England v. Ireland

[Shiny]

Wouldn't it just be peak England to lose to Scotland but beat Ireland.

The soothsayer spoke and they listened (wish I could do that for the premiership pr3dictions thread).

[TheDasher]

Well done England. They played with a lot of spirit and hustled Ireland out of it. Will make for an interesting final round. Time for Ford to go?

Absolutely time for him to go, 100%.

[Adam_P]

Well done England. They played with a lot of spirit and hustled Ireland out of it. Will make for an interesting final round. Time for Ford to go?

Absolutely time for him to go, 100%.

Yep - time to start investing minutes into the Smiths

[Galfon]

Plenty positives - F-Waboso & Martin should be fixtures now.
Eitiher of the Smiffs at 10 should unlock the team.

[fivepointer]

Lets enjoy the moment.

We've endured years of absolute dross since the 2019 WC.

Today was easily Englands best performance under Borthwick and arguably our best performance since the 2019 WC semi final.

It wasnt perfect. There's lots to work on but at least we've shown we can play and compete with the best.

[Mr Mwenda]

Lets enjoy the moment.

We've endured years of absolute dross since the 2019 WC.

Today was easily Englands best performance under Borthwick and arguably our best performance since the 2019 WC semi final.

It wasnt perfect. There's lots to work on but at least we've shown we can play and compete with the best.

I am about to sally forth and enjoy it. Karlstad may be surprised that something other than ice hockey was on today, but I will let them damn well know. Swing low!

[Shiny]

I don’t know what Stinky Bumfluff put in the water bottles today but England need to back it up next week.
Time for one of the Smith’s to start and Ford on the bench.
Waboso keeps the jersey and starts against France.
Earl is the first name on the team sheet.
Shame CCS was injured, he is the future at 6 (Chessum is not the answer and I prefer Martin at lock).
We missed Mitchell while he was away, JVP will struggle to get the starting jersey back.
Lawrence must be in the starting 15.
Furbank is only keeping the 15 jersey warm until Josh Hodge is ready, imagine his counter attacking with solidity under the high ball.

[Banquo]

Yee ha

[16th man]

As a team that was an incredible effort, given we're so early in developing systems. The defence failed catastrophically a couple of times, but against a team as good as Ireland, the fact that it largely only really failed on execution errors, rather than due to being stressed, is quite encouraging.

It was nice for Care to manage to pull himself together and manage to do some competent things in his 100th cap, after that shit first kick. I'd suggested that we should only be taking off Mitchell if one of his legs was falling off, as he was outstandingly good today. The 2 or 3 times he sniped didn't make us huge ground, but the threat absolutely held the Irish fringe a few times.

I've been very critical of Earl in the past, but the last couple of weeks he's looked like he's watched video of some of the All Blacks loosies, and started to use his physical gifts in a way that benefits the team, rather than just chaotically banging around the pitch.

IFW - Natural. Again, looks like an AB winger in his speed, power and just being an absolute nightmare to put on the floor.

Ford actually did some nice stuff ball in hand, but a couple of the misses looked like he never thought he was going to get them, and even one of the ones he hit would have gone wide if he'd been 2 metres further back.

Really annoying to think we'd be going to Paris for a Grand Slam but for @ 50 mins of absolute shite vs Scotland.

[FKAS]

Mitchell I think was key today, his range and speedy of pass made our attack night and day different to last week. He's tidied up his all round game to the point where there's little weakness left. It's no exaggeration to suggest him playing last weekend would have seen a large English win such was his impact today.

It did make sense to sub him, we've seen Saints leave him on for the full 80 in the Prem this season and his performance fall off a cliff when fatigue hits. He's pretty much all action so asking him to play the full 80 is a bit much. With Quirke back fit and JvP nearly there as well he'll hopefully have some quality competition come the summer.

The 4-8 combination worked really nicely. 50 tackles between them often the 119 tackles England made total. Big work rate and a nice balance. Martin joint top with 14 and hats off to Lawrence who was the other guy to make 14 tackles (only one missed), that's great work from 12. Ben Earl topping the metres made stats, a full 25m more than Furbank at fullback that's bloody impressive. Furbank's stats are erm 5 tackles attempted with 4 missed, 1 made and 4 turnovers conceded. Whilst Genge beat more defenders than Furbank on just over half as many carries which is pretty funny.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=180659

[Oakboy]

Superb application for most of the 80 minutes. We need to move forward now and make intelligent progress. Marcus must start. Injury may rule Chessum and CSS out. Otherwise, stick.

