Ireland in instalments

[Digby]

Minute 1

George Ford with the kick off down the middle, chased hard by Curry and May but neither can get to the receiver as it's well covered by Ireland (blocked). Ireland run a couple of phases and Murray exits just past half way, decent exit from Ireland

England win ball at the front with Lawes and then look to bring the ball wide, maybe England think it's disguise? Really it means by the time the ball gets to Manu we're almost 10m behind the gainline and Ireland are up in defence. Manu drives well into contact and Curry ensures nobody in Green is getting at the ball, ball back to Ford who punts a highish ball down the middle and Daly on the chase gathers ahead of Armour. A bit of a cock up from the Irish centres, there were two of them to Daly and between them nobody blocked Daly and nobody got under the ball, I can accept the ball might have swirled a little in the air but Daly was fairly obvious in the bright white shirt, Aki more to blame for just wandering back

[Digby]

Minute 2

Curry is again there to ensure there's no chance of a green shirt getting onto the ball, Itoje and Underhill are nearby so also attach to the ruck which Ireland aren't contesting, and Farrell is there to ruck inspect. It would be helpful if 2 out of the 3 were already on transition into an attack shape but on another day Ireland would counter ruck and we'd blame them for not protecting the ball.

However with that many players in the ruck we are under resourced in attack Youngs had Marler and Lawes on the open side and Kruis and May on the (large) blindside and goes blind. Youngs is slightly checked by van Der Flier running back onside but I don't think it's that loss of some fraction of a second which inspires Kruis to kick, it's just a bad decision not to carry into contact and recycle.

The grubber attempted by Kruis hits Murray who gathers and is put down. The only good news for England is with Murray at the base it's Stander to act as 9 and he floats the ball slow, high and slightly behind Healy but he does well enough going into contact with Itoje supported by his locks. Murray is back into play and passes to Sexton who punts a fairly aimless kick into England's half that stands no chance of finding touch, frankly no chance of finding grass, and has Murray worked the shortside not passed to Sexton Ireland had options that might have allowed Henshaw or van Der Flier to attack Sinckler with May marking (I assume) Stockdale on the outside of Sincks, could have been interesting. At worst it should have proved recyclable for Ireland but as with many teams they're not looking to play in their half.

Daly gathers the kick and runs into contact to around halfway. Ball back to Ford and there's little confusion as he nearly drops a short ball of to Sincks, decides against that and then Sincks is in his way, once clear Ford passes to Underhill who'd firmly tackled back by Healy and Ryan, but Underhill makes sure the ball is protected and placed back on our side. Ford isn't looking to pass anymore in his half off slowed ball so it's another highish kick down the middle and this time May wins the ball ahead of Larmour, Larmour though has hands on the ball and it takes 3-4 seconds for the ref to tell him to release and another couple of seconds for Youngs to rip the ball. Young starts to run to the open side but can't see an option he wants and sensibly just drops the ball off to Kruis. And Kruis sensibly has given up on thinking he has a skillset to encourage thoughts of kicking.

The problem however with the slow ball England are running is Kruis was the inside man of the 3 Youngs had available and Ryan makes a decent chop tackle on Kruis leaving Marler a tricky support line to Kruis, and Marler (in at the side) can't beat POM (off his feet) down to the ball.

[Digby]

Minute 3

After a while Peyper lost interest in watching a player off their feet play the ball and POM was told it was lost, took a while mind. Youngs works the ball left and Ford carries to the line, or close to, nobody is biting and Ford pulls the ball back to Daly. Daly has Manu and JJ outside but Ireland have drifted and whilst there's 15m it's space that's closing fast, instead of passing or running Daly makes an excellent kick and chase sliding the ball inside Murray who's sweeping behind Conway and still too wide out for Larmour to cover across.

