Bernard Jackman: ‘Tide turns’ for Ireland as Jack Crowley is one of ‘top-class’ trio to make ‘strong cases to start’ against Scotland

Colin Newboult
Ireland head coach Simon Easterby and fly-half Jack Crowley, and former hooker Bernard Jackman.

Ireland head coach Simon Easterby and fly-half Jack Crowley, and former hooker Bernard Jackman.

Bernard Jackman was impressed with the impact of Ireland’s bench as Simon Easterby made an excellent start on his debut as head coach.

The back-to-back defending champions found themselves 10-5 in arrears at the break, but they scored three second-half tries to blow England away at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin.

Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan all went over after the interval as they sealed an opening round victory over the Red Rose.

Tom Curry and Tommy Freeman did go over late on for the visitors to take some gloss off the scoreline, but it was a fine first match of the 2025 Six Nations for Ireland.

Ireland’s fly-half battle

Jackman felt that the replacements made a key difference, with Jack Crowley particularly shining after coming on for Sam Prendergast midway through the second period.

“Our bench was in general top-class and Jack Crowley and Jack Conan along with Sheehan made strong cases to start next week if Easterby wants to mix things up,” the former Ireland hooker wrote in his Irish Independent column.

Considering the concerns following the Autumn Nations Series and the fact that they were without head coach Andy Farrell, Jackman felt that it was a superb return to form.

“There is something positive for all the Irish coaches in this win. Simon Easterby now has a win in his first match as an interim coach and whatever messages he delivered at half-time certainly worked,” he added.

“I had heard Ireland used their training camp in Portugal to clear up the areas of our game that were frustrating in November and there was a real belief and clarity in what we were trying to do.

“Paul O’Connell had our lineout humming and it was probably the most impressive area of our game overall.

“John Fogarty had to set up our scrum without our cornerstone in Tadhg Furlong and England would have smelt blood but we never gave an inch and Andrew Goodman will be delighted with our trust in our skill-set in attack and the Beirne try was a really well-executed set-piece powerplay.”

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Scotland clash

Ireland claimed the title in 2023 and 2024 but Easterby’s men have another tough encounter on Sunday as they head to Murrayfield to take on Scotland.

Gregor Townsend’s side produced an underwhelming display in their Six Nations opener but everyone knows the threat they pose.

However, Jackman provided a stark warning to the Scots and insisted that the Irishmen can improve on their display from the weekend.

“Momentum in the Six Nations is really important and getting a win over a quality side like England first up is huge. You could see what it meant to our players as they felt the tide turn and I believe we will be even better next week in Murrayfield,” he wrote.

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