[Son of Mathonwy]

Well done guys - and the scoreline flatters Ireland.

[Epaminondas Pules]

Proper fun that. England actually had me caring. Had me moving, swaying, shouting and on the edge of my seat! It is amazing what intent can do! It is infectious!

Lots to pick out of that, good and bad, but I’ll enjoy for tonight and especially when BIG Joe McCarthy ran at George Martin the first time and got smashed into next week! What a tone setter for the whole affair!

[p/d]

Mitchell I think was key today, his range and speedy of pass made our attack night and day different to last week. He's tidied up his all round game to the point where there's little weakness left. It's no exaggeration to suggest him playing last weekend would have seen a large English win such was his impact today.

It did make sense to sub him, we've seen Saints leave him on for the full 80 in the Prem this season and his performance fall off a cliff when fatigue hits. He's pretty much all action so asking him to play the full 80 is a bit much. With Quirke back fit and JvP nearly there as well he'll hopefully have some quality competition come the summer.

The 4-8 combination worked really nicely. 50 tackles between them often the 119 tackles England made total. Big work rate and a nice balance. Martin joint top with 14 and hats off to Lawrence who was the other guy to make 14 tackles (only one missed), that's great work from 12. Ben Earl topping the metres made stats, a full 25m more than Furbank at fullback that's bloody impressive. Furbank's stats are erm 5 tackles attempted with 4 missed, 1 made and 4 turnovers conceded. Whilst Genge beat more defenders than Furbank on just over half as many carries which is pretty funny.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=180659

Just trying to read between the lines, Steward to start?

[p/d]

Yee ha

I think you are over analysing it. You could have just put ‘bloody’ between yee & ha

[p/d]

Proper fun that. England actually had me caring. Had me moving, swaying, shouting and on the edge of my seat! It is amazing what intent can do! It is infectious!

Lots to pick out of that, good and bad, but I’ll enjoy for tonight and especially when BIG Joe McCarthy ran at George Martin the first time and got smashed into next week! What a tone setter for the whole affair!

Today was rugby to make the heart pound!!! What a treat. 2 games coming down to the last play. Fabulous

[FKAS]

Mitchell I think was key today, his range and speedy of pass made our attack night and day different to last week. He's tidied up his all round game to the point where there's little weakness left. It's no exaggeration to suggest him playing last weekend would have seen a large English win such was his impact today.

It did make sense to sub him, we've seen Saints leave him on for the full 80 in the Prem this season and his performance fall off a cliff when fatigue hits. He's pretty much all action so asking him to play the full 80 is a bit much. With Quirke back fit and JvP nearly there as well he'll hopefully have some quality competition come the summer.

The 4-8 combination worked really nicely. 50 tackles between them often the 119 tackles England made total. Big work rate and a nice balance. Martin joint top with 14 and hats off to Lawrence who was the other guy to make 14 tackles (only one missed), that's great work from 12. Ben Earl topping the metres made stats, a full 25m more than Furbank at fullback that's bloody impressive. Furbank's stats are erm 5 tackles attempted with 4 missed, 1 made and 4 turnovers conceded. Whilst Genge beat more defenders than Furbank on just over half as many carries which is pretty funny.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=180659

Just trying to read between the lines, Steward to start?

I'd probably keep the starting side the same but bring Steward onto the bench for Daly. Well without all the kicking analysis that Stunning Breakout has available. France do like to kick to compete but their back three aren't particularly outstanding under the high ball so they are as likely to kick long.

[FKAS]

Lots to pick out of that, good and bad, but I’ll enjoy for tonight and especially when BIG Joe McCarthy ran at George Martin the first time and got smashed into next week! What a tone setter for the whole affair!

Hehe yeah I remember that, was the somewhat casual way he charged into the contact expecting to get over the gain line. Was stopped and then quickly put into reverse.

The physicality up front was great to watch.

[TheDasher]

How good was the Underhill tackle on Aki too? Hammered him sideways by ten metres. Then Chessum hurt himself tackling Aki and we hear from comms 'Chessum has just found out how robust Aki is', no mention of how Underhill just smacked him 90 degrees a minute earlier.

