Rather than allow mistake to beget mistake, as they so often did across the autumn, Ireland moved slowly through the gears before finally reaching cruising speed.
Aided by Marcus Smith’s yellow card, the men in green were showing signs of getting to grips with proceedings before the turn, but it was only in the second half that they truly looked like two-time reigning champions of this competition.
England’s Borthwick said it was “hard to quantify” how much the effort expended in negating Ireland in the first half had left his side fatigued but, as their challenge faded, Ireland’s energy levels only seemed to rise.
England got little from their six-two bench as Ireland’s replacements turned the game in the home team’s favour.
Benefiting from forward depth that meant last year’s skipper Peter O’Mahony did not even make the Irish 23, Easterby was able to call upon two players who missed the autumn through injury in hooker Dan Sheehan and back row Jack Conan.
Both were superb after coming on in the 50th minute to highlight a quality bench effort across the board.
“I thought the guys that started laid a really strong foundation and it wasn’t easy going. It was tough at times,” said Easterby.
“The guys that came off the bench benefited from the work that had been done in the first 50, 55 minutes.
“To be fair, the guys that came off the bench were brilliant, they really impacted the game.”
The two late tries conceded to allow England a losing bonus point will be a source of consternation for Easterby.
As will the injury to Finlay Bealham that means, with Tadhg Furlong already struggling with a calf complaint and Tom O’Toole suspended, Ireland could be going to Murrayfield next week with their fourth and fifth choice tight-heads.
Of course, Ireland are currently enjoying a 10-game winning run against Scotland, and when they last visited Edinburgh two years ago they needed flanker Josh van der Flier to throw into the line-outs with prop Cian Healy scrummaging at hooker and still managed to come out on top.
The Six Nations is often said to be a tournament where momentum is paramount.
Having struggled to find it all autumn long, after such an emphatic second half on Saturday, it suddenly feels Ireland have plenty once again.
