Ireland in instalments

[Digby]

Minute 21

Penalty England, so all that excitement of taking a minute for a scrum to bind came to nothing, the ball wasn't even fed in. Farrell makes an excellent kick to touch, really on the money.

England with a 5m attacking lineout lose the lineout, although they do lose it to Lawes going for the ball with 2 hands and POM going with the outside arm, I can't see if the inside arm is affecting Lawes so maybe that's why he was let off (I'm assuming the ref and TJ can tell which arm is which in saying that). Ireland can't gather the ball in and get a scrum for a knock on by England.

It's a strong scrum from both sides, Ireland hold the scrum well and Stander picks up at the base.

[Digby]

Minute 23

I appear to have lost a minute, among other things.

Stander breaks from the base and runs at Farrell. Farrell goes a touch high, either because he doesn't want to wrap the legs or because he thinks it's likely he can wrap Stander up and force a scrum turn over or because he's trying to rip the ball in contact, it's probably the last but Stander gets to ground. Curry gets over the ball but not before he, Underhill and VdF form what's allowed as a ruck so the ref is telling Curry to get his hands off the ball, Curry doesn't oblige and instead gets smacked back by Ryan flying into contact, thankfully nobody is hurt but there is no way that's rucking from Ryan, he could play for NZ with ruck work like that.

Ireland run another phase before Murray makes and exit with a box kick, no protection for Murray and Kruis is the one applying pressure this time and his kick doesn't find touch. May collects the ball and passes inside to Daly who passes wider still to JJ. I think it's Farrell who May is listening to as he's pointing at where the ball should be going as he sees it. Farrell is scanning around, one of the few, and he's surely spotted he's in a reasonable amount of space and he might be hoping he can escort someone into that gap. In the event JJ spots his own path forwards and England prosper from his run, but it comes from the footwork of JJ and not out of any controlled system of attack.

From the resulting ruck it looks for all the world like Youngs can just attack the shoulder of the guard, and seeing as the guard is Furlong that he can then run into a lot of space providing he's faster than Furlong. Youngs d.rops a pass off to George coming back the other way, really poor in what's been a much better game from Youngs so far.

George sets up a ruck and we're heading left again, Farrell again makes a nice pass, nothing spectacular but a simple pass to Curry that draws the defender and puts Curry into a gap. Farrell then follows Curry into the tackle and clears out Aki generating fast ball. Left again from England and Ford sends the ball to May, not a lot of space to work with now and May is tackled down by Conway, there are men outside but not really the space to use them. POM gets over the ball at around the same time Manu arrives to create the ruck, can't seen when POM got his hands on the ball but Peyper is telling him to release and he doesn't, penalty against POM for hands on the ball after the ruck has formed. The bit about the ruck being formed might be harsh on POM, then again he was perhaps in at the side and off his feet.

[Digby]

Minute 24

England stick the wide out penalty into touch for a 5m lineout. Lawes is at the front and takes a flat throw without jumping, looking at his feet the ball might just have gone 5m, especially if measuring from the touchline and not where the ball was thrown from.

England maul and out in a lot of resources, backs as well, but Ireland hold them up and get the maul down

[Digby]

Minute 25

England run a series of really slow pick and goes, it's fine us getting the resources and shape we want but we do seem to ignore that hold for the defence too. Then the ball is passed back to Lawes who's driven back in contact, but Ireland cough up a penalty doing that and with the advantage Ford dinks a kick into the in-goal where Stockdale gets a shove from Daly but he's got to do better than that and Daly dots down for a 2nd England try. Maybe Stockdale struggles to get at that ball but he's a big lad, and if he can't get to it then he's got to be doing a lot more to make sure nobody else does either. I don't know if he was always this bad in defence, i.e. not switched on, or if he's really lost confidence. It's almost not fun to watch him cough up that try for free.

Farrell adds the extras

[Puja]

From the resulting ruck it looks for all the world like Youngs can just attack the shoulder of the guard, and seeing as the guard is Furlong that he can then run into a lot of space providing he's faster than Furlong. Youngs d.rops a pass off to George coming back the other way, really poor in what's been a much better game from Youngs so far.

Probably best he didn't take the risk, given that caveat.

