Ireland vs England - 6N 2025 match thread

Phog specifically picked out Crowley for his movement to the right of the breakdown, made no mention of the other players who did likewise. It's a bog standard movement that happens every few seconds around a breakdown. It's not something to use to big a player up. They are professional rugby players in a 6n match doing a very basic thing.

And you specifically picked out Crowley for his “glaring errors” and made no mention of… other players who did likewise. Right?

I facetiously asked “now do Prendergast”.

This all stems back to the suggestion that, because Prendergast was directly involved in a try, he was somehow better. Which doesn’t tell half the story yesterday.

Like, there was one reg here who couldn’t get in quick enough with “Crowley howler intercept” in the Autumn. Yet conspicuously silent on Prendergast’s in much the same situation yesterday.

My point in all this? Some consistency would be nice…

And to be fair to someone like AbusesToilets, someone I’ve often disagreed with, but at least he’s done that, even if I disagree with his conclusions.

It’d be nice if that was a bit more universal.

For me, the mistakes Prendergast and Crowley made are indicative of what makes them good players. Victims of their own success to an extent. SP had a couple of opportunities where he could've exploited a gap to possibly create a try scoring chance, but chose to pass instead. Crowley cutting inside instead of passing out the line.

I think they'll both come away with some solid work ons that will stand to them.

Does anyone have a link to a replay of the match?

Well I gave SP a 5/10 for his performance which is below average and Crowley 6/10 which means average.

My response to you initially was that the only reason he brought up Crowley was the comparison between him and SP.

I'm finished with this now. You can respond if you wish and I won't reply.

Ici

https://streamruby.com/uj0wv6ax51r5.html

I'm not going through my assessment again.

I'll give you something though. Sam was standing back and it takes him more time to make a decision on whether to kick or pass. His passing is awesome most of the time. He also stands back in defense and I think he's worried about getting knocked and wants more time to set himself. One of his kicks led to the first England try, he missed two conversations, I'm taking the easy one only, so that's 7 points he was responsible for against Ireland, I'm not including the conversion of the England try.

Crowley was almost always up at the line and there's a legitimate threat that he'll run, pass or kick and that gave him a little more time. He converted the two tries. He had some poor kicks like SP, he bore some responsibility for one of the English tries where he missed a tackle but that was a complete disaster with Henshaw missing a tackle too. I honestly think he made an educated guess that Henshaw would stop it which was a little foolish and left him out of position.

Neither of them had great or even good games for me. I had Crowley as pretty average and SP below average.

I do think Crowley gave Easterby something to think about but I don't think he'll change things but if something similar happens against Scotland we might see Crowley start.

I personally think Crowley is the more complete out-half right now but I think SP is the future and someone that excites me a lot as I think he's going to be a great not just a good one.

Somebody was mentioning Borthwick and his talking about the third quarter before Crowley came on but he said Crowley coming on made a significant difference and improved Ireland.

No, I don't. SP was directly involved in creating line breaks and try opportunities, with some genuinely elite passing. Crowley has a couple moments getting passes away under pressure, one to Hansen in particular that was excellent.

I think my opinion is based on watching the match, as laid out in the boringly long posts detailing both players actions.

Yours seems to be based on vibes, and yes, I do feel that we ought to have moved on from POM post WC along with others.

But you were saying here that the coaches know more and are selecting Prendergast but constantly criticised them selecting POM. Do you not think that is hypocritical?

…which is why I suggest coming to your own conclusion.

I, and the majority of others, seem to think Crowley played better. That includes Borthwick.

Maybe there’s actually something to what he’s saying… but you knew that.

Did Borthwick say that or are you taking a leap based on a vague comment from a coach who hadn't even watched the match back yet?

So Borthwick didn't say Crowley was better.

Borthwick also said post match that the third quarter was critical to the outcome and IIRC Crowley came on at 59 minute.

The big momentum swing in the game came between 49 and 59, Sheehan and conan came on and in the following 10 minutes it went from 5-10 to 13-10.

Eggchasers could well have decided that kicking long was a tactic but no one seems to have told Easterby as he said on WM that we kicked too long in the first half.