Is he serious?
Jeremy Guscott thinks Ireland do not have any world class players. Despite clinching the Grand Slam with a convincing 15-24 win over England at Twickenham, the BBC analyst is not getting swept away in the achievement of Joe Schmidt’s side.
Ireland’s dominant Six Nations campaign has attracted widespread praise for the current crop, including Schmidt being hailed as our country’s greatest ever coach. There has been deserved plaudits for the likes of Johnny Sexton, Conor Murray, Tadhg Furlong and Jacob Stockdale, among others, following their impressive individual performances.
But Guscott, who made 65 England appearances between 1989-99, believes this Ireland team are greater than the sum of its parts, preferring not to shine a light on some of the individual class.
Writing in his column for BBC Sport, Guscott said: “Ireland, arguably, do not have any world class players in their Grand Slam-winning squad. You could argue there are better scrum-halves and fly-halves than Conor Murray and Johnny Sexton who would get into a world XV. Tadhg Furlong is one you would argue less about. But what they do have are 23 players playing very well.”
We’re going to take exception to Guscott’s comments. While the term ‘world class’ is certainly subjective, you would be hard pressed to find a lot of other people who wouldn’t use it to describe Murray, Sexton, Furlong and Sean O’Brien. Guscott is right in highlighting how well Ireland work as a unit, but there is undoubtedly a considerable level of individual class, too.
World class players produce world class moments and Ireland had their fair share over the course of the Six Nations, from Sexton’s do-or-die drop-goal in Paris to the Furlong trick that had English heads spinning.
However, the 52-year-old pundit did highlight the immense impact of the Ireland’s newer crop, with Stockdale, Furlong and Garry Ringrose all having their say on the outcome of the title.
“The brains of Ireland’s team from their back-to-back titles are still there this season, but they’ve brought in additions like Jacob Stockdale, Tadhg Furlong and Garry Ringrose. They’ve also played with huge accuracy – in the past two seasons, their penalty and error count has gone down and at the moment, England are failing on those counts.”
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Guscott named ten Irish players in his Team of the Tournament, while awarding Conor Murray with Player of the Tournament.
As for England, the assessment was much more polemical.
“This England squad will be shaken to the core after their performances in the Six Nations. And the only place they can put things right is on the field.
“A lot of what they trained for just hasn’t happened so everybody will question what they’re doing and how they’re doing it. Undoubtedly the confidence will be low until they get that next victory.
“England travel to South Africa for a three-Test series in June and I see this tour as a place to rebuild confidence, to rebuild an understanding that ‘we all know what we’re doing and we can all produce it to a level of excellence.’
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