Carry on like this and England won’t make it past the World Cup quarters

When trying to analyse and predict how England’s trip to Dublin might pan out before the match kicked off on Saturday, one of the feathers I had in the visitors’ caps was that they were crossing the Irish Sea on the back of two international matches, so they would be sharper and fitter than an Ireland side who had not played together since they sealed the Grand Slam in March. In their first warm-up win against Italy, Andy Farrell selected a largely experimental side.