Puja

[Epaminondas Pules]

Minute 25

England run a series of really slow pick and goes, it's fine us getting the resources and shape we want but we do seem to ignore that hold for the defence too. Then the ball is passed back to Lawes who's driven back in contact, but Ireland cough up a penalty doing that and with the advantage Ford dinks a kick into the in-goal where Stockdale gets a shove from Daly but he's got to do better than that and Daly dots down for a 2nd England try. Maybe Stockdale struggles to get at that ball but he's a big lad, and if he can't get to it then he's got to be doing a lot more to make sure nobody else does either. I don't know if he was always this bad in defence, i.e. not switched on, or if he's really lost confidence. It's almost not fun to watch him cough up that try for free.

Farrell adds the extras

He was so pedestrian in every aspect of that play. Zero urgency of mind or action.

He was absolutely awful on the summer game at Twickenham making bad decision after bad decision. Don’t know if that’s part of a wider trend, but he was all over the place that day.

[Digby]

Minute 25

England run a series of really slow pick and goes, it's fine us getting the resources and shape we want but we do seem to ignore that hold for the defence too. Then the ball is passed back to Lawes who's driven back in contact, but Ireland cough up a penalty doing that and with the advantage Ford dinks a kick into the in-goal where Stockdale gets a shove from Daly but he's got to do better than that and Daly dots down for a 2nd England try. Maybe Stockdale struggles to get at that ball but he's a big lad, and if he can't get to it then he's got to be doing a lot more to make sure nobody else does either. I don't know if he was always this bad in defence, i.e. not switched on, or if he's really lost confidence. It's almost not fun to watch him cough up that try for free.

Farrell adds the extras

He was so pedestrian in every aspect of that play. Zero urgency of mind or action.

He was absolutely awful on the summer game at Twickenham making bad decision after bad decision. Don’t know if that’s part of a wider trend, but he was all over the place that day.

Actually this bit, even with it leading to a try, didn't piss me off as much as few minutes back when he didn't even take 5 steps back to be behind POM and be an option to help out POM taking a crap slow lobbed ball. As you note there seems zero urgency of mind or action, and it sits in stark contrast to the player that exploded onto the test scene, though that was much more about his attack which we're not seeing much of in this Ireland side.

Not sure what they're best doing with him, but he can't play like this

[Digby]

From the resulting ruck it looks for all the world like Youngs can just attack the shoulder of the guard, and seeing as the guard is Furlong that he can then run into a lot of space providing he's faster than Furlong. Youngs d.rops a pass off to George coming back the other way, really poor in what's been a much better game from Youngs so far.

Probably best he didn't take the risk, given that caveat.

Puja

Sad for a player who made his debut on the wing

[Digby]

Minute 26

Ireland kick off deep into our 22 where Ford (I think it's Ford) takes the ball under no pressure. Banquo will be gutted Ford wasn't put on the floor giving Jonny a chance to talk about the emotional suffering of a 10 put out of the game from the kick off. Ford clears up to our 10m line.

Great stuff from England so far at the restarts, they've had two and not even thought about doing anything creative, as it should be even before they've got a 14 point lead

Ireland win the lineout under some pressure and it's down to Murray who finds Larmour standing at 1st receiver. Banquo will be delighted this gives Jonny the chance to talk about players coming in to lift the emotional suffering of a 10 having to do too much.

[Digby]

Minuet 27

Larmour runs into George and Farrell, Ireland spin the ball left and soft hands Aki can't take the pass from Sexton. A shame for Ireland as it was Ford up against Aki and Ford has run up to put pressure on the catch but in doing so he's out of the line and Aki could well burst past his inside shoulder and into a fair chunk of space. But Aki doesn't take the pass and it bounces forward into Sexton who grabs the ball from an offside position.

Farrell kicks the penalty touch, from the wrong half but the ref doesn't call him on it, in fairness the halfway line is a poor clue as to which half he should be in.

Lawes wins lineout ball at the front, we don't tie in their back row and the tail of the lineout is off towards our midfield and Stander is right in the way of where Youngs wants to pass. I think maybe there's a chance for Youngs to break again he targets Toner's inside shoulder as Toner leaves the lineout, but that would be a very difficult spot. Youngs tries to float a pass over Stander, it's not accurate and bounces up off the grass with Manu running up to knock the ball on. Frankly Manu should be taking that ball even though he's trying to build some speed up

[Digby]

Minute 28

It's a scrum, oddly nothing happens

[Digby]

Minute 29

Ireland win the scrum and Stander picks up at the base and passes to Murray who passes to Sexton. For no real gain the pass from Murray looks forward as Sexton is perhaps so keen to get on with trying to have some attack he's pushed up too early and is just ahead of Murray, only just mind, it's not far off being flat.

