Whatever about anything else, this game was every bit as physical as Eddie Jones promised beforehand. Most of what Eddie Jones says with a grin on his face is bullshit but he was telling the stone-cold truth on that one. This game was up there with France when it comes to the physicality stakes and that was with England reduced to 14 men for 80 minutes after Charlie Ewels got himself red-carded inside the first two minutes.

We can’t separate the “physicality” Eddie Jones spoke about during the week from the head injuries suffered by James Ryan and, later, Kyle Sinckler in the first half of this game. Eddie Jones didn’t cause them, that would be ridiculous, but when any coach talks about “physicality” as Jones did repeatedly, it is with the implication – and tacit suggestion – that his team are going to leave the kind of shots on you that you’ll still be feeling the week after. We all know it. It’s always been a part of the game too, in one form or another. The team is keyed up all week to leave a marker on the opposition and that’s how moments like this happen. This was Eddie Jones to the press last week.

“[Ireland] pride themselves on that area, but we are a very physical team and they haven’t played against a side as physical as us for a long time. If you look at their record, they haven’t played against South Africa since 2017. We played against South Africa last year and did well in those physical stakes so we intend to really take it to them.”

“Ireland haven’t played against a team like us before, they haven’t played against South Africa since 2017. We play with a physicality that they haven’t seen before. I’m looking forward to seeing what we can do on Saturday.”

If you’re one of Eddie Jones forwards for this game and you hear this quote – never mind what he’s saying in private – you know that you’ve got to go out there and melt guys. The coach is setting you up to do just that or you all look like prize mugs if you get beaten up on your home turf.

So of course you’re going to go out there like a fucking berserker, right?

There’s no real malice in it, at least nothing beyond the temporary hatred you have to have to play at the top end. It’s the game. Eddie Jones wants a result, so he’s putting it up to his team in public. The team want a result too. They want to be physical and jump into Ireland early on too because that’s just what you do. Ireland are on a roll, they’re going well, England aren’t and know it. So of course you’re going to go out there looking to smash guys. Listen to any captain ahead of a big game with big stakes. Listen to what they are talking about. Listen to what they are keying the team up to do. It’s not to go out there and have a blast.

Ewels isn’t going out to concuss Ryan (or himself) but he is going out to impose himself on a direct opponent, take man and ball by whatever means necessary, put a marker down like he’s been drilled all week to do and when you combine all of those with the “battle rage” of test rugby at the collision coalface, that’s how a well trained professional athlete who knows he has to tackle lower can go in as high as this.

Ewels could have absolutely vaporised Ryan by just dipping his knees and lowering his angle of entry here. That way you force the player to, perhaps, think twice before opening up for a pass out of the screen, maybe jangle a few ribs around, maybe wind him. But that isn’t what happened. He started high, finished high and had no control over where his head went once the car crash impact happened.

Head on head at that weight, at that velocity. Only one outcome. Ryan crumbled to the floor and tried to get back to his feet before stumbling back to the grass. I just don’t want to see stuff like that. I know it happens, I know it can happen with a stray boot in soccer or GAA the same as rugby, but it’s a killer for the game, in my eyes.

It was this picture that did it for me this weekend.

Look at James Ryan there. I know it’s just a snapshot of a nanosecond, but he looks like he doesn’t know where he is or what he’s doing. He looks like a young lad, except that he’s towering over the medics helping him off the field. It’s tough to look at, for me anyway.

The game as it currently stands is bigger, faster, harder, stronger and more intense than it has ever been. The impacts have to be felt to be believed and in that environment, player safety must be paramount because the bodies might be bigger and fitter, but the brain is still the same pink jelly it was back in the 1880s.

That’s why Ewels had to see a red card, game be damned and “entertainment” be damned. The future of the sport depends on it. The tackle height needs to come down to below the armpits with red cards and long bans for those who go above it where there is no clear mitigation. What is mitigation? When the tackled player drops in height dramatically to a level below where his armpits might have been on a legal tackle when the action started. And that would be it. If your tackle height was always too high and there’s direct contact to the head with the shoulder, it’s got to be red and it’s got to be four games out, minimum.

It’s the only way to keep players as safe as can reasonably be expected and ensure the game is played beyond the end of the next 20 years.