[2025 Six Nations] Ireland vs England - 01/02/25

[Saintjay]

So Ireland would swap Aki/Henshaw & Ringrose for Slade & Lawrence? I don't think Italy would swap Menoncello & Brex for S&L!

That was my point, check what I was replying too.

 

[IT157]

Lawrence was decent today, but I think we have the worst centre pairing in the comp.

Wales haven't been kicked out just yet.

 

[Abraxaz]

Wales haven't been kicked out just yet.

Nah because they are in the sub tournament with Italy and us for the wooden spoon.

Which two teams can be less **** and avoid it this year?

Whilst France, Ireland and Scotland fight it out for the championship.

 

[Wasps92]

Pushed the lifter.

You aren't allowed to do it inadvertently, so WTF was your captain, the man supposed to be discipline leader in the team, thinking he could get away with doing it deliberately?!?


I think BOK could, and perhaps should have reversed a penalty or two for Lowe's desire to start a row (I would have on the 2nd instance at very least).
That said, did his winding up of CCS lead to CCS shooting the line a minute later looking to make a big hit... only for Lowe himself to run through the big hole CCS just left?
PsyOps?!?

Pushed the lifter. **** off man. Breathed on him maybe.

 

[Welsh Exile]

Honestly, I think I'm done with this place. All people seem to want to do is focus on the negative.

I think we put in a pretty decent performance overall. Losing to a good team doesn't make you 'shite'.

At least you're not Welsh.

 

[OllyM97]

Honestly, I think I'm done with this place. All people seem to want to do is focus on the negative.

I think we put in a pretty decent performance overall. Losing to a good team doesn't make you 'shite'.

That game in isolation wasn't a disaster - I've seen far worse England performances against much worse opponents than this Irish side. I think the thing that's annoying people is that we are seeing the same errors and the same trends recurring with this England side in pretty much every game against the top teams. Maybe we're not good enough, but my god, we don't help ourselves a lot of the time. If we lost but showed that we were learning from our mistakes I think people would be a lot more accepting of it. The unforced errors that we make are just off the charts.

 

[Jetwash Johnny]

No-one has mentioned that most of the Irish players play in a 2nd rate league for a top european club with a massive squad. They have the odd 50 minute trot against inferior opposition to keep match fit but that's it. England players are in hard games week in and week out. I think that's a big part of why they drop-off later in games. When the all-blacks were dominating, no all black played any club rugby and were always fresh and carrying no knocks.

 

[Geordie]

One of the issues I have with the team is the lack of real physica explosive dynamism...

Underhills tackling...is bone shuddering...but we have very few else who smash when carrying. Actually Lawrence finally boshed a few people today but who else. George Martin supposedly in for thst doesnt smash people back or smash through people with ball in hand.
Wheres our Bundee Aki or Danty etc....

we need to develop a few of those....

 

[Rinkadink]

No-one has mentioned that most of the Irish players play in a 2nd rate league

Where have you been for years? It's premiership rugby that is second rate, the URC and Top14 are tougher competitions.

England players are in hard games week in and week out

The premiership season is utterly f***ed. There are multiple month gaps between fixtures and the salary cap is making talent flood out to other leagues around the world plus failing to bring in enough world class players from elsewhere.

There needs to be less emphasis international rugby and a minimum of a 14 team premiership ASAP. Which club do you support?

 

[Don't Skip Leg Day]

@BPM I'm with you, thought the performance was an improvement overall and lots of green shoots. We were beaten by a better team but out in a good showing.

It feels like taking France at home next week is doable after watching that.

 

[Vieux Talonneur]

I'm one of those who's annoyed and more than a bit fed up.

Not because we lost, but because we looked so flaming clueless in the second half having done OK in the first. We were falling apart well before subs time and effort isn't enough at this level. There's no obvious progress, any step forward is followed by 2 back.

It's not like the starting XV didn't have reasonable experience. Stuart, Genge and LCD all have 40+ caps, Itoje's knocking on 90, T Curry's over 50, Earl and M Smith closing in on 40, Slade's over 60, Lawrence and Steward both 30+. Even Martin, Freeman and Mitchell have been around the squad for a while now and well in the teens. Only B Curry and Murley can really plead inexperience at this level and they're both 25/6 so at least have a lot of club experience - not kids bursting on the scene. These guys ought to be able to problem solve and more of them need to stand up and deliver match influencing performances, not the odd moments - IFW has, Martin did initially.

The bench was ridiculously raw though.

At the end of the day it's about results. We're not getting them and haven't for ages. My guess is that, for whatever reason, the players just aren't responding to SB - the warning was there in the absence of new coach bounce. I suspect he's a good guy, but not the right guy and the coaching team he's surrounded himself with won't have a clue how to put this right.

 

[Bluemoon]

I think we put in a pretty decent performance overall. Losing to a good team doesn't make you 'shite' Warren

 

[Jetwash Johnny]

Where have you been for years? It's premiership rugby that is second rate, the URC and Top14 are tougher competitions.



The premiership season is utterly f***ed. There are multiple month gaps between fixtures and the salary cap is making talent flood out to other leagues around the world plus failing to bring in enough world class players from elsewhere.

There needs to be less emphasis international rugby and a minimum of a 14 team premiership ASAP. Which club do you support?

Well, I was in france for a bit but now spend most of my time on my boat. I would love to see a 14 team premiership but difficult to see it with current eligibility rules. I don't support a club so that i can watch games as a neutral - but I do have secret favourites.

 

[Ragey Erasmus]

England are consistently on the wrong side of penalty counts.. In fact I don't think we've had a single year in over a decade where we have averaged more penalties in our favour than against us.

