JOE MARLER takes you inside England dressing room after Ireland win

England secured a shocking win over Ireland within the Six Nations to ship the Twickenham crowd right into a frenzy on Saturday night time.

Marcus Smith’s last-gasp drop aim noticed Steve Borthwick‘s facet beat the match favourites 23-22 within the dying moments – denying the Irish the possibility of retaining the Six Nations title in south west London.

And as you’d count on the raucous celebrations carried over into the England altering room – and JOE MARLER has peeled again the curtain for Mail Sport.

Big Rag ‘n’ Bone Man got here into our dressing room on Saturday night time and was bouncing alongside to our victory tune. We reside in the identical village and go to the identical barbers so it was nice to have him with us. I believe he was impressed by the dulcet tones of Dan Cole!

There’s nowhere fairly just like the dressing room at occasions like that. You’re with a bunch of fellows who you see at the very best and the worst of occasions and it is a actually distinctive bond. Our households are available in and be a part of us and it appears like a secure place the place time simply stops.

It’s on Sam Underhill to kick off the tune, having taken over that function from Jonny May. There’s fairly a little bit of thought that goes into it. He prepares a brand new line each week that solely will get used if we win. It’s regularly getting reinvented.

Owen Farrell and Mako Vunipola got here in and joined us. Owen did not say an excessive amount of, he stored his head down. It was most likely a little bit of a bizarre state of affairs for him. Mako had just a few feedback about his newest hair reduce… he is reaching the age the place he is higher off carrying hats.

It’s hustle and bustle. A mixture of aid, pleasure, delight, exhaustion. The boys need to take images collectively to mark the reminiscence as a result of emotions like that do not come round too usually in your life. You need to embrace it.

I had a fast look on my telephone to see what everybody was saying. I noticed a video of Ben Earl on TikTok with that clip of him celebrating a knock on that Sir Clive Woodward would not like. It was subsequent to an image of him wanting depressing after beating Ireland and being named man of the match. That made me chuckle. Ben was good towards Ireland. He’ll be round this crew for for much longer than I’ll as a result of he simply will get higher and higher.

We caught the bus again to the resort with our households and I spent the night ingesting crimson wine with Danny Care and his spouse, celebrating his a hundredth cap. I gave him a little bit of grief for passing the ball to Marcus Smith for the drop aim once I was stood about two-feet from the road and will have scored my first-ever attempt for England. I’m undecided how I’d have a good time if I had scored that. In soccer you get yellow carded in case you take your prime of however nobody does that in rugby so there is no precedent for it. If I ever rating a attempt for England – which is unlikely – then I’ll whip my prime off and swing it round my head. You heard it right here first.

Myself and Danny thought of going to the pub however we had been staying in Richmond and it could have been rammed. Fortunately the resort bar was nicely stocked. Let’s simply say I did not make it down in time for breakfast on Sunday.

You have that night time the place you might be fully buzzing and you then come again in on Monday and there is a little bit of an emotional comedown. You’re by no means going to have the ability to maintain that degree of ecstasy so that you simply need to discover a approach to go once more. We’re flying out to Lyon on Thursday. We have the aircraft to ourselves, a chartered flight, so there’s loads of room. I sit in seat 1A, Coley’s in 1C, Steve Borthwick’s in 1D and 1F is empty. We’re creatures of behavior.

Psychologically it is a very totally different state of affairs to how we felt after the defeat by Scotland. There was quite a lot of criticism being thrown at us earlier than the Ireland match. You hear what guys like Peter Stringer and Jamie Heaslip are saying. it wasn’t that way back when Ireland had been struggling and people guys had been most likely questioning the course of the crew. It’s all a part of the circus.

There had been a few articles that upset the boys however the greatest gas for us was the frustration of how we performed towards Scotland. If we are saying we need to give the followers one thing to shout about after which we play how we did in Edinburgh then it is simply lip service. But we do not simply need to play nicely after we’re bouncing again from having our pants pulled down.

Now we have to cease patting ourselves within the again. We weren’t the worst crew on the earth after we misplaced to Scotland and we’re not the very best crew on the earth after we beat Ireland. But we need to go to Lyon and again it up.

I watched France’s match towards Wales in my resort room on Sunday with Coley, Ben and George Ford. Me and Coley watch it like a fan, admiring the massive hits and the scrums, however Fordy’s there analysing all the things. He’s far smarter than us, taking notes. France took the sport by the scruff of the neck within the second half and we had been taking a look at one another considering, ‘OK, this week’s going to be a tricky one’.

I loved the Shaun Edwards interview when he was requested about France being in disaster and he completely dismissed it. Their efficiency in Cardiff was a tone setter. It confirmed us that now we have to be proper at it on Saturday night time. We should be constant and hit the identical ranges – we wish a greater efficiency.

France have some large gamers – virtually as massive as Rag ‘n’ Bone Man! They’re large males, particularly Manu Tuilagi’s nephew, but it surely’s not so simple as simply ready for them to tire out. They’re test-match rugby gamers. They can hit you, they will carry, they will scrum, they will maul. It’s on us to tie them out. I’ve had just a few battles with Uini Atonio over time and this can be one other one.

No Cheltenham, no drawback! 

I’ve by no means been to the Cheltenham races as a result of it all the time clashes with the Six Nations however I like horses. I used to scrub out my mate’s stables once I was youthful and rode his horse referred to as Magic. This yr we have settled for the following neatest thing. I’ve purchased a load of jockey outfits fort the boys. Gats, goggles, boots, just a few XXXL tops and a blow-up horse.

Building is just not my forte… 

Myself and Coley have a little bit of a DIY challenge occurring in camp this week. I’ve purchased my four-year-old son a pet leopard tortoise and I’ve been frantically making an attempt to construct its home earlier than it arrives subsequent week. 

There’s all kinds of issues to consider, like temperature management. I’m horrible at constructing issues so I’ve roped in my previous mate to assist me.

My prime 5 England rugby matches

How loud was the group at Twickenham on Saturday night time? The ambiance when Marcus slotted his drop-goal was electrical. It was straight into my top-five video games for England. These are the opposite 4…

England 55-35 France, 2015

It was a mega Super Saturday. Their large tighthead Vincent Debaty completed an end-to-end try to me and Coley had been considering, ‘How did he get there?’

England 61-21 Scotland, 2017

Tim Visser had been giving it the biggen from the Scotland camp all week and we put 60 on them.

England 19-7 New Zealand, 2019

No one gave us an opportunity and our efficiency ranges had been off the charts.

England 15-16 South Africa, 2023

We misplaced however the way in which the boys carried out stuffed me with a lot delight.