Murray gets back to the ball first and possibly could right away get the ball back to Larmour, but he doesn't quite know where the chasers are and any failure in execution could be really bad so he doesn't shovel on shit ball. Daly tackles Murray, Larmour seals off and Lawes goes off his feet trying to reach over Larmour and Murray. Also worth noting whilst Lawes was passed by Daly when Daly made the kick Lawes was well ahead of him and straight away ran forwards on the chase

Ireland bravely get the sealed off ball back on their side and with Murray again tackled at the base set about running a recovery phase. With Murray back into play he makes a box kick to exit as Itoje works hard to apply pressure on the 9. Ball goes out say 5m past the Irish 22

[Digby]

Minute 4

Lawes wins an uncontested ball at the front, not the straightest throw the world has ever seen even if not a shocker.

England shape to set the maul but have Curry peel away quickly and feed Youngs, Youngs has Underhill and Manu running hard outside him and without much surprise picks out Manu. It's a nice move from England as they ignore the hole that van Der Flier likes to leave as he closes out to in and Manu goes on the outside of Green 7 into Sexton. With van Der Flier unable to correct his footwork Manu drives for several metres into Sexton and Stander as he comes across to help Sexton.

Youngs again with the ball at the base has Sincks running a hard (dummy) line at the guards that's just a bit too early and the ball goes a little wider to Kruis who carries into contact, England are now near the middle with Kruis setting up a split field with his carry.

Van der flier tries to get over the ball, maybe he showed a release, maybe Itoje clears him out front on not piling into the side of vdF. Back with Youngs again and he passes (bit too wind up) to Ford as England head right. Ford just moves it on to Farrell and Farrell makes a nice pull back pass to JJ who's worked across off his wing, but England aren't committing defenders to the ball and whilst it's an okay bit of footwork from JJ to try and find a seam between Aki and Henshaw, Daly who was the attacker ahead of JJ when Farrell made the pullback pass might have blocked Aki better, then again he might have given away a penalty.

Whatever from the point JJ goes into contact it takes us 6 seconds or so to get the ball back into play and that tends not to be the sort of play which inspires tries. Having gone right England head back to the left where Yonugs has our front row as the 3 man pod, Sinckler the man at the apex. As Sincks takes a two man tackle he drops off a delightful pass to George on his outside, it's one of the moments of the game, amazing skill from anyone, from a prop it's just being silly

van der Flier gets George down without too many metres coughed up, but it's quick ball coming now for England, Marler tries to hold VdF in the ruck but only has a loose hold on the back of the shirt which isn't enough.

Youngs passes to Ford out left who has forwards for options either side, again Ford goes to the line and this time he attracts two defenders with Healy slightly biting in on Ford allowing Ford to drop a nice inside ball to Lawes on the charge, this also works because at the last ruck Stander was the guard making sure Youngs didn't have an easy snipe, and Herring working around the open side didn't work outside Stander but was content to do less work and feed in inside Stander leaving a gap between Stander and Healy that Lawes is released into. So some nice work from England allied to some lazy work from Ireland given the players haven't been going hard at it for 70 minutes.

Youngs moves the ball quickly to the left, which is fine as the 9 from the base, but Ford is a little over excited and moves the ball too quickly to Farrell when the defence can just drift. And Farrell passes too quickly to Tuilagi again allowing the defence to drift. Poor from England's 10 and 12, not even excused by having Manu on the outside

Yes the defence is always going to drift but when Ford gets the ball we have a 3 on 2, by the time we get the ball to Manu he has 2 defenders ahead of him, our early passing not engaging the defence has turned an overlap into an underlap.

