Team news for Ireland.

[Stom]

Let’s face it, England were fortunate to win. Two lucky tries caused by Irish ineptitude; far too many penalties conceded that other sides would have punished. If Eddie had picked a more balanced side then the victory margin would have been significantly more. However, let’s not grumble too much until he’s announced his 23 for Wales.

Lol, good try.

It's kinda true, though...

Well, the bit about the luck.

Ford's try was a clusterfuck from an Irish perspective.
Daly's try was a clusterfuck from an Irish perspective.

The truth was, we had a very good defence against an Irish team that consistently struggle when they're given no space to play. And we still lost the 2nd half.

I just don't like the fact that with the talent we have available, we're so workmanlike for so much of games.

We have some of the best players around in their positions, but we're still consistently workmanlike.

Our defence was excellent, our discipline was poor, and our attack...well, it existed at least. But it's not what I'd call good, again.

[Freddo]

Is Mark Wilson injured or was he just not picked in the 6N squad?

[Epaminondas Pules]

I thought Ewels was 8 on opposition scrums with Earl going there on England ball?

Ewels packed down at 8 when he came on prior to Earl coming on. When Earl did Ewels shifted to 6. Ewels had a stint at 8 for Bath when they had a bad run of injuries. Played bloody well against either Toulouse or Toulon if memory serves.

[Banquo]

Not sure how Ryan escaped punishment.

[Banquo]

Without doing ruck marks, I'm still going to only credit lawes with looking like a good lock, rather than good backrow. Lots of carries, tackles and lineouts. Thankfully, our tactics seem to be centred around avoiding rucks at the moment.

I'd still love to see a Willis, Underhill, Curry backrow. BT has extended highlights for the wasps sarries game on now, and he appears often enough to please .

http://sport.bt.com/extended-highlights ... 4433195687

indeed

[twitchy]

[Timbo]

Let’s face it, England were fortunate to win. Two lucky tries caused by Irish ineptitude; far too many penalties conceded that other sides would have punished. If Eddie had picked a more balanced side then the victory margin would have been significantly more. However, let’s not grumble too much until he’s announced his 23 for Wales.

Lol, good try.

It's kinda true, though...

Well, the bit about the luck.

Ford's try was a clusterfuck from an Irish perspective.
Daly's try was a clusterfuck from an Irish perspective.

The truth was, we had a very good defence against an Irish team that consistently struggle when they're given no space to play. And we still lost the 2nd half.

I just don't like the fact that with the talent we have available, we're so workmanlike for so much of games.

We have some of the best players around in their positions, but we're still consistently workmanlike.

Our defence was excellent, our discipline was poor, and our attack...well, it existed at least. But it's not what I'd call good, again.

It’s not true at all, and is an absolutely ludicrous hot take. If defences never made mistakes there would never be any try’s. We put them under incessant and constant pressure throughout the first half and they cracked twice. We gifted the French at least 2 of their try’s, but very little talk of them being lucky.

[Puja]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

[Puja]

I'm almost ready to start watching the game back. In advance I'm expecting to see an England side who make a fast start and dominate the collisions win a game of rugby even though they couldn't do much with the physical dominance

I'm interested to hear both your assessment of Lawes as a 6 and also your opinion on Youngs, who I thought had his best game in years.

Puja

[Galfon]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

Credit to Curry for just getting on with things.
Was a bit odd no intervention from any of the officials.

[Beasties]

I'm almost ready to start watching the game back. In advance I'm expecting to see an England side who make a fast start and dominate the collisions win a game of rugby even though they couldn't do much with the physical dominance

I'm interested to hear both your assessment of Lawes as a 6 and also your opinion on Youngs, who I thought had his best game in years.

Puja

It's a relief when Youngs has an adequate game I grant you. Low bar and all.

[Beasties]

I thought Ewels was 8 on opposition scrums with Earl going there on England ball?

Ewels packed down at 8 when he came on prior to Earl coming on. When Earl did Ewels shifted to 6. Ewels had a stint at 8 for Bath when they had a bad run of injuries. Played bloody well against either Toulouse or Toulon if memory serves.

Pretty sure Ewels was defo at 8 for the first scrum after Earl came on because I noticed Earl packing at flanker. I thought it was same again for the following scrum but it could've been the attacking v defending scrum policy that others have noted?

[WaspInWales]

I didn't watch the match. Resigned myself to defeat based on selection so decided to ride 85 km instead. Seen the short highlights since and currently downloading the match...

