[2024 Six Nations] England vs Ireland - 09/03/24

[Duck a l'Orange]

Biggest disappointment of the day was Borthwick defusing the disagreement with Farrell. Should have swung for him, he doesn't look the same without his nose cut.

 

[Reiser99]

Definite improvement was that the players all look like they wanted to play. Previously they have looked disinterested at times. Nothing of that today.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Heaslip can kiss my ring piece.

Hey to be fair he was almost right

It was just England had to go down to 14 to get the win

 

[Booboobang]

See I don't agree with that, I didn't see any improvement outside of one or two set plays (which we'd shown we always were capable of) - but probably a discussion for a different thread/day

Fair enough, can agree to disagree and discuss another time. I just think the rush defense has gotten better and the increased freedom on attack is enough to be hopefull over.

 

[Rinkadink]

Ireland not at their best today plus hampered by injuries during the match plus perhaps a bit of over-confidence going into the fixture? England at the best they've played in ages (might need to talk about Ford later) and barely scraped by at home with a last second score... wouldn't get carried away by this win.

Still, an obvious improvement should be praised so well done but will this be backed up from hereon? Time will tell. England still not great for generating points from pressure/zone entries, with Smith and Smith at 10 (plus the addition of a suitable backup for Mitchell) things might improve there.

 

[IT157]

 

[Endlessrugby]

Earl is huge. Very similar to Ardie Savea in terms of explosive carries and power at the breakdown for me and NZ base their attack off him a lot. Rest of the pack stepped up today though as well, won the gainline and breakdown against one of the best back rows in the world.

I haven't been this excited in ages! Earl was brilliant AF

 

[TommiG88]

I'm a massive Borthwick fan and have generally been his biggest defender but that game doesn't make him the Lisan al Gaib who has seen the golden path

Liked for the Dune reference

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Ireland not at their best today plus hampered by injuries during the match plus perhaps a bit of over-confidence going into the fixture? England at the best they've played in ages (might need to talk about Ford later) and barely scraped by at home with a last second score... wouldn't get carried away by this win.

Still, an obvious improvement should be praised so well done but will this be backed up from hereon? Time will tell. England still not great for generating points from pressure/zone entries, with Smith and Smith at 10 (plus the addition of a suitable backup for Mitchell) things might improve there.

A building team needs one like this. We beat you in 2021 after a shocking 2 years. This should be a launch pad for a route to the top table in the next 12-18 months.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Would rather listen to an overweight trucker have violent diarrhea in a toilet cubical next to me for an hour than listen to anything Sq**dge has to say about rugby tbh

 

[IT157]

It is just one game, but the team is being built and you can see what they are going for. Just need some consistency with selection and the players getting to know each other better with game time. Hopefully we will start seeing less handling errors.

Hopefully we can build on this victory with a win against France.

 

[Reiser99]

A building team needs one like this. We beat you in 2021 after a shocking 2 years. This should be a launch pad for a route to the top table in the next 12-18 months.

This is key. England have had one off performances previously. This needs to be the platform that they build on.

 

[TommiG88]

Had to turn it off as family are wankers and wanted to watch gladiators. Who go motm?

I would have said Earl. He was insanely good in my opinion today

 

[spursindevon]

Ireland still looking for a quality fly half, points left on the field - there is a definite lack of quality at number 10 throughout the country

 

[Endlessrugby]

Ireland not at their best today plus hampered by injuries during the match plus perhaps a bit of over-confidence going into the fixture? England at the best they've played in ages (might need to talk about Ford later) and barely scraped by at home with a last second score... wouldn't get carried away by this win.

Still, an obvious improvement should be praised so well done but will this be backed up from hereon? Time will tell. England still not great for generating points from pressure/zone entries, with Smith and Smith at 10 (plus the addition of a suitable backup for Mitchell) things might improve there.

Not perfect. But England silences all the naysayers today

 

[IT157]

Had to turn it off as family are wankers and wanted to watch gladiators. Who go motm?

I would have said Earl. He was insanely good in my opinion today

Yep he got MOTM.

 

[BrokenWing]

Did he say England fans are really handsome and knowledgeable?

No, I think he referred to him as "Smellis"

 

[McTallshort]

Had to turn it off as family are wankers and wanted to watch gladiators. Who go motm?

I would have said Earl. He was insanely good in my opinion today

You need another family

 

[TommiG88]

You need another family

I wish it was that easy

 

[TRF_Olyy]

You need another family

Tbf if Sabre was on its understandable