Six Nations Rugby: Lawrence Dallaglio discusses the latest with Gordon D’Arcy

Lawrence and Steve are joined by former Leinster and Ireland centre Gordon D’Arcy, as they review Saturday’s Six Nations Round 4 contest at Twickenham.
Gordon shares his insight into where England most disrupted Ireland’s game plan, which of the men in white had the biggest impact on the field and how the Ireland team will now be preparing against Scotland in a bid to retain the championship title.
Steve shares the good and the bad of his match day experience at Twickenham, and asks Lawrence to explain his Instagram antics on the final whistle.
Plus the Evening Standard rugby correspondent, Nick Purewal, is on hand to discuss whether England now have to cast off their tag of ‘underdog’ as they face France; who Ben Earl’s post match reaction was aimed at and why Wales should be feeling positive about their campaign despite facing a wooden spoon play off against Italy.
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[@bulltraderpt]

Gordon speaks very very well.

[@MR-tb4po]

Gordon D is sensible and likeable. Good stuff boys

[@jamesmilligan2797]

Players can say what they want, nice to hear honesty in feelings from Earl. After that performance maybe we should call them the worst Endland team ever b4 every game! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@njmayhew]

Gordon D’Arcy is class - nice to have him on. No idea who the guy is calling for whistle to whistle alcohol ban? Go and watch football or stay at home.

[@clayton8944]

Really hoping England can do the business against France , but highly unlikely with Ford and Daly starting . Would have liked to have seen Marcus Smith start , and someone like Roebuck on the wing as Feyi-Waboso is out , to build on the momentum of last week .

[@marcdaniels9079]

Apart from a couple of kicks Ford was absolutely brilliant.

[@clayton8944]

@@marcdaniels9079 brilliant is over stating his contribution .

[@SolarMumuns]

He was exceptional in attack and solid in defence​@@clayton8944

[@stephenreeds3632]

Thank God you don't pick the team. Ford played out of his skin and Smith gave away two tries.

[@clayton8944]

@@stephenreeds3632 what exactly did ford do that was so outstanding ? .

[@kevinwillis6707]

Would like to see Italy beat Wales, they are improving leaps and bounds, Borthwick has picked Daly for waboso, big mistake, and kept ford, I can see France winning and Ireland putting it on Scotland who are really missing tuipolotu

[@carolineneath1295]

Feyi-Waboso is out due to concussion-not replaced

[@kevinwillis6707]

@@carolineneath1295 I know.....and Borthwick replaced him with a guy 5 years past his prime..

[@F6blue]

Preaching journalists? they like dishing it out...

[@Sineadhawk]

What are you talking about .. Gordon was fine

[@stephenreeds3632]

Ok I've only been to 2 6 Nations games but I've never seen behaviour as described. Italy have it sussed by making the drink so prohibitedly expensive.

[@johndevoy5792]

England had to play at over 90% efficiency with huge and laudable emotion, to beat an Ireland team playing at maybe 65 to 70%.

[@Dickie2702]

You do realise that generally teams only play as well as their opposition allow?

[@marcdaniels9079]

Another salty Ireland fan unable to accept that their team got smashed and do were unable to play their game due to English pressure and performance.

[@lizzyhanahoe4197]

Would hardly call it smashed, 1 point in it, drop goal scored when clock was in the red. However well done to England, more dominant on the day.@@marcdaniels9079

[@kevinstreet5709]

Stop it,getting fed up with people saying Ireland "didn't turn up "they were up for it thinking they were going to make history, they played as well as England allowed them to, England left a lot of points on the table

[@Sineadhawk]

⁠ got smashed 😂 what by 1 point in the last 90 seconds . Ireland did play terrible but England also turned up. How can ireland be salty they are sitting top of the table

[@steveworkman4289]

Nice to hear real stuff😅

[@qcsorter4626]

Much as it might pain me to say it, the 6 Nations is a better competition with a strong England.

[@johndevoy5792]

its better also with a strong France, Italy, Scotland and Wales!!

[@Sineadhawk]

I agree as in irish fan.

[@davidwalker2402]

France have been bad but equally so have England (exceptional Irish game) England basing there improvements around a blitz defence which when you look at it they have conceded 2 more tries than they scored if thats the result of blitz defence they either have got it wrong or they need a much better attack. They have scored 83 points less than Ireland and if they lose against France that’s likely to be as high as 100. England need to show up in France big time.

[@Dickie2702]

Little stat for you. It took the South Africans 14 games to get to grips with the blitz defence. England have so far played four and only had three sessions with Felix Jones before the Italy game. I assume patience isn't won of your special talents.

[@davidwalker2402]

@@Dickie2702 I wouldn’t be confident in comparing England to SA and certainly wouldn’t compare there qualified coaches to Englands. My point was simple Blitz defence is not showing huge positives so far.