So, I take it Ireland played with 14 for most of the match? That is fucking shocking.

[Beasties]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

Something happened a couple of seconds before that as well but I forget what. I was screaming at the telly at that point. That and the take out of May were ridiculous errors by the officials.

[WaspInWales]

I'm almost ready to start watching the game back. In advance I'm expecting to see an England side who make a fast start and dominate the collisions win a game of rugby even though they couldn't do much with the physical dominance

I'm interested to hear both your assessment of Lawes as a 6 and also your opinion on Youngs, who I thought had his best game in years.

Puja

Gonna watch the game tomorrow. Really pleased with the win as I wasn't expecting it but the one thing that worries me about it is that it vindicates Eddie's selections. I don't know how Lawes got on, let alone Youngs, Curry and JJ, but one thing is clear is that Ireland were a bit shit. Credit to England for forcing errors, but will other teams be happy to do the same?

I refuse to get too excited on the back of this result as Eddie is likely to continue picking players out of position and the opposition may not be as willing to play along.

I can forgive the quality of the Scotland match. The conditions were more dire than the game, but we were woeful against France and SA and a few other fairly recent matches.

[Oakboy]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

Something happened a couple of seconds before that as well but I forget what. I was screaming at the telly at that point. That and the take out of May were ridiculous errors by the officials.

Has anybody had time to fully analyse the May take-out? At the time I was convinced that it was a deliberate, cynical act - far too contrived and late to be 'already committed' as the ref decided.

[ad_tigger]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

Something happened a couple of seconds before that as well but I forget what. I was screaming at the telly at that point. That and the take out of May were ridiculous errors by the officials.

Has anybody had time to fully analyse the May take-out? At the time I was convinced that it was a deliberate, cynical act - far too contrived and late to be 'already committed' as the ref decided.

Coupled with absolutely zero attempt to wrap.

[Puja]

Yeah, that last one was the red card I referenced earlier. Looks even worse the more I see it.

Puja

Something happened a couple of seconds before that as well but I forget what. I was screaming at the telly at that point. That and the take out of May were ridiculous errors by the officials.

Has anybody had time to fully analyse the May take-out? At the time I was convinced that it was a deliberate, cynical act - far too contrived and late to be 'already committed' as the ref decided.

And, regardless of if it was late or not, it was definitely a shoulder charge without even a hint of arms. May was lucky it didn't catch his knee, as that could have been nasty.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

I’ve got a real issue with ‘already committed’ as it is. Sometimes players commit to something they really shouldn’t be doing anyway.

It seems like a strange let off.

[Puja]

Rewatching it, he clearly does not lower his head for the tackle shoulder charge until after the ball has left May's foot. If he'd just run into him, I'd have sympathy for momentum, but he does actively commit to taking him out after the kick has been instigated.

Puja

[Mr Mwenda]

Noted that live. It really set the tone with both sides doing rocket man impressions. Someone is going to get seriously hurt soon.

I also thought the tackled player was taking the piss so often with the length of time they took presenting the ball. It's no wonder tacklers are being held in, when they have to wait 5 seconds to even know where to be.

[Banquo]

Thats pretty outrageous, how did the ref AND all the officials miss that.

[Oakboy]

Thats pretty outrageous, how did the ref AND all the officials miss that.

It's not like it wasn't right there in front of them, so could they have seen it and ruled it acceptable? We've seen red cards for similar recently in GP games but was it a different interpretation from a SA ref?

[fivepointer]

It was outrageous. 3 acts of foul play within a few seconds and nothing was done about them. That wasnt the only cheap shot Ryan threw.

[Digby]

Something happened a couple of seconds before that as well but I forget what. I was screaming at the telly at that point. That and the take out of May were ridiculous errors by the officials.

Has anybody had time to fully analyse the May take-out? At the time I was convinced that it was a deliberate, cynical act - far too contrived and late to be 'already committed' as the ref decided.

And, regardless of if it was late or not, it was definitely a shoulder charge without even a hint of arms. May was lucky it didn't catch his knee, as that could have been nasty.

Puja

I think it was similar to the Genge charge on Hastings, the player made sure he was committed to contact which would be fine if he'd made a tackle, as however it was a nailed on illegal shoulder charge I've no idea what the defence is for that not being a yellow card and probably a penalty try.

As regards piling in at the knee, well I don't like it but you're allowed to do that in a tackle, is there a difference to caving the knee in at the side with a tackle Vs a shoulder charge?