Ireland bring the ball to the left and England drift and give ground, Stockdale steps off his left coming up to May and then spins around Manu to gain another couple of metres. But the positive Irish gains from the scrum are then undone as Murray passes to Ryan, and Ryan doesn't fade off the pass against an onrushing Lawes but steps to the inside where he's clattered by Underhill and Curry, a back up in the line there might have used the pass as the extra man to get on the outside of Lawes. As a further aside Catt might have Ireland trying to force width too early, especially when playing to the open side and into a rush. Ryan is blatantly pushing himself forwards on the floor post tackle but Peyper isn't fussed. I guess it's slow ball so if Ryan crawls on the floor it's not the biggest thing.

Ireland play to the right and again there's quite a gap in their spacing, and no one is really buying the dummy runners. Sexton passes to Henshaw who I think suggests at putting in a hitch kick but it looks more like a toddler playing on a hobby horse and Henshaw passes to Larmour who's without support 15m behind the gainline. It might work for Ireland but Farrell pushes up from the line on the outside of Larmour, if Larmour can step Farrell to get to the edge or beat Farrell on the inside and then arc to the outside Ireland will have made some good calls but Larmour is forced back inside where Kruis tackles him and from being close to getting a line break Ireland lose 7-8m on the play. Ryan makes another carry but it's a parity play, Murray has had enough and looks to box kick into England's half, but it's a nothing kick, easily gathered by Daly and with no green shirts even close. Daly hammers the ball back over the Irish heads and it rolls into touch inside the Ireland 22

Edit - Forgot to add this was the passage of play where Sexton lost a shoe, which okay makes it harder to Murray, but it's not like Murray doesn't know how to put more height on a kick to give the chase something to work with

[Digby]

Minute 30

Kruis and Toner both go up for the ball and Kruis knocks it down on our side where Underhill is able to gather and carry for a couple of metres into Sexton and then POM. England head left in front of the posts and Lawes goes into contact, and then rather than just laying the ball back crawls and then presents the ball, no idea why he's risking giving away a penalty to do that

Youngs runs with the ball looking for someone to bite but Ireland behave themselves in defence, and Youngs picks out Manu with a nice pass. Manu gets knocked back, and Ireland get pinged knocking the ball on out of Manu's grasp, playing with the advantage (once we pick the ball off the floor) England work the ball to JJ on the lef

[Digby]

Minute 31

VdF gets over the ball pretty well for me after JJ's run. If he actually had hands on the ball that looks a turnover, maybe he didn't or maybe Peyper just doesn't want to whistle. Pretty sure Peyper is trying to let things go to let a game break out, but the players are taking the piss a bit given it's hard to draw a sanction

Youngs gas Sincks and Lawes available, he passes out to Lawes who makes a parity carry, but we lose out when Ryan puts Sincks on the floor without the ball and then Sincks can't support Lawes. Ryan is probably able to claim Sincks has run into him and he's just shrugging him off, smart play from Ryan, not so much from Sincks when we're sending two men up and he's the man without the ball.

Open to question if Aki is contesting on his feet but whatever, and too when Sincks does arrive after Kruis eventually drags Aki over Sincks just goes off his feet anyway.

Sexton stabs a short penalty kick into touch on the 10m line, I suppose the mark Sexton gives himself is not only on the correct pitch it is also still in the same 22, it's not where the penalty was given but at least he didn't move to the Stoop

[Digby]

Minute 32

Ireland win a flat throw at the front and don't maul, leaving themselves the option or trying to drive one out passes around the fringe, kicking or playing into the blitz with soft hands Aki in the middle. Both sides are opting for front ball, arguably both at quite some expense.

Ireland don't manage to drive England back in contact, Murray sets for a box kick, again with no protection and this time Itoje gets a block on the ball, England grab the loose ball, Underhill does well to hold off POM, both are only on their feet as a consequence of driving into the other. England bring the ball to midfield and Farrell makes a reasonable kick out to the right wing, May tries to bundle Stockdale into touch but tackles him whilst still in the air, penalty to Ireland, sloppy play from May. Ireland must be very confident that's not an England line out 'cause they're making little effort to get into any sort of shape in defence, impressive so many 30-40m away with a bad view or no view of the incident called it correctly else you might accuse them of laziness

[Digby]

Minute 33

A pretty decent kick to touch from Sexton given the kick is within 5m of touch, up over halfway

Ireland win ball at the front with Ryan who's just up much faster than the competing Itoje, Ireland don't maul but have Stander play the ball to midfield where Ireland have Stockdale run at Ford and make it over the gainline. it is 1st phase ball they're protecting but Ireland have 3 players over the ball to defend a counter ruck that never comes when they were going forwards in contact, straight away they have resourcing issues, and the only cost to England is Ford on the floor.