[TheDasher]

Mitchell I think was key today, his range and speedy of pass made our attack night and day different to last week. He's tidied up his all round game to the point where there's little weakness left. It's no exaggeration to suggest him playing last weekend would have seen a large English win such was his impact today.

It did make sense to sub him, we've seen Saints leave him on for the full 80 in the Prem this season and his performance fall off a cliff when fatigue hits. He's pretty much all action so asking him to play the full 80 is a bit much. With Quirke back fit and JvP nearly there as well he'll hopefully have some quality competition come the summer.

The 4-8 combination worked really nicely. 50 tackles between them often the 119 tackles England made total. Big work rate and a nice balance. Martin joint top with 14 and hats off to Lawrence who was the other guy to make 14 tackles (only one missed), that's great work from 12. Ben Earl topping the metres made stats, a full 25m more than Furbank at fullback that's bloody impressive. Furbank's stats are erm 5 tackles attempted with 4 missed, 1 made and 4 turnovers conceded. Whilst Genge beat more defenders than Furbank on just over half as many carries which is pretty funny.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=180659

Just trying to read between the lines, Steward to start?

I'd probably keep the starting side the same but bring Steward onto the bench for Daly. Well without all the kicking analysis that Stunning Breakout has available. France do like to kick to compete but their back three aren't particularly outstanding under the high ball so they are as likely to kick long.

I'm right with you on Steward, he looked like prime Steward vs Wales and would've been a handful yesterday. Over Daly 100%.

[Banquo]

Mitchell I think was key today, his range and speedy of pass made our attack night and day different to last week. He's tidied up his all round game to the point where there's little weakness left. It's no exaggeration to suggest him playing last weekend would have seen a large English win such was his impact today.

It did make sense to sub him, we've seen Saints leave him on for the full 80 in the Prem this season and his performance fall off a cliff when fatigue hits. He's pretty much all action so asking him to play the full 80 is a bit much. With Quirke back fit and JvP nearly there as well he'll hopefully have some quality competition come the summer.

The 4-8 combination worked really nicely. 50 tackles between them often the 119 tackles England made total. Big work rate and a nice balance. Martin joint top with 14 and hats off to Lawrence who was the other guy to make 14 tackles (only one missed), that's great work from 12. Ben Earl topping the metres made stats, a full 25m more than Furbank at fullback that's bloody impressive. Furbank's stats are erm 5 tackles attempted with 4 missed, 1 made and 4 turnovers conceded. Whilst Genge beat more defenders than Furbank on just over half as many carries which is pretty funny.

https://www.espn.co.uk/rugby/playerstat ... gue=180659

Just trying to read between the lines, Steward to start?

lol, indeed. I'm sure if FKAS really tried hard he could find smething positive to say about the zip Furbank has given in attack and actually launching counters, but might need thumbscrews.

(that said, George was far from perfect, his mind makes deals his skill won't deliver . Took one great high ball tho. His worst error was misjudging a Lowe kick that was going out on the full).

[Banquo]

Just trying to read between the lines, Steward to start?

I'd probably keep the starting side the same but bring Steward onto the bench for Daly. Well without all the kicking analysis that Stunning Breakout has available. France do like to kick to compete but their back three aren't particularly outstanding under the high ball so they are as likely to kick long.

I'm right with you on Steward, he looked like prime Steward vs Wales and would've been a handful yesterday. Over Daly 100%.

Daly gives you more options and actually looked handy at centre. Freeman covering wing and 13 does give you some flex I guess.

[Banquo]

BTW, Ford ran the backs really well I thought- he created our first try after Furbank launched the counter.

[TheDasher]

I'd probably keep the starting side the same but bring Steward onto the bench for Daly. Well without all the kicking analysis that Stunning Breakout has available. France do like to kick to compete but their back three aren't particularly outstanding under the high ball so they are as likely to kick long.

I'm right with you on Steward, he looked like prime Steward vs Wales and would've been a handful yesterday. Over Daly 100%.

Daly gives you more options and actually looked handy at centre. Freeman covering wing and 13 does give you some flex I guess.

He did look quite handy at centre but I'm not he would be if we're under the pump, we were playing fast and wide and it suited him. Agree re Freeman giving you options. Interested to see Freeman at 13 but loathed to change too much too.

[TheDasher]

BTW, Ford ran the backs really well I thought- he created our first try after Furbank launched the counter.

He did but I think the Smiths would too.