England's loss to Ireland highlights the need for a fetcher in England team, says Dewi Morris

The England trip to Ireland was labelled as a Grand Slam decider, but the difference between the two teams on the day made the label appear a little far-fetched, says Sky Sports’ Dewi Morris.

A lot of words have been spoken about the supreme talents of Joe Schmidt and his coaching team. The impressive display was no surprise to me as I’ve been an admirer of his for some time now. They outsmarted the England coaching team on paper and the England players were outsmarted on the field.

Yes, the Steffon Armitage ‘debate’ has long raged on, but as long as people keep asking the same questions of England at ruck time, the media and fans will ask the same questions of the coaching staff afterwards.

In my opinion the loss illustrates that England are still struggling to win games without a specialised fetcher in the team.

The openside flanker is there to secure your ball as his primary job, and in a game like the Dublin clash where you lose territory through the accurate kicking of Connor Murray and Jonathan Sexton, you can’t afford to then lose possession, because it will result in points.

It’s not only when you’ve got the ball that your openside is important – on defence he is there to steal the ball or, at the very least, slow the ball down to give his side crucial time to restructure their defensive lines to avoid being punished by another cross-field kick or sniping run. Again, this was evident in Ireland.

If you don’t have an out-an-out fetcher then the rest of the team often has to compete desperately at the ruck, and they often end up impeding.

Penalties can be ill-afforded in the number they were conceded by England on Saturday, especially when the opposition has someone like Johnny Sexton lining up the kicks at goal. You’re out the game very quickly when you allow those penalties to build up.

Width

I’m not for one moment blaming Chris Robshaw for the loss in Dublin. He’s tackled heroically throughout the tournament and continued to do so against the Irish. He is a good leader and a good rugby player, but he is not a specialist fetcher. It’s not a fresh argument, but it’s certainly still valid.

England can still win this Six Nations but for me that will just serve to paper over cracks that we all know exist. As the saying goes you often learn more from a loss than you do a win and that will have been the case in Dublin – or at least I hope it has.

That game showed that you cannot simply rely on England’s forwards to dominate at the set piece and expect that the win will naturally follow from that. England need to realise that there is a need for a Plan B, and currently their selections and game plan do not reflect recognition of that fact.

In addition to the lack of specialist fetcher the Ireland game also highlighted the requirement of a passing No 12. I felt George Ford weathered the Irish storm very well but with the ball not being given the width required to unlock Ireland’s defence, he was left too much to do himself. There was a lot of talk after the game that Cipriani should have been given a chance but for me the game has already been lost by the late stages, and Ford wasn’t part of the problem.

Solutions

So what players are active solutions to these problems? Well one of them is over in France and his name has been brought up every week this season, and the other is a little closer to home.

Bath’s Kyle Eastmond should be brought into the team to unlock the potential of England’s attack. In Ford there is a thoroughbred fly-half and in Jonathan Joseph there is imagination in the midfield. With Anthony Watson, Jack Nowell and Mike Brown outside them Stuart Lancaster has the firepower at his disposal to genuinely scare opposition sides, but in order for them to be effective, they need to be given the ball.

Again I’m not trying to pin all of England’s problems on one player, I’m rather putting focus on other players who may be better suited to the team’s needs. Eastmond is the player I think Lancaster should employ to deploy the rest of that exciting English attack.

On the side of the scrum I think it’s important to make the call to Armitage sooner rather than later. Bringing in the Toulon flank will add a dimension to England, even if it’s just to the squad as an option. It may be too late for him to feature in the Six Nations but it would be very worthwhile to have him around the squad in order to familiarise himself with the famed England culture ahead of the World Cup.

Yes, the Steffon Armitage ‘debate’ has long raged on, but as long as people keep asking the same questions of England at ruck time, the media and fans will ask the same questions of the coaching staff afterwards.