There seemed to be a real sense of grievance circulating the crowd alright and they let it be known for sure. The respect the kicker thing went out the window! That galvanised the English lads and maybe stultified some of ours. The main issue I have with the performance though is how we managed the referee. He gave England control of every access point into the game and in my opinion he was riding the emotional rollercoaster every bit as much as Jamie George. Just take the sting out of that. Play no rugby ball in hand, be squeaky clean in defence and allow England to make mistakes. I'm not trying to be insulting here but they weren't a threat. Giving them the ball for a while wouldn't have led to much. The crowd will eventually die down (on account of English errors or lack of action), the referee will regain his composure somewhat and then you can look to play some rugby. Also, get in the referees ear as soon as. Raynal is an intransigent fucker at the best of times and I get the distinct impression he and Sexton aren't on the best of terms. Even so, ask for clarification on every decision and point out double standards when they occur. In short think your way through it.
Hometown refereeing is a thing, especially in the 6 Nations, and it shapes games. We benefit from it all the time in Dublin. It's not without a measure of control for me though and the really good teams that get a grip of it are able to attain a consistency of performance. We're definitely not there yet.
Even though i'm *****ing about the referee and complaining about elements of the performance, there were lots of positives for us that i'm taking for granted. I've been reading a lot about English forward dominance. I'll accept set piece dominance but in general play i thought the collisions were pretty much even. When it mattered too, 5 metres out, their maul was stopped dead... it was allowed to remain stationary for 20+ seconds too. That's a big plus for us.