Larmour is running a hard line off Sexton, but it's not quite timed right, maybe Larmour was never really an option and the ball is a a pullback pass to Aki, Aki has been left with a 3 on 2 underlap and the man outside him has stayed wide on the wing, Aki has no support behind him and is 10m or so behind the gainline.Aki tries to step inside Underhill but Underhill does well to wrap arms around Aki's ankles and prevent him getting an leg drive going. Farrell tries to get over the ball but Ireland get enough numbers in to retain possession

[Digby]

Minute 34

Ireland drive a one out ball and win contact with Lawes to gain a few metres, decent clearout from the Irish locks has the ball available quickly enough but Ireland are still 10m from where the lineout occurred

Ireland play wide to the openside with Sexton sending the ball on, it's basically 6 Vs 6 but the early passing just allows the defence to push up and not the next man, Ireland can't get the ball wider than the 4th man in the chain and he, Henshaw, is reasonably easily scragged by Itoje another 5m or more backwards, Ireland try to set another phase with a drive from a one out pass but they only lose another 5m or so with Curry and Underhill putting the pressure on (I think Kilcoyne). Ireland continue to play and work the ball to the right wing where Manu has pushed up a little in defence but there's little space left and after a few steps drifting from England Conway puts boot to ball and clears down almost to the England 22 where Daly sets up a picnic, has time to eat a poached chicken leg and drink a little Chablis before taking the ball. Basically even with a needless penalty given away by May still Ireland can't get into and stay in England's half putting any pressure on us.

Daly returns the ball down our left and Murray gathers, Murray's plenty of time to set for the kick but perhaps aware they're not putting pressure on England doesn't make the simple exit and tries to step Daly, it doesn't work. Sadly whilst Murray is on the floor with zero support Lawes is unable to get at the ball and unable to stop Murray flap around like a salmon heading upstream, maybe the ref would like to tell Murray he's tackled and he's supposed to stay still and release the ball but again Peyper is trying to let stuff go, what Peyper doesn't let go is Kruis coming in at the side on a counter ruck against Toner. Another needless penalty from England coming very quickly after May's poor effort

[Digby]

Minute 35

Sexton kicks to touch just outside our 22 and Ireland win ball at the front via POM, I've already lost patience with so much ball going to the front. Ireland bring the ball to Aki who looks for Ford, and Ireland have a ruck on the gainline but central.

Ireland work back to the shortside, Murray to POM, Murray wraps around POM and takes a return ball before dropping it off to Sexton, none of this has perturbed England and they're ready to grab Sexton well behind the gainline with no support

[Digby]

Minute 36

Faced with having being handed shit ball Sexton does pretty well, steps the first defender and drives into contact gaining a couple of metres, good solid play from Sexton

Ireland head left where Henshaw is slightly cutting back, Marler goes into I think with an attempt to wrap the ball in the tackle, he certainly doesn't wrap in the actual tackle. Ireland can't win contact driving tight, are putting too many into the breakdown, and then when they try to use the pullback pass again get caught well behind the gainline, Itoje again, this time getting Aki down. Ireland do get the ball back on their side, Herring starts to run as a one out option for Murray and maybe here Ireland get a touch unlucky as Peyper walks across where Murray wants to pass and delays Murray, by the time Murray passes Herring is to flat and the pass is a little behind him, Herring can't make a clean catch and spills it forwards in the tackle from Farrell.

Marler has the ball and flops it towards the feet of Sinckler, Sincks picks up and moves the ball wider where Youngs is running with JJ outside him on the left touchline. Youngs doesn't force a pass but threads a very good grubber down the line which JJ chases. The ball is sadly starts heading for touch just as it's into Ireland's 22 and the favourite to gather or get a toe on it shifts from JJ to Conway, but somehow JJ gets hands to the ball and avoids going into touch, and he's able to present the ball back such VdF can't get at it

[Banquo]

surprisingly, this time Ireland sound surprised by the physicality and linespeed.

[Digby]

Minute 37

VdF causes a slight delay leaning over the ruck but not actually playing the 9, don't know if his slight block on Youngs is intentional ore was going after the ball until he realised he'd be pinged for playing the 9.

