Ireland in instalments

[Digby]

Minute 70

England win the ball and Heinz passes back to Ford who boots the ball upfield just over Ireland's 10m line where Earls collects on the full

Earls runs back up the middle, Ireland recycle and head left where England have to drop a little ground and drift. Ireland have an advantage for May going offside, absolutely no reason for May to have done that he was miles away from the ball and was probably just wandering up to have a look at the ball, just ridiculous

[Digby]

Minute 71

Ireland play to their right and there's a big gap between LCD and JJ, leaving JJ covering Aki, Earls and POM. Farrell has worked to get across and plug the hole but once there Aki stands him up and breaks on his outside, JJ was drawn to that contact and is now spinning around and running back and across in defence, Aki runs at JJ's inside shoulder and barrels him over which allows Farrell to make the tackle, and then of course POM is there for the clearout.

Ireland head left but get caught by England's pressure defence and the ref says lets have the penalty, and Ireland kick a penalty to touch, not the best distance from Byrne but he's telling Poite the ball went further so maybe Byrne did do better

[Digby]

Minute 72

Ireland try to maul but end up on the floor, the ball is passed back to Byrne and he has a number of people very close to him but not really options so he's inspired to float a long ball into midfield where it bounces between the two Irish attackers and is nearly collected on the bounce by Daly. It would still have been a lot of work for the try had Daly collected but it's knocked on and Earl collects before being tackled by Daly, Ireland playing with a knock on advantage.

Ireland look to the shortside and England have a slight numbers problem. So far England have been good at just dropping back and not pushing when they've needed to give, but that's mostly been backs and now there are forwards to read the situation and respond. Itoje goes all in to try and fix the problem by himself which to everyone else just looks like running out of the line worsening our resource problems on the shortside. Byrne floats an easy ball over Itoje and Ireland are off down their left.

Doris takes some metres before feeding the ball inside to Cooney, Cooney is hauled down by LCD and Ireland now up into our 22 recycle

[Digby]

Minute 73

Ireland play to their right and it's much of a muchness until Cooney arrives at a ruck over near the 5m channel and as he was arriving I reckon it'd have looked like there was space to attack on the right fringe but Daly has closed that space and tries to rip ball from Cooney, that draws both Earls and Henshaw to clear Daly away, which they do, but then Ireland only have Byrne bridging over the ball and JJ correctly thinks that says counter ruck.

Following in after JJ it's possible England don't entirely stay on their feet but Peyper decides the first problem was Ireland on the floor trying to seal off the ball once the counter ruck came in

[Digby]

Minute 74

England kick to touch and lose their lineout, at the front, someone up competing with Ewels taps it back on Ireland's side. The TV director was sadly thinking watching Manu walk off and Slade walk on was better watching than the lineout

LCD responds quickly, possibly to his mistake, and collars Cooney. Ireland get the numbers in to protect the ball, but it takes a while for Ireland to get ready to play. Itoje nearly pushes early on the 9 but thankfully restrains himself.

Ireland run a couple of one out plays, at the seconds Earl decides we've been spending too much time in Ireland's 22 so gives away a penalty for no clear release going at the ball (off his feet too) and Ireland have the advantage

[Digby]

Minute 75

England push up the middle in defence and don't really get close enough to slow the ball which leaves us a little narrow out wide, Earls spots it and makes a cut out pass to Stockdale that sends him down the left with May scrambling back. May makes the tackle but Stockdale hooks the ball back to Cooney who steps back outside Farrell before being caught by LCD again, LCD adjudged to have scragged him around the next, possibly a tad harsh it's more over the shoulder but I get we don't want much tolerance.

Ireland drive the ball heading right towards the posts, Ryan picks up at the base and runs at Farrell who makes no attempt at a wrap but tucks the arms in and makes intentional contact with the shoulder, hardly new technique being shown by Faz taking down a bigger player, maybe the ref doesn't notice though Ryan was already looking for the deck, had he tried to drive through Faz that might have proved an interesting case for the ref. Ireland go for a cross field kick and it rolls out of play at the side of our in-goal so it's back for the pen for the high tackle

[Digby]

Minute 76

Ireland opt to kick for touch and have the attacking lineout. Ball won by Ryan, at the front if you'd believe. Ireland try to maul, get munched and lose the ball to a scrum turnover

[Digby]

Minute 77

Lawes awarded MoM, don't think that would have occurred to me, it's been a really flawed game in many ways and no one has really strung enough together. I'd probably kick from Marler, Underhill, Youngs and Farrell

England win their scrum, Earl breaks left and sets up a ruck with a better angle for Heinz

[Digby]

Minute 78

Heinz makes an adequate clearance to around our 10m line. Ireland win their lineout, spoiler alert, at the front and tap down to Cooney.

