Hoping today we can just enjoy an away win v England (fingers crossed we beat them) without the ludicrous wondering-criticizing should we not beat them by 50 points.
England
Scotland
Wales
France
Italy
Next years 6n fixture
When was the last time Ringrose was available and not selected?
I disagree! It does take time. He was chucked into the deep end and took over a calamity of a squad.
Borthwick is in over his head, inexperienced and out of his depth. Without a coherent plan, trying to cobble together a game plan match by match. He won’t last.
The longer Borthwick is managing England, the better they'll be. We should win this match as England are not very good. However, I would assume that they will improve over time. A great opportunity for us to get the streak of wins against them ticking over.
England have turned the last few games between us into scrappy messes, even consistently down a man. I don't expect anything about tomorrow to be easy but I do expect a decent winning margin at the end.
I hate seeing predictions of an easy win - the rugby gods may catch wind of that - and I’m never happy against Big Five teams until we’ve successfully survived a few scrums. England seem to be going for a more traditional division of labour between backs and forwards à la South Africa. In their shoes, I’d encourage Ford to try more drop-goals and a few kicks for Feyi-Waboso to challenge Lowe for pace.
And if there was any danger of him getting complacent, there's a nice bit of competition coming from Sam Prendergast to keep him on his toes.
Crowley has been very impressive and assured. He's going to be special, imo! He's done very well this 6nations. I reckon we're set for 10 now. He's only 24!
Yeah, and we pressured right up until the end. If there was an avoidable mistake that was made it was off the field. I think Crowley proved in the opening 6N game against France that he might have made a difference in the closing 20 of the 1/4 final.
The issue is the team England picked will only work in rain if they play 10 man rugby.
England concede on average 3 tries a game and two of those games were against the 2 weakest teams, the only way I see Ireland failing to get the BP is if Ireland are really off.
I'd tend to agree..
Looking at the forecast for Saturday , it's showing 40% chance of rain during the match which possibly helps England , but not much as Ireland pass very short so a wet ball is a bit less of a factor in terms of handling.
I just think that while England will be better , the pace of the Ireland attack and the close in passing options will be too much for them at times.
A score line something like 27-12 to Ireland is my guess , not sure if Ireland get the BP - Think we score 3 tries and a few penalties for sure and maybe able to sneak the BP try late on.
Ah I think he is OK, that was more a joe Schmidt tactic
I've seen alot of people online put forward the case that this could go like the SA v England game at the RWC...I'm not saying the scoreline on Saturday will be as bad as the game I'm about to mention but looking at the team England named this has more the hallmarks of England v France in the 2023 6N when they got absolutely steamrolled. By that I mean a side that looks good on paper but overall looks like a side picked in a reactionary sort of way rather than side to carry out a coherent game plan...
I'll only completely believe it is Keenan when he lines out, but positive news nonetheless. Probably less important now that Steward isn't back there anyway.
Yeah.. Doesn't really speak to a coherent game plan.
Ireland Bench is so much stronger and impactful..
Yeah, weird to pack a back line to play rugby, but put in a 10 that will kick the leather off the ball.
Awful news on Ryan.
Furbank it is then..
Henderson is some high level of a replacement to come in...might be a bigger blow for Leinster
Keenan is back and Henderson replaces Ryan who will miss the rest of the Six Nations with a bicep injury.
RTE news : Keenan returns as Farrell make one change for England
http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/2024/0307/1436484-ireland-team-to-play-england-2024-six-nations/
Looks like a bit of a GAA selection i.e. the 23 announced versus the one that takes the field could be a bit different. Big risk going with a 6/2 split if HK < 80-90% fit as you are looking @ the scenario of a very early substitution & then squeaky-bum time that no other back bar No. 9 gets injured & them having to play the full 80.
Id love to see steward start. Once we can pull him out of position we can absolutely profit from his lack of pace.
The key indicator of how England plan to play the game will be who they pick at Fullback.
If they pick Steward , they plan to kick the skin off the ball and follow their WC SF game plan.
If they pick Furbank they are going to try to actually play Rugby.
We win either way , but the Steward option probably keeps the score close for the 1st hour or so (as it has been in most of the recent games) but if they pick Furbank and try to play I think Ireland can pull away early.
TBH - Trying to play and actually build a long term "style" is better for England in terms of development , but they will probably go Steward as Borthwick seems to treat each game a a singular event and not part of an overall long-term strategy.
Ha oh yeah! Very strong team..[edit] but 6-2 is such a risk to take with the versatility of our 2nd rows and back rows now
Hugo Keenan still a Twickenham doubt as Andy Farrell set to stick with 6/2 bench split
The coach will give Hugo Keenan as much time as possible to recover from his knee injury, with Ciarán Frawley on standby to remain in the No 15 jersey if he doesn’t make it.
If he does, then Frawley is likely wear the No 23 shirt and Farrell will be forced to choose between fit-again Garry Ringrose and incumbent Robbie Henshaw, whose form has been excellent alongside Bundee Aki in midfield.
He’s set to keep his spot and the most likely scenario would see Frawley continue at full-back with Keenan being given another week to recover for the final game of the Six Nations campaign against Scotland. In that scenario, Ringrose would wear No 23.
Such is Farrell’s faith in the bench that was first trialled against France in Marseille, with Ryan Baird’s form and Frawley’s versatility allowing them to roll six powerful forwards on during the second half.
It is expected that Farrell will name an unchanged pack from the one that proved too strong for Wales, with Andrew Porter, Dan Sheehan and Tadhg Furlong in the front-row and Joe McCarthy and Tadhg Beirne in the second-row. Peter O’Mahony will captain the side from the back-row, where he’ll join Josh van der Flier and Caelan Doris.
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Behind the scrum, Jamison Gibson-Park and Jack Crowley will continue at half-back, with Aki and Henshaw in midfield and James Lowe and Calvin Nash either side of the full-back.
If Frawley has that role, it’s expected that Ringrose will come on to the bench at Stuart McCloskey’s expense, while Finlay Bealham is battling Oli Jager for the reserve tighthead spot.
Rónan Kelleher and Cian Healy are expected to be named as replacements, with James Ryan, Baird and Jack Conan covering the other forward positions, while Conor Murray will join Frawley or Ringrose in the reserves.
England are reportedly set to hand Exeter Chiefs winger Immanuel Feyi-Waboso a first start after losing to Scotland.
Steve Borthwick is expected to retain George Ford at out-half, while powerful lock George Martin is likely to be drafted in to partner Maro Itoje.
Possible Ireland team to face England: C Frawley/ H Keenan; C Nash, R Henshaw, B Aki, J Lowe; J Crowley, J Gibson-Park; A Porter, D Sheehan, T Furlong; J McCarthy, T Beirne; P O’Mahony (capt), J van der Flier, C Doris. Reps: R Kelleher, C Healy, F Bealham, J Ryan, R Baird, J Conan, C Murray, G Ringrose/C Frawley.
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Frawley needed to cover 10 !
Love an old school team list where everyone is just initials plus surname. All they need to add back is the middle initials.
R. A. Henshaw
T. V. Furlong
Beautiful.