Part of it in some cases is bias but a huge part is English rugby just generally seems to have a **** poor attitude towards discipline, everything seems to be geared too heavily to always pushing the boundaries. You have to do that a fair bit too win but we are constantly falling on the wrong side.

We also never adapt to how the game is being reffed ever. It's part of the reason we were at bad when Italy did the no offside line thing a few years back.

English rugby really needs to hammer discipline into the players. Constantly playing on the edge may get you things in a tight hand but rock solid discipline makes you extremely difficult to beat.

We need to get back to the basics of being a side that are extremely difficult to beat like we were in the early days of Jones.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I was pretty happy with that game and a great one to be at, night and day from the NZ atmosphere. Far from perfect, 45mins of the bad we saw in autumn but 35mins of top quality rugby. We're in this to win it anyway.

Unimpressed by Borthwick weighing in on Prendergast and Crowley. He sent his team out to rattle Prendergast all day (as he should) and Sam shrugged it off and taught his goldenboy how to manage a game with his boot. His execution wasn't perfect, he made mistakes and showed his inexperience but he was the boss of that team and did a lot to drag his team out of the hole they were in the first half. England clearly didn't do their homework on him because they gave him space to run, attack the edges effectively and create space for good strike runners. He showed serious balls to take a 45m penalty to go ahead after missing two also. Importantly, took on the role, we missed from the two 10s in the autumn, played the ball and worked the game through himself. He's got the jersey for next week. A 4 from the telegraph is madness.

Crowley was very good off the bench, changed the pace and focus of the attack and England really struggled with that adjustment.

I think the second half showed some evolution in attack, it's a less intricate system without Sexton but it was effective in both finding gaps in midfield and attacking the edges, that's all you can really ask for.

Great to see the lineout go so well. Not put under much legal pressure but it really helped in keeping the territory battle in our favour.

Kicking game was great, we lost the contestable battle and didn't really engage unless there was the opportunity to isolate Murley (God help the lad, reminded me of Balshaw in 01). Long kicks, finding grass and either inviting them to run it back and have the ball in their own half or kick it to Lowe, Keenan or Prendergast who'd put them back under pressure.

The bench was a serious weapon. Conan, Sheehan, Crowley and Henshaw were all brilliant and added pace and power as England faded, their bench just couldn't match up. When they were introduced we were turning the game in our favour and they put it to bed.

The defence is unbelievable. Old school rugby league style blanket, making an incredible amount of dominant hits to make up for the lack of natural fetchers.

Now the handling in the first half and last 5 minutes were bad. I hope that can be put down to rust and coasting early. More to improve on and grow.

Thought Lowe or Ringer were Motm for attack and defence respectively. JGP improved but had a shocking first quarter.

As for England, I didn't think it was as bad as is being made out here. I thought the idea leading into this game from some that the teams were at the same level was premature and it's Ireland in Dublin, we've lost 1 of our last 20 here.

One striking thing for me was Itoje, I thought he was good individually but he was manic. He tried to intimidate O'Keeffe and any Irish player he got close to, it bled into his team a bit who weren't as good mentally as Ireland today amd lost cool in key moments. He handed the Lions captaincy to Doris today imo. Be a captain or the shithouse, you can't be both and there's plenty of English ***** in that team fully capable of matching our manbunned **** (compliments).

England's Intensity for the first 60 was class. Their breakdown work was brilliant. Contestable kicking excellent. I think they executed their gameplan very well, it just wasn't a gameplan to beat a top international side away from home. Don't think Borthwick is that guy, he doesn't understand it yet.

I think a team that has been beaten so consistently due to territorial pressure and not being able to play extended periods of games in the right positions, and have Fin Smith at their disposal should really try him out. Marcus earned a bit of respect from me today (I'm sure he's delighted and if he wants me to sign a bumber sticker for his G-Wagon attesting to it, I'd be glad to) he took some ******* punishment and kept goin, we went after him. Problem is that it worked, he was dangerous and had a few positive impacts in the first quarter but never a point of difference after coming back on from his sin bin. I never felt Ireland were really pressured with kicks finding grass deep in our half and when he wasn't in position to hang a contestable just outside the 22 and facing a strong picture from the Irish D, he seemed a bit lost. Hard to judge Fin, game was getting weird and approaching garbage time by the time he was introduced (praise me for not lording the two tries here, thanks).

Midfield needs something, I thought they both played well today but as a pairing they were massively outclassed both sides of the ball. Could say the same about the front row too, a 2, 3 and 13 would he huge for this team.

Honestly, I think I'm done with this place. All people seem to want to do is focus on the negative.

I think we put in a pretty decent performance overall. Losing to a good team doesn't make you 'shite'.

Please don't go. I won't bring bloodgate up in April, promise!

i don't but still.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I won't bring bloodgate up in April, promise!

Much like Hansen: you wouldn't have a leg to stand on


All very good comments apart from massively overrating Prendergast, but when the two 10s that were better than him were Smith and a Munster player I get it

 

[Saintjay]

Much like Hansen: you wouldn't have a leg to stand on


All very good comments apart from massively overrating Prendergast, but when the two 10s that were better than him were Smith and a Munster player I get it

Smith's and a Munster player

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Much like Hansen: you wouldn't have a leg to stand on


All very good comments apart from massively overrating Prendergast, but when the two 10s that were better than him were Smith and a Munster player I get it

I don't think I massively overrated him, more that he's got an undeserved bashing for a 7/10 performance. He played the game he was put on the pitch to do.

As much a point of difference as any 10 on the day really. Like the pubs in Dublin this evening, 7s all round (both men and women, as I am at home).

 

[TRF_Olyy]

both men and women, as I am at home

Probably for the best, you'd have only dragged the average down to a Prendergast 4/10

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Probably for the best, you'd have only dragged the average down to a Prendergast 4/10

Realised this was coming tge second I hit post. Well done.