from the Saracens number 8!

By the end of the match his carries added up to around 100 meters! That's to say that he single handedly carried, smashed, demolished and ran the entire length of the pitch in just carries. It was incredible to see. If you didn't see the game then watch it just for his performance. The Irish defence looked genuinely confused into how he was still powering through, even when they threw everything at him. There were moments when two or three players who assigned to taking him down but still he'd make 10 meters in gainage. I have to admit that I used to think that Ben Morgan was England's best number 8 but after that game there's only one man for the 8 shirt with England.  

Two other notable performances were from Anthony Watson and Mike Brown, the pair of them being massively influential on the scoreline having both scored tries. 

The highlight for me though was something that was slightly overlooked by the highlight reel as most, understandably, discussed Billy Vunipola's performance.

The tackle from Jack Nowell in the last quarter of the match, for me, sealed our win and was one of the greatest displays of defensive work I have ever seen in an England match. 

Jonny Sexton broke free on the right wing and then smartly offloaded the ball to Robbie Henshaw who looked to be in the clear as he past the 22 meter mark in a shot of green and white. But just as he approached the tryline Jack Nowell who had been on the opposite wing comes flying into view and smashes in Henshaw's waist and just does enough to force the Irishman to spill the ball just centimetres from the strip of white paint that was the tryline. There was a little confusion into whether it was a try or not at first but by looking at Henshaw's expression, the result was pretty obvious. 

If Nowell had not made that tackle then the last 5 or so minutes would have been a very different story and I could be here moaning about a loss rather than praising a win. 

Overall I was incredibly happy with the England performance. All that lacked was that cutting edge to them which if they did have would have meant the result could have been well into the thirties and beyond. 

A little tidying up and Jones' England could be the force he so wants them to be.