England v Ireland Autumn Nations Cup | 21.11.20 KO 15:00 | RTE 1 Read Post #5

An inconsistent but capable Ireland visit a consistently dominant England in Twickenham during this years alternative competition.

After peaking to probably the best team in the world in 2018, an inaccurate Ireland fell to a powerful England who ended our six nations campaign before it started in February 2019.

This 32 points to 20 win heralded a turning point in the fortunes of both teams with Ireland suffering a further heavy defeat to Wales and going on to falter completely in the World cup (having suffered a record defeat to England during the August build ups).

England consequently entered the World cup final as favourites only to be defeated by an inspired South Africa.

That game in February last year really was the end of a feel good period for Irish rugby and we haven't been the same since. The squad facing England today is quite different in makeup but with key injuries throughout the 23 it's almost a scratch team with few tested combinations.

A win today would restore some much needed belief to team Ireland but I think a more realistic expectation would be to hopefully push England into their top gear and keep the score as close as possible.

Our second half performance against France would quell my optimism and our dominance but inaccuracy against Wales isn't really much to go on heading into one of the most difficult fixtures in World Rugby.

I expect England to win by 10 or more.

sydthebeat

Parity at the set piece and a steadying of the ship in contact and at ruck time is what I'm looking for.

I don't want to see us rucked off our own ball, not do I want to see many incidents of us getting hit with dominant tackles. If we have to play boring and tight so be it.

If we can keep england below 25 and play the majority of the game within one score I'll be happy.

Paul Weller

I expect our pack to play well and give us a platform to build attacks.... that our half backs will not be able to convert to chances as they will be heavily blitzed.
Again..hope I'm wrong.... but I believe the English will heavily target our pairing and force them into costly mistakes

mfceiling

I want them to refer to the subs as "substitutes" not "finishers". They can fcuk off with that bollix for a start.

Zzippy

Mod warning: Zero tolerance policy is in force. Any messing, trolling, hitching about project players or just generally being a dick will result in being banned.

Faugheen

I really hope Lowe can get under their skin. As I said last week, it’s about time we had a proper sh*thouse in the team that knows how to wind up the opponents but has the ability to make plays as well.

I feel like that back-three will be peppered with high balls as well.

Piehead

Ross Byrne has no place in that team. He is a physical and mental weakling


Mod: Banned

Faugheen

Piehead wrote: »

Ross Byrne has no place in that team. He is a physical and mental weakling

Well he’s the next best we have.

Have a funny feeling people are waiting for him to fail and will bask with glee if he doesn’t turn in an 11/10 performance.

Dog Botherer

i think he makes nice kicks

UAEguy2020

Just to make it clear some “fans” come on here balling their eyes out today if we do lose, it’s actually okay for Ireland to lose a match...

UAEguy2020

Piehead wrote: »

Ross Byrne has no place in that team. He is a physical and mental weakling


Mod: Banned

He’s physically bigger than his opposite number, I’d imagine based on this you haven’t actually watched him play.

if you agree please respond to this message.

UAEguy2020

Faugheen wrote: »

Well he’s the next best we have.

Have a funny feeling people are waiting for him to fail and will bask with glee if he doesn’t turn in an 11/10 performance.

And Finn enough when Sexton turns in a performance just as bad he gets a free pass.

Hopefully Ross Byrne is a glass half-full type of guy.

"Well there's no way that my second start ever can go as badly as my first one"

aloooof

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

And Finn enough when Sexton turns in a performance just as bad he gets a free pass.

Seems pretty obvious to point out that Sexton has far more credit in the bank. We’ve seen what level of performance he’s capable of. We’ve yet to see that from Ross Byrne. He has an opportunity today, so let’s hope it’s a good performance.

UAEguy2020

aloooof wrote: »

Seems pretty obvious to point out that Sexton has far more credit in the bank. We’ve seen what level of performance he’s capable of. We’ve yet to see that from Ross Byrne. He has an opportunity today, so let’s hope it’s a good performance.

How far did credit in the bank get us in 2019?

Hard to show is a good level of performance when you are sitting on the bench...

aloooof

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

How far did credit in the bank get us in 2019?

Hard to show is a good level of performance when you are sitting on the bench...

And today’s his opportunity. Let’s see how he goes.

UAEguy2020

aloooof wrote: »

And today’s his opportunity. Let’s see how he goes.

Hopefully not in a team that losses by 57 points the last time he was put in the blame, some fans would have you believe it was all Ross’ fault...

kuang1

As Syd already said, I'll be very happy with parity at the breakdown and scrum.
I'm not necessarily expecting either, but they'd represent decent progress for me.

The breakdown was a shambles against Wales. Big turnaround needed there.

