Opinion: Marcus Smith drop-goal 'did more than win a rugby match ...

When Marcus Smith swung his right leg with the final play of the game he did more than win a rugby match for England.

More even than save this Six Nations tournament from giving up its silverware a round early and, with it, public interest in a sport needing every eyeball it can get.

Smith‘s ice-cool drop goal at a stroke stopped the negativity surrounding rugby’s richest and best resourced nation and bought Steve Borthwick and his coaching team precious breathing space.

Twickenham faithful delighted

This was supposed to be the day that confirmed England were no match for the best in the business. That a sell-out crowd walked away from Twickenham having enjoyed nothing more than Rag n Bone Man’s half-time set.

How different the picture looks now with England second in the table and with an outside chance of pipping Andy Farrell’s team to the title on Super Saturday.

These are the fine margins of professional sport yet such a scenario seemed a million miles off when the Irish arrived as 6/1-ON favourites.

There would have been a few in attendance able to remember when Ireland were seriously ordinary, 25 wooden spoons in the Five Nations era a total not even Italy has caught up with yet.

Fans who looked at this fixture and thought of Dean Richards powering through Ireland for two tries on his debut in 1986, Chris Oti shredding the green defence for a 10-minute hat-trick two years later.

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For them there will always be the heart warming memory of Martin Johnson’s red carpet obstinance in Dublin in 2003, giving way to a Grand Slam in arguably England’s greatest display in this grand tournament.

But this fixture has long since resembled something very different, heavily lopsided in favour of an Irish nation improving with every passing year of professionalism.

The last four games rather summed that up, Ireland winning the lot, scoring 15 tries to four – while England had three players sent off.

Maybe Borthwick’s men had just had enough of the flak, of what increasingly felt like indifference to their fate. Or maybe the penny had finally dropped in training that you have to master attack as well as defence.

Perhaps it was a bit of both.

Either way, this was an England side unrecognisable from all but the first 10 minutes against Scotland.

The muddled thinking and flawed execution of the first three rounds replaced by clarity and the sort of cohesion we had come to associate with the team in the away changing room.

It started with England’s very first attack, George Furbank cutting a mean diagonal to expose the Irish right flank, Tommy Freeman running a hard line to take out Calvin Nash then Furbank rejoining the onslaught to put Ollie Lawrence away in the corner.

Ireland are not easily rattled but needed the best of Josh van der Flier to keep their line intact as England quickly came again.

This was not what the bookies had banked on. They foresaw the Irish running amok, not flattened on the gain line by George Martin and Ollie Chessum.

They anticipated the magic coming from Farrell’s men, not England bringing energy and innovation, intensity and the sort of hard-nosed defiance their fans had waited all tournament to see.

Lawrence again saw opportunity in the left corner, this time posting a tantalising grubber behind the green line. Furbank was onto it in a flash, contesting the ball with Ciaran Frawley until it squirted loose for the Bath centre to snaffle and score.

England’s enterprise deserved the try but TMO Ben Whitehouse adjudging Furbank had spilled it forward knocked their momentum.

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George Ford pushed a penalty he would have expected to land, Jack Crowley landed his third and fourth and Ireland found themselves ahead at half-time.

You’d have thought they would be happy but Farrell’s body language as he exchanged blunt words with Borthwick on the way to the changing rooms betrayed his true mood.

It was not immediately apparent as James Lowe dived over in the left corner moments after the restart, expertly touching down one-handed with the rest of his body the wrong side of the touchline.

It put Ireland nine points ahead and had their fans talking excitedly of taking the trophy home with a round to go.

But England simply would not buy into that narrative. It didn’t look like a nine-point game, it certainly did not feel like one.

Martin and Maro Itoje combined superbly to put Furbank away and peg the deficit back to four points.

Peter O’Mahony was sent to the sin bin and scrum-half Jamison Gibson-Park forced to move to the wing as Ireland’s 6-2 bench gamble backfired.

Ben Earl crossing

England now had the bit between their teeth and when Ben Earl slipped out of a tackle from the otherwise excellent Bundee Aki the home side were ahead.

Back came Ireland, Lowe poaching his second through a weak Marcus Smith tackle and when Elliot Daly missed a long range kick it seemed England’s chance might have gone.

Another day perhaps, but not this one. Up stepped Smith, back went his right leg and through the posts went the ball.

So to Lyon. England face France knowing a five-point win combined with an Ireland loss to Scotland could result in Six Nations glory.

That is unlikely in the extreme, but so too were the events of today.

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