This one was hard to watch – and it’s still hard to write about a couple of days later. Ireland were taken apart at scrum time in a disappointing game with England dominating the second half to win 30 – 9 at Twickenham on Saturday evening.

It was one of the worst scrumming displays that I’ve witnessed, certainly at international level, with Ulster’s Tom Court and Leinster’s Mike Ross completely outclassed at tighthead and while Court may be the focus of attention for Ireland’s woes (primarily due to Court’s calamity being camera side in the second half, Ross was just as bad in the first, it just wasn’t as obvious) it has to be remembered that it takes eight players each side to form a scrum and the rest of the Irish pack don’t come out of those sorry affairs with much credit either.

What disappointed me most throughout the whole sad and sorry affair was the complete lack of dog and nous in the Irish pack to sort it out, in the words of Brian Moore it was a “manshaming” and the Ireland pack were woeful in their response.

The writing was on the cards for Ireland as England took the lead with a penalty from the first scrum.

With both sides struggling to hold on to the ball Ireland came close with Rob Kearney rattling the upright with a long-range drop-goal attempt but Ireland equalised soon after with Sexton slotting over a simple penalty.

England continued to enjoy dominance at the scrum and their next points came from Eion Reddan straying offside at the set piece for Farrell to knock  the penalty over but just after Ireland’s Ross went off injured, after a torrid time up front, Ireland hit back with Johnny Sexton slotting over his second penalty, after Donnacha Ryan forced a penalty in a ruck, to take the half time score to 9 – 6.

The next forty minutes were hard to watch.

Any scrum in the Ireland half was a likely scoring chance for England and soon enough Farrell knocked over his fourth penalty to take the lead to 12 – 6 after another collapse. However both teams struggled to hold on to the ball and Sexton reduced the deficit to three with his third penalty but it was only a temporary blip in England’s dominance of the second half.

Owen Farrell played for territory with any mistake from Ireland a likely scoring chance and it wasn’t long until the inevitable penalty try came after a series of scrums on the Ireland 5 meter line.

The next scrum brought a penalty and England were cruising at  22- 9 and with Ireland in total disarray at the next scrum in their 22 England scrum half Ben Youngs took a quick tap from the inevitable penalty and darted over as the Irish forwards licked their wounds taking the score to 27 – 9

With time almost up Farrell popped over his sixth penalty in the closing minutes to take the final score to England 30 Ireland 9.

IRELAND: Rob Kearney, Tommy Bowe, Keith Earls, Gordon D’Arcy, Andrew Trimble, Jonathan Sexton, Eoin Reddan, Cian Healy, Rory Best, Mike Ross, Donncha O’Callaghan, Donnacha Ryan, Stephen Ferris, Sean O’Brien, Jamie Heaslip. Replacements: Sean Cronin, Tom Court, Mike McCarthy, Peter O’Mahony, Tomas O’Leary, Ronan O’Gara, Fergus McFadden.

Hopefully the match will prove a rude awakening for the IRFU who have got their targets for Ireland completely wrong through the Kidney and O’Sullivan with the short term goals resulting in the deifying of the chosen few rather than on trying to build a complete squad of players capable of stepping up to international level.

However not all the fault lies with the IRFU and the provinces should take a fair proportion of the blame with their continual search for success often at odds with the development of the national team. Not only have all the provinces brought in foreign players in key positions, it’s four years since Ulster had a first choice Irish qualified tighthead, but also, I believe, the likes of Ulster and Leinster were trying to get the Irish U20’s withdrawn from this seasons U20’s Junior World Championship in South Africa, denying the youngsters the chance of international development just so they would be available for a couple of RaboDirect games at the start of next season!

It’s easy to gloss over or miss direct the Ireland issues with claims of provincialism in selection and, while familiarity with certain player has led to unwarranted extended careers for a few,  the counter argument is that the provinces have failed to develop their home grown talent to the required standard.

There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth back in December when the IRFU announced  their proposed restrictions on non-Irish eligible players with an overwhelmingly negative response from the provincial supporter. And while I agree the whole process could have been handled better the Front Row Union were one of the few stating support at the time.

To me this is a forward thinking and proactive move by the IRFU and it’s certainly one that calls the bluff of the coaches and development officers across all three provinces. It has been too easy for coaches to deny young Irish players meaningful game time by buying in “talent” to fill areas of perceived weakness and the move should force money, time and effort to be spent on developing our youngsters to fill key areas across the team. Surely it is much better option try to divert some of the hundreds of thousands of pounds and euros, that go out of the Irish game in the back pockets of foreign players, on a season by season basis, back into the local game.

I do giggle though when I think that an ex Aussie shot-putter may be the catalyst for change for the Irish game!