Squidge Rugby's verdict on England's opening Six Nations win over Ireland is, by his own measure, the highest praise the Red Roses have received in years. It was, finally, a rugby match.
"Often Red Roses games feel like exhibition matches," the analyst said. "It feels like going to watch the Harlem Globetrotters in basketball."
England's 47-12 win in Cork was, on the face of it, a routine eight-try margin against the team most pundits agree is now the best of the chasing pack. Squidge's argument is that the surface scoreline papers over a much more interesting story underneath — both about Ireland's gainline progress and about the early signs of Emily Scarratt's stamp on the England attack.
For a large portion of the game, Ireland kept England scoreless on their own terms.
"For the majority of that game, Ireland had that nil to their name," Squidge noted. "The number one thing I want to give loads of credit to is the English defence. The Sarah Hunter system in this — what I like about it is she is not led too heavily in one direction or the other."
The shift on the Irish side, he argued, is about a quietly transformative coaching appointment that has slipped under the radar.
"Huge credit needs to go to Alan O'Connor, who's come in as forwards coach of Ireland," Squidge said. "He should be on the IRFU's website. Two hundred games for Ulster. What a player. He's come in as forwards coach and is clearly doing a fantastic job, because they looked more physical and up for it. Something had changed about Ireland since the World Cup."
That new physicality showed in passages of play that, in previous seasons, would have ended in England tries.
"They were not getting burned off the gainline either side of the ball," Squidge said. "They were not struggling to contain them. They were physically all over them — and that's a thing teams weren't able to do against the Red Roses for the last few years."
The most novel thread, however, was his analysis of England's attacking shift. England announced before the tournament that long-time attack coach Lou Meadows was leaving for the United States, replaced by former centre Emily Scarratt — who has coached at Loughborough Lightning but never at international level.
"This move here is the most Emily Scarratt-coded thing I've ever seen," Squidge said of one set play that Ireland turned over inside the 22. "The move practically wears a ponytail. So first phase, crash up — Sadia Kabeya comes in on a really nice angle. They set up this next phase, a forward pod who are looking to smash up. And then last second, Ellie Kildunne comes in on the classic Scarratt line — that against-the-grain, cutting in. We've seen Scarratt score off it how many times — the World Cup final even."
The other change, in Squidge's reading, is a kicking philosophy that has stepped sharply up.
"Lou Meadows came in and a big part of her thing was she wanted them to kick more because it opens more attacking opportunities," he explained. "Under Lou Meadows, England kicked on average about 20 or 21 times a game. In this game, they kicked 25 times in play. Their average kicking metres up by from about 550 to about 660."
The deeper question — and the one that excites Squidge as a fan of women's rugby — is whether the global gap is finally narrowing.
"Last year, in order to lose to Ireland, you would probably need 50 mistakes in the game by England," he said. "I think that margin's come down to about 30. Last year, in that last half-hour when England let loose, they looked like the superhumans they tend to look like. Whereas in this game, they played very well — they looked like a very good team of fifteen human-being rugby players."
For the Red Roses, on Squidge's reading, the takeaway is straightforward: job done, time to get better. England face France in France in the championship's final round — a fixture in which the kind of margin-for-error he is describing comes down sharply.
For the women's game more broadly, his takeaway is more loaded.
"This team needs to lose a game," Squidge said. "You need some jeopardy. You can't have a team who goes five, six years unbeaten and expect the sport to keep growing exponentially. You do hit a ceiling when one team is so much better than everyone else."
The Red Roses' next assignment — and the question of whether Scarratt's new system can hold its detail under genuine pressure — is in Bordeaux on May 16.