Manu takes the ball into contact and is well tackled by Conway, straight away Murray goes off his feet to slow the ball and with Farrell having to hurdle Conway to support he has time to slow the ball, it's a 4 second breakdown in the end, but the next phase sees Marler carrying up quickly as we're again heading back to the right. Itoje possibly thinks about a pick and go but Youngs is quick to make sure the ball is moved away and fires a pass to Lawes. Lawes is a bit too flat however and would get the ball along with a tackle from Furling and Toner, the pass is also high and Lawes can only knock it down on England's side. Bit of a mess but Underhill gathers the lose ball, Itoje bridges over Underhill and Ryan clatters into Itoje from the side, it's a cheap shot from Ryan and well worthy of a sanction

[Digby]

Minute 5

There's no sanction for Ryan, bad officiating on the field, worse from the TMO

The mess created by Ryan has allowed Ireland to grab the ball on the floor, and rather than a penalty to England and at the very least a warning about a yellow card for dangerous play and cynical play being so close to the line we're told to get away from the ball.

Curry isn't moving away from the ball, or looking for the ball, so Toner and Ryan (back to his feet) scatter ruck into Curry, Toner following Ryan's example of coming from the side. And the with Curry at that point on the floor away from the ruck Ryan is inspired to make yet another shoulder charge on a prone player.

In 10 seconds this is rather a lot for the ref, TJs and TMO to miss. Ref gives a scrum to Ireland, somewhere in that mess the ball was knocked on

[Digby]

Minute 6

The scrum sees both sides get the left shoulder up, or maybe both get their right pushed back, but Ireland hold the scrum and Stander passes from the base to Murray who makes a clearing kicking almost up to the Ireland 10m line

[Digby]

Minute 7

England win ball with Lawes in a shortened lineout and bring the ball out to midfield and Manu. Curry isn't convincing as a dummy runner with his hands but he probably couldn't reach that pass anyway.

We rather have to wrestle Stander off the ball so we've split the field but haven't secured fast ball off our 1st phase. England head left, Farrell's side not Ford's side, and Ireland do have the numbers to at least assign 1 defender to 1 attacker but they push up a little hard on the shortside and get too narrow which Farrell spots and makes an excellent cut out pass to George who scampers down the left touchline and then to try and keep the ball alive pushes it back blindly on the floor, and here Ireland get a touch unlucky as POM beats Farrell to the ball but only gets dragged into touch for his troubles and concedes the lineout

England win the lineout uncontested though again I've seen straighter throws and Ford gets ready to kick from the left to the right and down into Ireland's 22

[Digby]

Minute 8

It's basically just a bad kick from Ford which Larmour tracks and catches on the full, but then to the surprise of I assume everyone doesn't call for the mark. Whatever, Ireland run a phase and Murray exits with a box kick, again under big pressure from Itoje and the ball goes towards the touchline but not out.

May does brilliantly to gather the ball and not get dragged into touch, though were I Ireland I'd want to know what Stockdale though he was doing not getting May into touch, Stockdale seemed to want to wrap his arms around May and then execute a sit down tackle dragging May with him, many scholars will say just use the touchline and drive May into touch. May carries in a few metres and Aki goes off his feet over the ball but somehow the ruck clearing by Farrell and Daly works and we play the ball towards the left and Sinks gets tackled hard on the gainline after a bit of a show and go effort.

England head left again, there's a good leg drive carry from Lawes and good clearout from Underhill to ensure there's never a contest and then with quick ball Youngs clocks the Irish 15 is further over on the shortside and both wingers are up in the line. Youngs stabs a kick just to the right of the goalposts which Sexton desperately tries to gather but the ball eludes him and Ford is there to do down for the try. Excellent work from England in getting a fast ruck, a good spot from Youngs and even if Sexton can gather we're probably getting a 5m attacking scrum out of that play

[Digby]

Minute 9

Farrell knocks over the extras

[Digby]

Minute 10

Ireland kick off to the left with Stockdale ahead of the kicker and even taking that risk not putting much effort into the chase.

JJ catches the ball as Manu slides past him the wrong way having been shoved by Stockdale, so at least Stockdale put some effort in. JJ steps a tackle and goes into contact. Youngs makes a solid box kick clear almost to halfway, Youngs loses points for holding his kicking position like a golfer pleased with their shot after the ball is away.

