Geoff Parling ensured England pack made amends against Ireland | Dean Ryan

The plan was to shake off coming second best against France and the pack were fired up, kept it simple and oozed confidenceIn the end the win was the bottom line as it had to be once an England coach had rounded off a fortnight’s preparations by telling the world “the tournament starts here”. No ifs or buts. After Paris a fortnight ago Graham Rowntree, the forwards coach, needed a performance from his players.Will he be satisfied? Absolutely. The lineout was a massive improvement over that night at the Stade de France, but there are questions still to be answered of a scrum who lost two agains…