Why Jamie Heaslip's injury played into Irish hands

There had been a lot of talk in the build-up about Jamie Heaslip potentially being dropped to the bench in order to accommodate Peter O’Mahony – whose lineout skills were felt to be much in need after the defeat by Wales. Joe Schmidt had resisted those calls, retaining faith in his vice-captain. The decision was taken out of his hands, though, when Heaslip injured his hamstring in the warm-up.

The enforced change appeared to go down well with the crowd, who roared their approval, and also with the Irish back row. Ireland were noticeably more aggressive in a first half they dominated, winning 76/77 rucks and 74 per cent possession.

In fact, the absence of much of Ireland’s core leadership team – Conor Murray (injured) and Devin Toner (dropped) were also missing, while even captain Rory Best had to leave the field for a bit – did not appear to affect Ireland at all. Even the call-up of Iain Henderson in place of Toner proved inspired, the 6ft5in lock’s extra mobility in the loose seeing him muscle his way over for that first-half try.

How Irealnd's rush defence paid dividends

Andy Farrell’s impact on this Ireland team was hailed in the autumn when they produced high-intensity wins over New Zealand and Australia featuring a noticeable increase in line speed. But there had been murmurings in recent weeks that, while Ireland might be flying into their opponents’ faces, they were not actually conceding fewer tries. On the contrary, they were conceding more.