Simon Easterby's silence said more than any words could.
When the Ireland interim head coach was asked if he was disappointed about letting England in for two cheap tries in the final five minutes of Saturday's 27-22 Guinness Six Nations opener, his response was abrupt: "Yeah."
After spending the previous five minutes giving detailed, engaging answers to the media auditorium at the Aviva, that one word answer was understood loud and clear.
The six seconds of silence that followed hung in the air longer than a Conor Murray box-kick.
Considering the opposition, the stakes, and the reputation of the man he’s filling in for, Easterby will be delighted with Saturday’s win, and performance, which got Ireland up and running in their bid for an unprecedented three Six Nations titles in a row.
After navigating a sloppy first half, Ireland looked back to their very best in the second half as they rattled England for 22 unanswered points, which ensured that even those two late tries for the visitors would only put some respectability on the scoreboard.
With defence being Easterby’s regular brief in Farrell’s backroom team, it irked the interim coach how his side decelerated in the final five minutes to allow Tom Curry and then Tommy Freeman run in for tries, both of which saw Irish players fall off tackles.
While allowing England to rescue a bonus-point from a 27-10 position vexed the Irish coach, it was a day where the positives far outweighed the negatives.
The lineout, which looked disorganised in November, benefitted from an additional jumper in the back row, and produced a perfect 22 out of 22 on Ireland’s throw.
"It’s an area that Paul [O’Connell] and the players have worked incredibly hard at to make sure it’s a strength of ours because it’s never been a real weakness," Easterby said.
"But obviously it was an area we felt we could get better at in the autumn. It was a real strength of ours today, the set-piece in general, our scrum and our lineout was excellent in terms of delivering good quality ball."
The attack was sharper and more focused than it had been for large parts of last year. Three of Ireland’s four tries originated from more than 40 metres out, showing that their ability to score isn’t dependent on lineout ball in the opposition 22.
The out-half situation is now something to be excited about. While Sam Prendergast started slowly, the 21-year-old grew into the game as the first half wore on with incisive passing and decision-making stretching the English defence. Had it not been for poor handling from his team-mates, there could and should have been more than one first-half try.
The Leinster 10 impressed overall, while Jack Crowley drove Ireland on from the bench with a 22-minute cameo. In particular, the Munster man’s kicking game was pin-point, as Ireland targeted Marcus Smith with high balls when he switched to full-back in the final quarter.
Crowley’s performance off the bench was one of several big shifts from the replacements; Thomas Clarkson continued his steady form early in his Test career, Iain Henderson was much-improved from his November form, while Jack Conan and Dan Sheehan were immense.
Sheehan, in particular, was a difference-maker. Two games into his return from an ACL injury, the 26-year-old has scored three tries, and is playing like somebody who was given a rest by his coaches, rather than coming in fresh off a six-month injury layoff.
His try, Ireland’s fourth (below), was the pick of the bunch. Starting off a kick receipt 10 metres inside Ireland’s own half, the hooker started and finished the move, in which he touched the ball three times in just under 20 seconds, covering 65 metres of ground.
The gulf in class between the two benches was impossible to ignore, with Ireland having 509 caps of experience to come into the game in comparison to England’s 81.
And although Easterby gave credit to his reinforcements for popping the lid of the jam jar, he was quick to highlight how his starting XV had loosened it.
He said: "I thought the guys that started laid a strong foundation, and it wasn't easy going, it was tough at times. It was physical, it was what you'd expect from an Ireland-England game.
"The guys that came off the bench benefitted from the work that had been done in the first 50-60 minutes. To be fair to the guys who came off the bench, they were brilliant, they really impacted the game, but I do think the guys who started got through a lot of work.
"That’s what the national side should be about, it should be having enough players to compete in nearly every position and the guys who came off the bench did a brilliant job but the foundation was laid by some of the brilliant work that the lads did up front."
Ireland’s squad depth looks set to be tested further next Sunday when they travel to Edinburgh to face Scotland, who started their campaign with a 31-19 win at home to Italy.
Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Furlong are both doubtful to be available, while Finlay Bealham’s ankle injury and Tom O’Toole suspension means Clarkson (below) and the uncapped Jack Aungier may be tasked with anchoring the Irish scrum as the tighthead options.
Scotland head coach Gregor Townsend still hasn’t beaten Ireland in his career, with the Scots’ last win in this fixture coming in 2017.
But Easterby is expecting Ireland will have to find another gear if they’re to go two out of two in their title defence.
"It’s tough, it’s going to be no different in terms of the physicality and the attritional nature of the game that we saw out there for the first 35 or 40 minutes," he said.
"But the last few years under Gregor, they’ve brought a huge amount of intent in their attacking play.
"And they’re a very good attacking team and make it harder for teams to get momentum because of the way they stick in the tackle and they make it slow. but certainly the way they attack and the way they approach the game is as good as anyone on their day. It will be a big week for us."
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