It's hard to believe England have lost twice in this 6 nations campaign, for a team that hadn't lost 2 matches in a row since the world cup! I think for England this is a good thing as they will likely be hungrier for next year's campaign running into the world cup in Japan, with a possible change of management.
For Ireland it seems that they can do well in the 6 nations running in to world cups and even get out of the groups of the world cup but get torn apart by southern hemisphere teams in the knockout stages. Having a bad run in to the world cup might take their egos down a peg or 2, which could be a good thing ( speaking as a person from Ireland)
