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[2018 6 Nations] Round 5 : England v Ireland (17/03/2018)

It'll be a 3 3 draw. Keith Earls with a DG. And CJ with an 80m dash back to stop Mike Brown on the try line
 
Tigs Man said:
If it is brown making the run in for the try i'm sure even best could stop him from 80 out.
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Ha in all seriousness though I can see it being a tight affair. England will be uptight and determined to win but not risk being opened up. Ireland' mentality will be hard to gauge. Of course they'll be fired up to get the Slam but will there subconsciously be a lull as they know they are Champions regardless.
Either way they will also keep it tight and thing it will be a low scoring game
 
Although we'd obviously prefer to be in the ***le hunt but I for one am enjoying the reduced pressure and expectations - and being underdogs for once. When was the last time we went into a game talking about ruining someone else's shot at the slam? 2012 I guess, sort-of, though it was in the middle of the tournament.
 
1. James Cronin
2. Mike Sherry
3. Brian Scott
4. Billy Holland
5. Ian Nagle
6. Clive Ross
7. Jake Heenan
8. James Coughlan
9. Ed Fairhurst
10. Paddy Jackson with a moustache
11. Darragh Fanning
12. Noel Reid
13. Gary Ringrose
14. Colm McKay
15. Mike Haley


That's the team I'd like to see beat England. It's a slightly conservative selection but we shouldn't be using a potential Grand Slam to try and build depth. We should go with what we know.
 
Its a big occasion for the younger players in the Ireland team. Ryan has yet to make a mistake but Leavy, Stockdale, Conan and Larmour have made bad mistakes in defence this tournament. The pressure is upped massively this weekend and generally with pressure you get more mistakes.

Even if we play well we won't have much in hand on England. Hope it goes well for them but its definitely a concern for me.
 
Groundhog said:
You have to remember he might struggle to make the team because unlike England we don't play an average of 6 second rows in our pack every game.
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Groundhog said:
1. James Cronin
2. Mike Sherry
3. Brian Scott
4. Billy Holland
5. Ian Nagle
6. Clive Ross
7. Jake Heenan
8. James Coughlan
9. Ed Fairhurst
10. Paddy Jackson with a moustache
11. Darragh Fanning
12. Noel Reid
13. Gary Ringrose
14. Colm McKay
15. Mike Haley


That's the team I'd like to see beat England. It's a slightly conservative selection but we shouldn't be using a potential Grand Slam to try and build depth. We should go with what we know.
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That right wing is a HIA or yellow card waiting to happen waiting to happen.
 
corny said:
Its a big occasion for the younger players in the Ireland team. Ryan has yet to make a mistake but Leavy, Stockdale, Conan and Larmour have made bad mistakes in defence this tournament. The pressure is upped massively this weekend and generally with pressure you get more mistakes.

Even if we play well we won't have much in hand on England. Hope it goes well for them but its definitely a concern for me.
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But equally they've learnt from their mistakes. And have learnt what it takes. Look at Conan for example made 2 really telling errors defensively and was put out to slaughter and Jordi Murphy then took his shot. So instead of benching vs England Conan will have to reflect. But it means he will know next time and well it sets a standard.
I use Conan as an example but it could be same for alot of others down the last few years
 
Reasons to be pessimistic:
  • England are at home.
  • Sexton's kicking has been off.
  • We have no confidence in our replacement backs.
  • Hartley is injured.
  • Lawes and Hughes being injured means EJ will have to pick a real backrow.
Reasons to be optimistic
  • That backrow will probably include either James Haskell or a lock.
  • England's only intelligent back (other than Farrell) could be out.
  • Their pack looms exhausted.
  • England are desperately missing Ben Youngs.
  • This will probably end up as a slugfest where our brilliant discipline as opposed to their terrible discipline could see us edge it. (Although Sexton's kicking means we might not take advantage as much as possible).
  • England had two weeks to fix their problems after Edinburgh and they made the exact same mistakes in Paris and they've only got one week now.
  • Our key players are in great form (except for Sexton who's at about 80% which will still be enough to eat Ford for breakfast, lunch and dinner twice).
  • Our halfbacks are miles better.
  • Our sub forwards are making a big impact off the bench.
  • We're scoring tries, they're not.
  • Whatever backrow they do pick won't have played together much and they'll be against two turnover machines in Leavy and POM.
  • There is a tiny chance that SOB will be back.
  • Our players are smarter.
Despite the fact that one of these lists us much much longer than the other one I still think we'll lose. I can see the occasion getting to some of the young players and putting maybe putting some key players (other than Sexton who'll stay calm) just slightly off. If we play to our best it's there for the taking but it'll be some achievement to play to our best in Twickenham with a hostile crowd and against a team who desperately need a win. England by less than 7 but that could change after I see their team.
 
Leinster Fan said:
Reasons to be optimistic
  • England's only intelligent back (other than Farrell) could be out.
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Just to say I agree with 99% of what you said except this, Ford & Watson are actually quite intelligent backs in themselves and if you include Youngs (injured) & JJ (dropped) out of the side that's being doing well its only really May and Brown I wouldn't class as 'intelligent' players, Problem is 1 through 9 are getting shown up so badly at the moment that it makes it impossible for 10 through to 15 to do anything that resembles intelligent play.
 
Is hartley still injured? Even if he's not i hope we still play george LCD.

Got to be,

Mako
George
Sinkler
Itoje
Launchbury
Armand
Hask
Simmonds
Wigs
Faz
May
Teo
JJ
Watson
Brown (as daly/nowell are out)

LCD
Marler
Cole (unfortunatly)
Kruis (no lawes available)
Robshaw (no one else is there?)
Care
Ford (although screw it give marcus smith a shot he's been in the camp long enough)
Solomona/earle?

Armand and hask in as i want to see how we do without him.



Tbh i think that is the strongest starting 15 we currently have but that is just a god awful bench lol,
 
ncurd said:
Just to say I agree with 99% of what you said except this, Ford & Watson are actually quite intelligent backs in themselves and if you include Youngs (injured) & JJ (dropped) out of the side that's being doing well its only really May and Brown I wouldn't class as 'intelligent' players, Problem is 1 through 9 are getting shown up so badly at the moment that it makes it impossible for 10 through to 15 to do anything that resembles intelligent play.
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I'll give you that Ford and Watson are and can be smart players, but they haven't looked it this year. It's true that the service has been very poor but some of the defence has been a bit brainless as well. Daly was noticeably smarter than the rest of the backline on Saturday (except for the brain lapse when he shoved Machenaud) which given he was just back from injury says a lot about the rest of them. I don't think that it's a major problem for England and it'll sort itself out if they can fix the problems with the service he's been getting.
 

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