[Digby]

Minute 11

Ireland win the lineout at the tail, England go to compete but don't bother as the ball is too far down the Ireland side (not really any worse than some of our throws mind) Itoje gets around onto the receiver and Ireland are over the 15m line allowing the defence up and from their own 1st phase ball set about playing with a 10 second ruck. Ireland work the shortside and Kruis makes a high tackle on Healy, not dangerous but others that high will be pinged.

Ireland give up trying to play and Murray makes a box kick down the touchline, or really sticks the ball straight up in what's a bad box kick. Stockdale made sure at least he was ahead of the kick, the TJ I think is even telling Stockdale he's ahead but does nothing about it. Stockdale goes up with may to contest and May knocks the ball on and Itoje grabs it from an offside position. Working with his TJ Peyper will have to give England on obvious penalty, but owing to an advanced piece of officiating it's a penalty to Ireland for Itoje getting caught offside, at least it's a rare Itoje penalty for being offside that isn't Itoje's fault

[Digby]

Minute 12

Sexton makes a penalty kick to touch, his mark was miles ahead of Itoje's offence and it's still not a kick that's close to 5m out. Something isn't right with Sexton.

Ireland win the lineout, set and drive a maul, the maul goes down and England are penalised, Ireland launch a kick towards the right touchline with the advantage that neither Daly nor Conway can claim

[Digby]

Minute 13

Ireland rather the loose ball and run a number of phases but are basically going backwards, until Kruis tackles Stander and gives up a penalty for not rolling away. Not sure what I think about that penalty, normally I tend to conclude if you're on the wrong side it's your fault, but her it's the tackled player falling beyond the tackler not the tackler accidentally on purpose falling over the ball, and once there Kruis lies very flat and still and the ball is available to play, frankly Ireland have slowed our ball more than his already and Peyper hasn't been fussed so I assume we've just ended up painting a bad picture here rather than actually doing much wrong. Sexton makes an aimless kick which ensures it'll be a shot for 3 points.

[Digby]

Minute 14

Nothing happens

[Digby]

Minute 15

Sexton makes a horrible contact with the ball, this would have been a mad attempt in our game up in Edinburgh, never on target from almost bang in front. Shocking, and surely there's something wrong with him, you could fall over in the run up and still make a kick from there

England drop off to the left with Underhill, Tuilagi and JJ chasing. Stander catches the ball and gets Manu knocking him back off his feet in a clatter tackle (from which Manu is slow back to his feet), Underhill goes straight off his feet over the ball. Ireland do get the ball back on their side but they have 4 forwards on the ground at the ruck and Murray ready to pass away, 10 players on their feet against a defensive line pushing up is a brave time to play. Ireland try to play.

Ireland move the ball left or to the open side, and Larmour just about gets the ball away moments from being caught 10-15m behind the gainline with no support, but it's slow ball shovelled over the shoulder so even with England narrow in pressing up May has time to shift across, POM gathers the ball and promptly passes to Stcokdale who knocks on, Peyper doesn't have a view but gets a shout from someone. 100% Stockdale's fault, okay perhaps in the first instance he's waiting for Sexton to kick but he's seen bad ball shovelled across and hasn't made even a tiny effort to get back behind POM who is having to pick ball off the floor from a slow pass and just tries to wait for POM to draw level before more forwards again, POM's pass is flat and still behind Stockdale who knocks on trying to control the ball. No idea if Earls isn't fit or Zebo has lost a leg, but either would be better than Stockdale so far, you can excuse taking the wrong decision or a failed skill execution, hard to excuse not even making an effort.

[Digby]

Minute 16

The scrum sets

[Digby]

Minute 17

The scrum wheels so that minute was a waste of time and we'll try again

The scrum wheels again but no whistle this time

[Banquo]

Sexton's leg was so strapped up I'm surprised he could even bend it.

