England’s dreams of winning the 2026 Six Nations were all but extinguished as they were well beaten by Ireland on Saturday afternoon. After falling victim to a frustrating Calcutta Cup defeat last time out, England missed their opportunity to get back to winning ways, with many of the same issues cropping up. Steve Borthwick’s side were slow to start on return to TW1, and were once again punished by Ireland’s surgically precise attack, which, once it got going, was extremely difficult to stop.