Ireland move the ball to Aki who runs at Ford, I assume Ford is let off the high tackle because he's not big, it's not dangerous but it's what others have been pinged for. Aki gets well over the gainline. Kelleher with the next carry, tackled by Genge, Ryan helps drive Kelleher forwards and clears Genge by grabbing Genge around the neck, exactly what's being protected when it comes to arms around the neck isn't clear.

[Digby]

Minute 79

Ireland are being drive, slowly, back until Doris drive around the fringes is tackled by Underhill and had LCD right over the ball ripping it back for England, we carry up a few metres and we're looking well set to clear until Heinz decides Farrell is left footed and places a pass back onto Farrell's left hip, Faz doesn't try to correct onto his right but throws a pass crossfield for Ford who boots it into Ireland's half where Stockdale collects just outside their 22. Stockdale carries the ball back up, complete with stepping footwork, before Slade gets him down. Maybe Heinz could get over the ball but he'd be clattered by POM and Doris so Heinz decides it's more important to have a man on the shortside. Ireland potter about between their 22 and 10m line for the remainder of the minute

[Digby]

Minute 80

Eventually Ireland are forced to kick, Farrell takes covering on our left wing, not sure why but Farrell jumps which only delays him being able to work infield and actually I suspect he is just dragged into touch but he's allowed to pop the ball up to Daly. Daly passes off his right hand and sends it over and behind Ford, Ford goes back with the bounce of the ball evading him.

Ford could rush a kick away, any old kick, but doesn't. Other England players could work to get behind Ford and be an option for a pass or to support him going into contact but don't. Stander could be pinged for no release but isn't. Ford is pinged for not releasing, and he wasn't releasing and we didn't support him so fair enough

Ireland kick out into our 22

Ireland win the lineout at the front under pressure from Itoje, god knows how Itoje has cracked their super secret lineout code.

Ireland run a series of one out drives and then a number of pick and goes. Ireland have done better in contact in the last quarter. Eventually Porter is the man to power over, and Cooney adds a decent conversion to add to his claims no a starting role

[Digby]

Basically we lost games to SA and France when losing collisions and won this one winning the collisions. Absolutely nothing new there.

A number of chances were not taken, sometimes the bounce of a ball, sometimes not getting attacking shape right, sometimes skills and sometimes selection proved too great a hurdle.

[Banquo]

Take a break, buddy. You’re hallucinating.

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

[Digby]

Take a break, buddy. You’re hallucinating.

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

But he'd probably still be our best passer in the game, and we rather stank the place out in the 2nd half. I noted somewhere else though his decent passing is covering for him not being a running option, I'm still thinking he should be the 10 or on the bench

[Banquo]

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

But he'd probably still be our best passer in the game, and we rather stank the place out in the 2nd half. I noted somewhere else though his decent passing is covering for him not being a running option, I'm still thinking he should be the 10 or on the bench

Nothing changes then . Agree totally, though he does do a lot at ruck time, not entirely what you want a 2nd 5/8th centre for tho

[Digby]

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

But he'd probably still be our best passer in the game, and we rather stank the place out in the 2nd half. I noted somewhere else though his decent passing is covering for him not being a running option, I'm still thinking he should be the 10 or on the bench

Nothing changes then . Agree totally, though he does do a lot at ruck time, not entirely what you want a 2nd 5/8th centre for tho

He works hard up and down the pitch on the chase, he's scanning a lot of telling others where to attack or where the attack might come from, he gets stuck in at the breakdown as you say, he drops to provide kicking coverage, and yet... But he was picked and he was one of our top performers against a more than decent side

[Mr Mwenda]

Tah, Digby.

[morepork]

Take a break, buddy. You’re hallucinating.

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

Did he feck. Every pass was aimed at a point the receiver was before the ball arrived. None of them allowed the receiver to hit the ball at full noise.

[Greebo]

Thank you Digby, much appreciated.

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[Digby]

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

Did he feck. Every pass was aimed at a point the receiver was before the ball arrived. None of them allowed the receiver to hit the ball at full noise.

Much too harsh, he's looking to manipulate the defence more than anything else and he's not easy to read by a defence which is actually rather useful, and I don't think anyone takes that ball to the line and then puts outs passes in front of a runner, not even Carter reached those standards

[Banquo]

He's pretty much been our best passer in this game, though there remains the question how much is he causing a problem by not being a running option, which is to say is he looking good in the struggling plays we need never have to begin with?

He passed pretty well first half, not the second tho.

Did he feck. Every pass was aimed at a point the receiver was before the ball arrived. None of them allowed the receiver to hit the ball at full noise.

not so first half- and my comment was merely pretty well.....