England 21-42 Ireland
TWICKENHAM STADIUM — England’s worst result in the Six Nations for three years left you searching the Twickenham field for leaders, and wondering what on earth has happened to men with mighty reputations.
For the second week in a row, a shockingly brittle England fell apart almost as soon as their opponents’ foot was placed on their throats.
Last week it was Scotland winning 31-20 at Murrayfield, this time it was Ireland at Twickenham racking up the second-highest points total conceded by England in their home stadium – exceeded only by France walloping England 53-10 here in March 2023.
Where England should have been able to rely on the two 100-cappers in their starting team, they witnessed instead a pair of nightmare performances by Maro Itoje and George Ford.
Ireland are at it again!This time, it's the new man, Tommy O'Brien, who's getting in on the act.England at sixes and sevens… pic.twitter.com/2dYaJaZY0y
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) February 21, 2026Itoje ran on ahead of his team to mark the attaining of his century of caps, but the captain who has been a totem so often for England was hauled off again after 54 minutes, to be replaced by the vastly less experienced Alex Coles.
Itoje’s diminished physicality and energy since he returned from a few weeks off with a knee injury in December, and the mourning of the passing of his mother, and a fearsome workload as British & Irish Lions skipper before that, could be entirely explicable and understandable.
But if so, it was a quandary that was awkward and unresolved by the England head coach Steve Borthwick.
Even less predictable was the loss of composure by Ford as the fly-half messed up not one but two penalties to touch inside the first 16 minutes.
Itoje made his 100th England appearance but was hooked shortly after half-time (Photo: Getty)Putting penalties out for the line-out throw is a banker route to scoring points in Tests; instead, Ford’s inaccuracy allowed the grateful and no doubt astonished Irish to escape unscathed twice in a first quarter they ended up leading 10-0.
The crowd of 82,000, that had plenty of Irish in it, immediately cottoned onto the fly-half’s discomfort and they jeered Ford mercilessly when he belatedly found his touch-kicking range.
It may not have been the respectful way to treat a centurion but “the context of the game” was the “key element”, as Borthwick put it when he was asked afterwards why he had substituted another two long-servers – hooker Luke Cowan-Dickie and full-back Freddie Steward – before the first half was out.
It could be seen as decisive action in the face of Ireland leading 22-0 by then, but it also had the smack of panic at the way a team packed with international nous had alarmingly unravelled.
Ireland are running riot! It's McCloskey with the linebreak and Gibson-Park finds Baloucoune to go over in the corner And to add insult to injury, England are down to 14… pic.twitter.com/Wg2rswLtUb
— ITV Rugby (@ITVRugby) February 21, 2026Borthwick said he sent on Marcus Smith for Steward because Smith is capable of providing points – and maybe that statement is just best left to stand as it is, given Smith was not even in the 23 for the Scotland match.
England also lost their scrum-half Alex Mitchell to a suspected hamstring strain in the first half, to add to the absence of the influential wing Manny Feyi-Waboso, and the pre-Six Nations injuries to first-choice props Fin Baxter and Will Stuart.
Painfully for England’s followers, the rest of their resources have been unable to plug the gaps.
Tom Curry is another world-class player at his best, but the back-rower had been on the bench all season up to now, and when given a chance to start alongside Ben Earl and Henry Pollock here, they and England collectively were second best to Ireland at the breakdown.
Ford struggled to produce his usual inspired kicking game (Photo: Getty)And what of the kicking game? It didn’t work for England in Scotland and they partly abandoned it this week, only to be exposed as bereft of other ideas.
England also gave away penalties under pressure including sin-bin offences by both Steward and Pollard as Ireland made easy ground with direct running.
Steward went off for playing Jamison Gibson-Park behind a ruck, and still Gibson-Park broke away to make the second of the five Ireland tries, by Robert Balouconne.
That was a horrible double jeopardy for Steward, who is surely unlikely to start against Italy and France in England’s remaining Six Nations matches, away from home, with the chance of winning a first title since 2020 gone.
On the Irish side, the tried-and-trusted likes of Gibson-Park, Caelan Doris and Tadgh Furlong did what they know they can do – which it should be said has not always been the case in recent weeks – and they hammered aspects of known English weakness, including Henry Arundell’s defence.
Ellis Genge, the 78-cap England loosehead prop and vice-captain, apologised to the supporters, telling the BBC: “It opened up scar tissue from last week, we have to be better at managing that [first] period and stop turning the ball over. We probably believed the hype from [beating Wales in] the first week too much.”
Genge and all the other disappointing England stars have the next two tough matches to show owning up to the problem is just the first step towards solving it.
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