[Digby]

Minute 18

Youngs gets the ball from the base (side) and it's play on for whatever reason. England pass the ball left from Youngs to Ford, to Farrell to Daly. Daly is on the outside of our midfield group with JJ a little wider again. Daly is rushed up on by Conway who realises it's a problem if the ball gets wider to JJ and he's looking to get Daly man and ball. Maybe ideally Daly looks to step Conway or pass anyway to JJ, maybe the team have been encouraged too much to look for a chance to kick into Ireland's 22, Daly punts kick ahead (under pressure) and it's caught by Larmour who this time remembers to call for the mark.

Larmour makes a crap touch finder, I assume he just sliced the ball

England win the lineout with Lawes at the front, and again we're looking to move ball from the front wider, if the first time was one of our weird ruses we're continuing on the basis of the last thing the enemy expects?

It's a shit play from England but it sort of works because we have Manu to take it into contact

[Digby]

Sexton's leg was so strapped up I'm surprised he could even bend it.

They didn't have to make make their sick note the captain

[Banquo]

Sexton's leg was so strapped up I'm surprised he could even bend it.

They didn't have to make make their sick note the captain

indeed. Did you understand a word of what Wilko was saying to try and explain why Sexton played like a drain?

[Digby]

Minute 19

Youngs back to Ford who turns so much the inside ball isn't an option and he's no obvious pass outside, he's almost blocking himself, maybe he thought someone would be offering on a different line. He doesn't though shovel ball on and just takes contact.

Herring is having a go at the ball off his feet, the ball is delayed pretty much the same amount of time from when Kruis was adjudged lying on the wrong side, not the worst piece of slowing the ball from Herring but the distinction is murky.

Marler carries up on the next play and gets some good leg drive with assistance from Sincks, but then in some good defence Marler gets nudged back a bit too. Aki falls on the wrong side, far more in purpose than anything Kruis did, Aki delays the ball more than Kruis did, ref says ball's available and play on, heh ho.

England come left again, Farrell has George and Underhill outside him, Underhill coming from more depth and at more pace. Really nice pass dropped off from Farrell and Ireland had to wait until Underhill had almost before knowing where it was going, Underhill carries over the gainline.

Youngs back to Ford and Ford is undone by England's blocking as Henshaw has pushed up into the line and suddenly appears around Marler blocking the option Ford was possibly after (and all I've got here is he wanted to kick it into Ireland's 22), Ford tries to correct with a dink kick pass to May out wide even though May would have been marked and it seems he could have dropped an actual pass off to Daly who could have run into the hole Henshaw has left. It's not even a good kick, actually it's awful, May goes back to collect and gets scragged by Henshaw. England work the ball back their side, on another day that's holding on, Peyper doesn't seem to want to officiate on much

Youngs tries to break down the shortside and gets tackled, he's looking for a pass/offload of the floor to George but it's not there and then I'm assuming the ball is ripped from him as it's a scrum for a knock on

[Digby]

Sexton's leg was so strapped up I'm surprised he could even bend it.

They didn't have to make make their sick note the captain

indeed. Did you understand a word of what Wilko was saying to try and explain why Sexton played like a drain?

When he was trying to explain what it was like for him? I'll give Jonny this, he's trying to be honest, but I can't imagine many are actually like him. He'd do better sticking to the technical, which he can do, and leave the mental side of it alone. I felt sorry for BOD with a presenter that doesn't know much about rugby and Clive and Jonny alongside

[Digby]

Minute 20

The scrum has bound but not set. So at least something happened

[Banquo]

They didn't have to make make their sick note the captain

indeed. Did you understand a word of what Wilko was saying to try and explain why Sexton played like a drain?

When he was trying to explain what it was like for him? I'll give Jonny this, he's trying to be honest, but I can't imagine many are actually like him. He'd do better sticking to the technical, which he can do, and leave the mental side of it alone. I felt sorry for BOD with a presenter that doesn't know much about rugby and Clive and Jonny alongside

He's like a walking self help podcast imo. It was the mental side of being an established player and how hard that was.....erm...but it was gobbledegook