Ireland vs England, Sunday 1st March 3pm; RTE/BBC

.ak wrote: »

Zeebs at FB?

Nah after his performance on Sunday I'm going to switch him to the blindside.

bilston wrote: »

The English midfield could be very strong in the years to come. A maturing Ford who will be the best in the world in the future IMO and then a fit Tuilagi plus Joseph with Watson out wide is pretty exciting. Obviously St Joe will find a way to stop them of course but that is pretty exciting.

And behind that pack, they could be a serious force.

Fireball07 wrote: »

I don't know a scrum-half better at box kicks in the world than Murray. He's not always perfect, but it is a difficult skill to execute brilliantly all the time.

He sometimes lacks a bit of distance I suppose but then that may be deliberate. Even though it appears they haven't travelled that far we seem to retain possession 50% of the time, and the other 50% we have the opposition going backwards even if they get hold of the ball.

Swiwi. wrote: »

In the making
Could be

I like my players graded on how they are actually not what they might become.

He could well be a 9/10 player. I don't think he's that currently, and certainly didn't really shine on Saturday, if compared to 6/10 Payne or 8/10 Henshaw.

*cough* I dislike defending Fleet Street, but those ratings were clearly based on for as much as ability (and as much again on delusion) and Joseph was in hot form. And any centre can be shut down if you beat his pack and panic his half-backs, as happened to Joseph.

But yes, this is mainly a matter of the media's classic propensity for talking up the first shoots of spring like they just won everything. Watching the praise lavished on him over the last few weeks has made me equal parts apprehensive and angry. He's simply not at that place yet. Wonderful talent, I hope it sticks, but a couple of good games so far. Retrying Tuilagi and Joseph is a clear course of action but I'm dubious as to whether it will work.

When we come to it, the idea that there's *only one* area where England's rugby media are consistently myopic, is, well... c'mon Swiwi, you're smarter than that :pac:


Also, for what its worth, Murray's box kicking was often 5 feet too far forwards against England, but he is clearly a fantastic proponent of the art.


Finally winding down enough to consider England's performance here. I have to say, without wishing to run down Ireland's performance at all, England first shot themselves in the foot, then calmly unloaded the second barrel into the other. Some of the mistakes were at least partially due to opposition pressure - but when your lock ignores the ref shouting "White, give" to keep standing offside, well, that's not really pressure. That's idiocy. And when your full-back marks the catch rather than grounding the ball when in his own try area, you might give a little credit to the chaser for maybe affecting his thinking, but you'd like to think an international could spot the bad idea there for himself regardless. And on. And on. Anthony Watson going for the ball in a clearly offside position, again, not hugely opposition pressure... but then it was good defensive play and a big hit from Sexton that resulted in Ford mucking up that situation and offering up the opportunity. So, mix. Fantastic pressure from the Irish at many points. But you're meant to show a lot more than the English players do when it came on.

And on and on and on and on. Winning a test match against opposition of serious quality while making so many errors is simply impossible. I thought England did alright in the first half, mistakes put us aside but it looked in the balance, but the mistakes continued and panic set in until our bench/no Sexton gave us an edge... at which point we still made plenty of mistakes. Also, throughout the game, our support of the ball carrier was put to shame by Ireland's work. It remains a consistent failing. Our back three were well beat - Goode is fantastic at working out where to be to take the kick and hopeless once he gathers. Our tight five did not get the hoped for advantage.

I see a fair few positive remarks about England but I don't share them. This appears to be England's plateau. Enough talent and guts to make a match of it against top sides, but far too many weaknesses to hope to challenge them properly. Doesn't look like changing soon enough.

I'm undecided as to whether to wish you luck against Wales... obviously it'd be nice to have a shot at winning the Championship... but, well, Wales.

English Lurker wrote: »

Anthony Watson going for the ball in a clearly offside position, again, not hugely opposition pressure...

I have a tiny bit of sympathy for Watson here, he couldn't see it, there is at least a reasonable chance it was ripped and went backwards off an Irish hand. It is also possible that if it went directly forward off Ford, and not back off Ford forward off Goode he was onside (I'd have to check again).

It's one of the less stupid versions of that penalty I have seen in a while. It is ridiculous for us (Irish) to say that Ford, Watson and Nowell all mishandling kicks in the first 2 minutes is because we're great. It's not. All 3 were under pressure, and that makes us good, but those players should have handled those kicks. If our players had messed up in those positions I'd have been angry at my players.

emmet02 wrote: »

I didn't understand them taking 3 points at 13 points down.

Robshaw said that he felt it was important at that stage to bring the game within two scores. Uh....

I enjoy just watching Coles on repeat in that clip. I could do it all day.