The question now is whether Ireland have been missing a trick for a decade
01:43, 22 Feb 2026Updated 03:41, 22 Feb 2026
England vs Ireland – Freddie Steward tackles Ireland powerhouse Stuart McCloskey (Image: ©INPHO/Billy Stickland)
Stuart McCloskey’s remarkable form in the Ireland no12 shirt continues.
His presence in the Ireland midfield, for the third week running, saw him once again vying for the accolade as best Irish performer on the day.
Touched off by Jamison Gibson-Park for Man of the Match (it was a 60/1 bet the Ulster man would snag it) at Twickenham, it was a close run thing.
“I think we proved a lot of people wrong,” grinned the Ulster star after the game. “We probably proved to ourselves more importantly what we can do when we get stuff right.
“Obviously a lot of things didn’t go right over the last two rounds, I thought we looked really good, but we just didn’t really piece it all together.
“But today we pieced a lot of what we wanted to do together and I thought it was pretty good all round.
“One of the things we said going into the day was ‘Be all in for everybody, be in every moment’.
“That’s the first minute, the 80th minute, as long as we fight for each other, whatever the result was, we’d be happy.
“Happy? Someone was telling me, it’s the most points we’ve ever scored against England at (their) home, so amazing. I didn’t expect it at the start of the day, if I’m being pretty honest.”
McCloskey’s latter day dominance at no12 is odd considering successive coaches have only seen – until now – him as a bit player.
“It’s a strange one. I probably didn’t think I’d still be here in 10 years, no matter how well it went and there was tough times in there but I’m glad I stuck at it to get to experience days like this now.
“My body feels really good, as it has done for a while but when you play more, you get more experience.
“I’ve seen most of the things that can happen on the rugby field now. I probably have played the most professional games, or close to the most professional games, on our team.
“And I’m just confident in what I do. As long as my body stays in pretty good nick, I’m pretty confident I can do this for a while longer.
Besides he is enjoying himself!
“I think I said to myself a few years ago, I’m just going to enjoy every game I get from now on.
“I obviously haven’t played as much as I would have liked over the years.
“Not to turn my nose up at how many caps I have, but I would have loved more. And I think at the start, I probably didn’t enjoy it, I was just feeling the pressure.
“Now, let’s take every chance I have and try to enjoy everything I do out here. It’s amazing to do it in that jersey, what it represents and do it for the team that we have in there.”
It is unlikely McCloskey is going to be dropped any time soon as he was not just a wrecking ball in attack he was seek-and-destroy in defence right to the end too.
“I probably ran back and hoped more than the expectation,” he said of an astonishing 50m, 73rd minute hunting down of Marcus Smith and, wells, scragging him into touch.
“As I got closer, it was like, ‘oh flip, I’m actually going to get him’. But yeah, I was absolutely cooked after it.
“I was basically a body bag for the last five minutes but thankfully the game was won.”
Won? So much so the Ireland players were able to enjoy the sound of the Irish fans in full voice through the last half-hour.
“Yeah, it was nice. I actually didn’t realise there were so many Irish fans in here. It was class. It was great noise.
“It’s tough to really enjoy it even if the game’s probably won.
“If you’re watching at home, you think the game was won but when you’re actually playing, you’re like, right, next moment, if we just get through this, there’s no way they can win.
“It was kind of that there, until about 75 minutes.”