Having kicked away turnover ball England have the slight problem that several players dropped to give depth coverage lest Ireland kick it back. Those players are running back up to play as England spread it left but until they arrive we have Youngs sending a long pass to Kruis and Kruis sending a long pass to Underhill, it's not testing stuff, but I've seen worse 15-20m passes of the left by a lock. Underhill has Farrell coming up on his inside but Farrell adjusts and wraps around Underhill, Farrell btw is the first of those players who'd dropped to cover any return kick back in the line, he takes a pass from Underhill and calmly takes the ball to the line before sending a pass to Daly who takes it into contact. It does rather feel like there's a line break gone missing in there for England, but Farrell, Ford and Daly had to come back up the pitch again and we never quite get the right alignment to put Manu or May away (or away with 2 sweeping Irish defenders still to beat). Ireland for some reason when faced with Kruis at first receiver pushed up offside in case he was a blistering pass, so we've been playing that last with an advantage

England head left or back to the middle, Youngs feeds Itoje and Itoje loses contact Vs POM and Aki. From Itoje going into contact it takes us 7 seconds to have Youngs get the ball away, such is the influence of inches in contact. Left again for England and Lawes is trying to drive up the middle doesn't really go anywhere, and the Lawes is flopping like a salmon after the tackle with Stander lying on top of him.

Left again from England, and there's almost a really nice pass from Youngs, it's drawing Ford forwards onto the ball but it's also dipping a little on Ford, however Ford takes it and passes left again to JJ. JJ runs at VDF and passes to Curry as the man on the left wing just before he'd have taken contact. Curry spins around in contact with Conway and starts heading back infield and with JJ blocking VdF there's a nice hole for Curry to run into, pretty sure JJ knows exactly what he's doing but Curry is nearly through but for a lunge tap tackle from Herring. Curry has broken so quickly he's a little unsupported but Larmour doesn't fancy bridging over Curry looking to rip the ball, not even with May being the player up for us looking to prevent any counter ruck from Ireland.

Enfgland head back right and there's some nice footwork from Sincks who's facing a double tackle but steps off his right just enough to draw the tackles and then steps off his left to avoid getting smashed and leaves his hands free to offload to Lawes, heaven knows where Sincks finds the time to work on this stuff, and too we've picked centres who've worried more about things going wrong. Underhill is right there to secure the ball when Lawes can't avoid getting put straight down by Kilcoyne.

England go right again, another pass from Youngs out in front of Ford, another that's just dying a little, again Ford takes it cleanly and he finds Farrell. Owen waits and waits on his pass to try and get a defender to bite, he can't do more with Henshaw closing him down and still gets a ball away to George who makes a metre of so before being dragged down by Sexton with Aki right there. For some reason Daly thinks Sexton dragging down George on top of him is a bigger threat than Aki on his feet so Daly runs in to clatter Sexton, misses and falls onto Ireland's side doing not a lot in the process. Aki folds over George and gets hands in the way to stop George playing the ball back, pretty sure Aki is once more off his feet but once he's got his arms wrapped under George he's impossible for the arriving Itoje to shift. Peyper deems no advantage and heads back for the earlier penalty for the offside, just to the left of the posts just outside the 22

[Digby]

Minute 38

Nothing happens

[Digby]

Minute 39

Nothing happens

[Banquo]

Often wondered whether Ford and Faz tend to stand a yard or two too far from Youngs (or indeed other 9's)- they perceive they might be buying time/space, but in reality a shorter but quicker and more accurate pass would be much better, even if they'd feel under more pressure.

[Digby]

Minute 40

There as a bit of chat from the ref but it's a decent chunk of time to line up and take a simple penalty, Farrell doesn't miss at least.

Ireland kick off into out 22, Curry takes and runs into contact with Aki winning a little ground before hitting the deck. Again Aki tries to get over the ball, again with a take on what it means to be on your feet, but he gets cleared out by George, Itoje and Kruis. Youngs looks to exit with a box kick but being outside the 22 has to keep the ball in play. May can't get to the ball, Larmour is in his way as Conway claims, Underhill tackles but can't get Conway into touch. May tries to counter ruck against POM, he almost drives over the ball, questionable if he's then playing the 9, questionable too is Ryan's clearout technique on May, somebody's going to end up getting hurt, though it wouldn't surprise me to learn Ryan hasn't been cited after the game seeing as the IRB couldn't care less about scatter rucking.

Murray passes back to Stander who runs into Marler and Sincks, Stander can't get his body into a good position and hits the deck with the ball on England's side, seemingly if falls from his grasp too as Peyper rules a knock on and HT

In truth Farrell might be edging the running right now for MoM, but his chance to shine will come