Heaslip: England look rudderless

Ireland can take a lot of heart from England's unconvincing victory against Wales, says Jamie Heaslip.

Eddie Jones’ side fell over the line to win 23-19 at Twickenham but were outscored three tries to one and had to rely on the boot of Marcus Smith, who kicked 18 points, to earn their second success in a row and keep their Guinness Six Nations hopes alive.

Ireland host Italy this afternoon at 3pm in Dublin and then face the trip to London in two weeks’ time (live on RTÉ2).

Former Ireland forward Heaslip, a three-time Six Nations winner, told RTÉ Sport: "Wales have done us a massive favour, they’ve exposed a lot of weaknesses in the English side.

"I can’t quite figure it out, it looks like they are trying to come away from a power game that has served them quite well. I don’t know if they have the skillset to develop [that new game].

"We’ll have to ask Eddie that, and we’ll probably get 'it’s all good mate’ or something like that.

"I don’t think the players know the direction they are been given because they look a little bit rudderless on that field.

"Wales didn’t look a whole lot better, they were going side to side but got a lot on the edge.

"Players like [Alex] Dombrandt stood out and Marcus Smith showed he’s up to that level but Ireland will look at that and go ‘let’s just mark the life out of him, they’ll give us space on the edges’.

"The way Ireland play they are going to get a lot of easy metres and back our set pieces."

Fellow 2009 Grand Slam winner Stephen Ferris added: "There’s no fluidity to their attack, their maul doesn’t look good, the lineout didn’t function well.

"Take Marcus Smith out of it and everybody else was pretty average. If they play like that, Ireland will win, simple."

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