Jeremy Guscott’s verdict: Muscleman Jonny May sums up England’s transformation

What a difference a fortnight makes.
England were ten times better than the side that meekly went down to France and nowhere was that transformation more evident than in the performance of winger Jonny May.
The Gloucester man has gone from a meandering, semi-clued up player to a sharp-as-a-tack matchwinner.
Word from the England camp is that May has shown up as well as anyone in the past weeks and he has clearly put on muscle without taking anything away from his devastating speed of foot.
To run through Tommy Bowe as he did for that magnificent first try was to see a man at the top of his game and if he and Tom Youngs had shown more composure, May would have had a second try and the game would have been over.
In that opening half, England’s intensity and commitment marked them down as one of the top four teams in the world. With the advantage of a Twickenham crowd behind them, they can beat anyone with that kind of 40 minutes.
From the opening drop out when Chris Robshaw – having a storming game along with his backrow partners Tom Wood and Ben Morgan – barrelled into Simon Szebo, England were on the front foot.
The front row of Dan Cole, Tom Youngs and Joe Marler were everywhere and locks Jeff Parling and Courtney Lawes steadied that suspect lineout.
A lack of truly clinical finishing – Tom Youngs’ forward pass and May’s fractionally early run onto it was the obvious example – held them back and allowed Ireland a foothold.
And Ireland, Six Nations champions remember, are not a team to offer second chances to.
Looking back, I think we can put England’s display against France down to heavy legs. When I was training with England for our World Cups, we trained hard through the warm up matches.
Now the players have had a couple of weeks off and wound down a little they are looking sharper.
Ben Youngs and George Ford were buzzing off the forwards’ good ball and their dink kicking was first class. The ball that Ford sent out for Anthony Watson to outjump Szebo was perfect; Watson’s technique was pure Aussie Rules: power jump coming onto the ball at speed with knees up. Szebo never had a chance.
England backed up that dazzling attack with an equally strong performance in defence. They hassled and harried the Irish into mistakes and had the peerless Mike Brown under the high ball.
They also devised a method to nullify the Irish at the breakdown by sending two men into the area to contest the ball. The Irish like to get into breakdown situations and then sweep ball and player back into their clutches, leaning over and placing their hands on the ground as they do so which, in my book, is bordering on illegal.
But England gave them little opportunity to do this, although Paul O’Connell’s try came after just such a move led to the vital lineout.
From that throw, England were anticipating a driving maul as Ireland had tried it before, but this time they chose to pick and go twice before O’Connell forced his way over. Even the best sides in the world lose momentum, though. You can’t expect to dominate for the full 80 minutes, so I’m not too harsh about that lapse of concentration.
The Irish will moan about their missed tackles in the match, such as for May’s first try and his disallowed effort.
But, in truth, when the opposition is moving the ball fast and accurately, you are often left scrambling for position and hanging on by fingertips which aren’t ever strong enough to halt such momentum.
But England will know that in the World Cup they have to take all chances that come their way.
There was a glaring miss after 57 minutes when Joe Launchbury elected to cut back inside when he had Jonathan Joseph and Watson outside him looking certain to score. I don’t necessarily blame Launchbury. The men around him should have been screaming advice.
Now it’s for real on Friday week when Fiji will bring their brilliant runners to Twickenham.
I think we saw England’s Test team against Ireland yesterday, but I’m not certain I’d play them all against Fiji who are fabulous in broken play but still vulnerable in the set piece.
I’d rest five of them, probably Ben Youngs, George Ford, a couple from the front row and one of the locks.
We need them fully firing for the big games against Wales and Australia, so I’d give them a run out from the bench.
Any of our front row choices and any two of our four locks would be good enough to do the job against Fiji and Richard Wigglesworth and Owen Farrell are more than able deputies at scrum half and fly half.
England should aim for a kick chase game against Fiji, harry them into mistakes and kick their penalties.
A good, solid start. The fireworks can come later.