[@marcdaniels9079]

You seem to have no noticed that the attack is part of the equation when you balance tries conceded versus tries scored 😅. The objective of any defensive system is not based on this ratio whatsoever; it is simply to limit the opponent’s scoring opportunities. 🤦‍♂️

[@davidwalker2402]

@@marcdaniels9079 yes I very much agree but if the net result is your opponent scores more then something is amiss 🤣

[@Dickie2702]

@davidwalker2402 You do know that Felix Jones coached SA blitz defence from 2018 to 2023. That's Felix Jones the current England defence coach. I never made any comparison between SA and England I merely pointed out that it took SA a long time to master the blitz defence relative to how long England have had to master this style. Please don't bother to reply just try reading people's comments and comment on their content rather than trying to skew them to satisfy your narrative.

[@0202sf]

God, that Steve is boring.

[@christoduplessis8177]

Whistle to whistle alcohol ban? Please never bring that up again, that is a terrible idea. People will just arrive at the game way more drunk. Silly.

[@Sineadhawk]

Well it only seems to Happen in England

[@christoduplessis8177]

@@Sineadhawk come watch a rugby game in South Africa and even go watch a rugby game in New Zealand. It happens everywhere. They banned alcohol at school rugby in South Africa (for the parents not the kids) and trust me, from that experience, it is a terrible idea. Just toughen up a little bit, it really isn't so bad.

[@Sineadhawk]

@@christoduplessis8177 nah some people just can’t handle their alcohol unfortunately and ruin it for everyone else

[@christoduplessis8177]

@@Sineadhawk agree. Everyone else doesn't then have to suffer "whistle to whistle" alcohol bans either. That is ridiculous.

[@Sineadhawk]

@@christoduplessis8177 have to suffer .. how desperate are you for 40 minutes

[@MR-tb4po]

I think the assessment by Nick that Earl was full of adrenaline is correct. Bravo. But it amuses me that the other correspondent says “I don’t think any of us called England the worst team in the world” when the “us” is a community of hacks who’ve pilloried, dissected and roasted England for months. So while you may not have murdered anyone, you’ve certainly handed out daily kickings tantamount to attempted murder. England answered the call; have the good grace to admit accuracy of the tradecraft criticism that Earl levelled at you all. Especially when the win got you a night out lol😂

[@demelzajoy4383]

T0 Gordon will well win Against Scotland from Mel J0y from CelBrdge

[@mattp7828]

"Stop selling alcohol once the game starts!" What a stupid thing to say, what do you think the knock on effect of that will? Huge queues at half time and people chucking too many drinks down their necks before the game. Just get the stewards to do their jobs and chuck these idiots out if they won't behave.

[@Sineadhawk]

Well the English always take the piss with it. Just have more stands and beers ready poured . Other stadiums do it. Not that hard.

[@nickyd922]

Can't wait for France England. Ireland deserve to win the 6 nations. Wales the spoons.

[@proche101]

I respect Dallaglio, but can someone please sort out the heavy breathing on pretty much every podcast?! I can't be the only one that hears it. One man I don't want breathing down my neck is Dallaglio! lol

[@MR-tb4po]

I’m pretty sure he’s earned the right to heavy breathe after multiple broken noses and cheek bumps winning a World Cup, European Cups and Premierships. It’s like criticising Marilyn Munroe’s feet

[@heyhey5712]

Any truth in the rumours the Scottish team were on the piss in Dublin last night. Finn Russell was spotted on Dame street eating a kebab in the early hours...... Still celebrating their win against England and why wouldn't they.

[@Dickie2702]

Ben Earl is a rugby player, not a diplomat.

[@assess1973]

England won by a point in the last minute at home. Give Laurence a lozenge. France by 20.

[@eoliver437]

🇮🇪 are still going to the 6Nations lads, relax...

[@marcdaniels9079]

Darcy up there with Heaslip as a biased pundit. What is he talking about when he says the script was written for the preceding three weeks and those results were the only way England were able to get up for the game …this progression has been visible and the defence change has been hard to implement and will take more time. Also totally disagree re Earl interview - he has every right to express an opinion and not be a media trained robot. Ireland are an absolutely magnificent team but that doesn’t mean they will or have a right to win every game nor ascribe all losses to their own poor performances. They lost another very close game to NZ in the RWC and made some mistakes in the lineout… it happens.

[@johngarveyire]

Yeah Goode - you're so pro England, not unbiased like all the Irish!

[@johngarveyire]

I'm Irish BYW before I accidently launch anouther wave of blah blah blah - I like Goode, top bloke, just having fun (would never have got selected for an Ireland team, ok , I'm doing it again.)

[@mygoogle1482]

There is no problem with England and there is no problem with Ben Earl‘s reaction after the game. The only problem are all these media people. You create the narratives you create the full stories you create the reactions. So don’t criticise brave warrior for saying what he thought. The rest of us not in the media and trying to make money out of nothing Content had no issue with it. We just saw it as a brave guy who achieved something telling us.

[@stephenreeds3632]

Remember Genge and his sausages remark? There wasn't much fuss about that. D'Arcy.....England managed it and nearly won it. If they have a good Summer tour who knows what might happen next year.