For all that the road to a potential record-breaking third consecutive championship is still laced with danger, taking out one of their main rivals England has given Ireland huge momentum heading into next weekend’s trip to Edinburgh to face a Scotland side who opened their tournament with a 31-19 win over Italy. Concerns about life without Andy Farrell were eased for now at least, as interim head coach Simon Easterby guided Ireland to a crucial bonus point victory in his first game in temporary charge. Farrell was at the Aviva Stadium in his role as Lions head coach, and the Ireland boss will have been pleased by the manner in which his players dug deep, even if the sloppy errors that were a hallmark throughout November were evident again at times here.
Those mistakes alone will ensure no one gets ahead of themselves. Ireland will feel as though they left plenty of scores behind them, but their four tries, courtesy of Jamison Gibson-Park, Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan, were of the highest order. Ireland’s bench made a big impact, and Easterby deserves credit for looking to it as early as he did, with Dan Sheehan, Jack Conan, Jack Crowley and Robbie Henshaw all helping to get the job done.
The only real negative was Ireland losing Finlay Bealham to a second-half injury, which meant a Six Nations debut for Thomas Clarkson, but with Tadhg Furlong (calf) and Tom O’Toole (suspended) already ruled out of the Scotland clash, Easterby now has serious concerns at tig.