UAEguy2020

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

Hopefully not in a team that losses by 57 points the last time he was put in the blame, some fans would have you believe it was all Ross’ fault...

it certainly wasn't but nobody came out well from that mangling obviously

a bit dumb to give (at test level) an inexperienced 10 their first start over in Twickenham against a full-power pre-world cup team and a baying crowd and Ireland under-cooked in their world cup prep (although that cannot excuse what occurred)

no crowd this time but the fact that it's only his second start now against a powerful England is not the ideal development path either

but if he can step-up then fair dues to him

Brock Turnpike

Expecting England will win but hoping we don't make it easy for them by trying to play tight, one-out rugby and getting dominated physically at the breakdown and by their line speed

Try to take away the advantage their line speed normally brings against us by trying kicks in behind often and also don't be afraid to offload

UAEguy2020

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

Expecting England will win but hoping we don't make it easy for them by trying to play tight, one-out rugby and getting dominated physically at the breakdown and by their line speed

Try to take away the advantage their line speed normally brings against us by trying kicks in behind often and also don't be afraid to offload

The disadvantage of the line speed for England is their backfield is totally exposed, that should be the obvious areas to target England today. If we want any chance of winning we need to keep the territory even enough, this is almost as important as trying to get parity in the pack. England aren’t France, they aren’t going to score wonder tries out of nothing (unless the bring something to the game they haven’t brought for awhile) they need territory to be anywhere near as effective as they want to be, keep the ball pinned in England’s half and they will struggle to get at us.

England will try do most of their damage in the first half so all the areas mentioned need to be top notch, if we do that and it’s even enough at half time we have a chance today but if it goes like the previous 3 matches the players might as well not bother showing up in the 2nd half.

Burkie1203

Think England by 12.

KBurke85

Burkie1203 wrote: »

Think England by 12.

Late change for Ireland Ed Byrne out bealham moves to 17 and John Ryan comes on to the bench

UAEguy2020

Brock Turnpike wrote: »

Expecting England will win but hoping we don't make it easy for them by trying to play tight, one-out rugby and getting dominated physically at the breakdown and by their line speed

Try to take away the advantage their line speed normally brings against us by trying kicks in behind often and also don't be afraid to offload

The disadvantage of the line speed for England is their backfield is totally exposed, that should be the obvious areas to target England today. If we want any chance of winning we need to keep the territory even enough, this is almost as important as trying to get parity in the pack. England aren’t France, they aren’t going to score wonder tries out of nothing (unless the bring something to the game they haven’t brought for awhile) they need territory to be anywhere near as effective as they want to be, keep the ball pinned in England’s half and they will struggle to get at us.

England will try do most of their damage in the first half so all the areas mentioned need to be top notch, if we do that and it’s even enough at half time we have a chance today but if it goes like the previous 3 matches the players might as well not bother showing up in the 2nd half.

Beechwoodspark

I’m not overly confident but I’d like to see us make life difficult for the English. Hopefully our backs have some tricks up their sleeves so it’s not as predictable as it often is for the Opposition rush defence.

kingofthekong

KBurke85 wrote: »

Late change for Ireland Ed Byrne out bealham moves to 17 and John Ryan comes on to the bench

Christ John Ryan got wrecked a couple times in the scrum against Ospreys ffs

WoollyRedHat

KBurke85 wrote: »

Late change for Ireland Ed Byrne out bealham moves to 17 and John Ryan comes on to the bench

Not seeing that on C4 coverage?

The Lost Sheep

kingofthekong wrote: »

Christ John Ryan got wrecked a couple times in the scrum against Ospreys ffs

Came on to try halt a scrum under huge pressure. very difficult to do when rest of scrum wasnt doing well

WoollyRedHat wrote: »

Not seeing that on C4 coverage?

Its on now

Whatever happens, really need to see the dominant tackles count swing back some way towards Ireland from 2019 and 2020

Any early front row injuries today and this will be 2012 all over again.

Chavways

Irelands Call sounds like a Paddy's Day jig.

mfceiling

Who else heard "fúck em" in the middle of Ireland's call?

Clegg

God Save the Queen is the only anthem that's worse than Ireland's Call.

mfceiling

Need to drag Itoje into rucks, hold his jersey and generally be an absolute shīt against him today.

Beechwoodspark

mfceiling wrote: »

Who else heard "fúck em" in the middle of Ireland's call?

Or “fcuk it”. Mic left on by mistake?

Jaysus this is hard, physical rugby early on.

kmart6

Lowe needs to start getting some more height on his kicks.

leakyboots

Lowe needs to improve his kicking, two shockers

Our cross field kicking is really inaccurate.

Squidgy Black

Some pace so far. Couple of dodgy kicks, Lowe's trajectory just way too low so far.

ScrubsfanChris

Kicked about 7 times now and not one of them any good.

Spore

Earls impressing early

Faugheen

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Kicked about 7 times now and not one of them any good.

This is nonsense.

lawred2

ScrubsfanChris wrote: »

Kicked about 7 times now and not one of them any good.

Well to be honest, I'm glad to see a bit of variation.. even if a bit messy in the execution... it'll keep England in their toes.

Ireland need to keep turning England around

Clegg

Byrne's kicking hasn't been fully accurate, but it's giving the English defence something to consider. They can't continuously rush forward to another us.

Lucy8080

I want to see Gibson-Park in a stovepipe hat. He could be our Abraham Lincoln.

fitz

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Our cross field kicking is really inaccurate.

Yup, but I think there's an element of putting it in their heads early about the risk of rushing up in defense.

Was Keenan down there before he was caught.

fitz

Tackler surely didn't release there?

Clegg

Launchbury never rolled after tackling Keenan.

lawred2

[Deleted User] wrote: »

Was Keenan down there before he was caught.

Not sure