England vs Ireland - minute-by-minute

[Puja]

I don't have anywhere in particular to be tomorrow morning, so I thought I'd start early as a treat for you all.


My preconceived notions from my first watch of this match:
We didn't radically change what we've been doing all this 6N - we just reduced the incredibly basic fuckups and suddenyl what we were building all came together. In terms of individuals, Amashukeli was excellent (I expected nothing less, as I really rate him as a ref), Ford played well with ball in hand, Furbank was generally good with a few mistakes, Underhill had a good game, I was wrong about Chessum on the flank being a bad idea, Feyi-Waboso and Earl were immense, Slade had an annoyingly good game after I wrote him off last time, Daly and Care did their absolute best to lose us the game off the bench, and Dombrandt was utterly anonymous. Let's see how many of those were actually true!


Minute 1: Crowley kicks off and it's very long to pin Mitchell back on our 5m line. He kicks long and it's a very competent exit up to nearly halfway. Ireland take the lineout at the front, spin it into midfield, and look to run two hard runners in the hope of splitting Ford from his bodyguard, but Lawrence and Earl have it covered and we bring them down on the gainline. Martin drives through the ruck to make a mess and it's slow ball which Ireland set up a long ruck from. However, van der Flier notices England aren't paying attention and picks and goes through the centre. It is a terrible call by the referee, cause he has players bound in front, alongside, and behind him, so there is no way that he's the back man and it should be an England penalty for handling in the ruck.

Putting that aside, it's a great decision by van der Flier, cause England are absolutely not paying attention and, while Chessum does well to bring him down, he can offload and Ireland make more metres and are on the front foot.

Minute 2: England recover and our defence is solid and aggressive, taking the sting out of the Irish attack and slowing the ball. Once again Martin drives through a ruck and makes a mess for the scrum-half. Ireland attempt to use the backs but are shut down by a good bit of rush defence by Slade to drive them back inside. However the good work is undone as Genge is lazy about getting back behind the back foot and then makes the tackle as Ireland pick and go through the centre again. Poor play, as he wasn't rushed or hurried - he just didn't take the extra two steps needed to get back onside. Good call by the ref though, cause that's an easy one to miss.

Minute 3: Crowley takes his time and slots the easy 3 points from in front of the posts.

Minute 4: Ford kicks off and this is much better than last week - clearing the lifting pod and making Aki play it. He dodges behind his own man to avoid Feyi-Waboso, but Chessum is backing up and puts in a solid tackle. Ireland recycle through a phase and then pass the ball back for Lowe to clear away - Earl has clearly done his video work because he's read it and is charging up on Lowe, which possibly explains the shoddy kick not finding touch. Furbank collects it and runs infield - his pace lets him get on the outside of the immediate kick-chase and we've got a 4-on-1. Furbank throws the pass, which does look like a hospital ball on first (and second, tbh) replay, but it's actually phenomenal defence from Nash to charge up after the ball has left Furbank's hands and nearly take Freeman man-and-ball. Unfortunately for Nash, Freeman gets a solid step into the tackle, bouncing him off as he gets his head on the wrong side) - he's stopped the pass from getting away, but Freeman's gone forward and Martin and George are in there quickly to clear for excellent ball.

Mitchell sweeps the ball away and it's a 4-on-2 down the blind - Ford draws and gives, Furbank draws and gives, Slade takes the ball up to the full-back and then draws and gives, leaving Lawrence with the opportunity to burst through Crowley's desperate covering dive and go in at the corner. That was excellent.

Minute 5: On replays, that was so beautifully finished. Ford does a superb job of running onto the ball and straightening - a 4-on-3 (with the 15) is hard to do in lots of space, but they had jusr the 15m channel to work with and any hint of drifting across into the space would've killed it stone dead. He attracts the first man and also interests the covering forward trying to make it across. Furbank* does so well with a take-and-give as the last Irish man tries to fly up to take him man and ball - I was going to criticise him for passing behind Slade, but getting the ball away there at all is worth applauding. Slade does well to reach back behind him to get the pass and then times a beautiful pass directed right in front of Lawrence so he can run onto it and tiptoe down the touchline to score. Just beautiful execution. Night-and-day from some of the bollocks we saw at Murrayfield.

*edited because I keep typing Freebank when I mean Furman and vice versa.

[Puja]

Minute 6: Ford goes for the conversion from as far wide as wide gets, but it does nothing more than flirt with the posts before fading away. Still, 5-3 to the good guys and a very useful start.

Crowley kicks off shorter and we make a right hash of this one. Itoje's lifting pod is slow to get to him and a ball that should've been his ends up clearing him. Ireland have read that and got someone there while Earl wasn't and gets nowhere near it. He almost gets a bonus for his inattention as the ball bounces into his arms and he goes on a run, but it's dislodged in contact and goes forwards.

Minute 7: ITV's graphics are busy telling us that Feyi-Waboso is off for an HIA and replaced by Daly, instead of Nash off for Frawley. Good work guys.

Ireland pass it out and it looks for a moment like the blitz has been outflanked - Slade charging up on Crowley and failing to stop the ball release - but it is instead working as designed. Lawrence swings in behind to cover Slade's channel that Aki is running down and IFW is pelting in to smash Henshaw if he gets the ball. Aki is left with the choice of feeding Henshaw into the grinder or turning back inside and does the latter, where England's forwards are waiting for him. It looks chaotic and seat of the pants, but it's actually much more solid and organised than it looks.

Aki does do a good job of turning back inside, bumping off Martin which is a feat in itself, and Ireland get very quick ball, which is trouble. Feyi-Waboso makes a mistake and steps in on Frawley, who was covered by the forwards pressing across from the ruck, and the ball goes behind him for Ireland to go wide into the space. They draw Furbank and end up with a 2-on-1, but Genge saves the day by absolutely pelting across to cover Sheehan and turn it into a 2-on-2. Tremendous work rate and desire - deserves a medal for that. Mitchell tackles Lowe with Genge's help and the ball is thrown loosely back before he goes into touch. Ireland recover and pass it inside for more attack, but Underhill knows the laws and smashes an Irishman as he gets the ball because there's been no breakdown to set an offside line. Furbank and George are quickly in at the ruck to compete and slow the ball and England have a semblance of a defensive line in place by the time it comes back out on Ireland's side again.

We stay true to our principles - countering a lack of width with beserk line speed and shooting up for interceptions to drive the Irish back inside and two big tackles, by Cole and then Martin, drive Ireland back on the gainline and slow everything down again. Gibson-Park then throws a ropey pass which is dropped in the face of more rush defence and we have gone from being deep in our 22 to winning a scrum 33m out, just with defence. The celebrations are very deserved.

Minute 8: The minute is taken up with scrum-fuckery as neither side are stable on the Bind call, but Amashukeli explains what he wants in clear language and we try again.

Minute 9: We get an actual scrum this time, but Genge manages to get a penalty out of Furlong who has overextended and Genge just lowers him to ground. Good technique there. Slade then kicks an absolute belter of a touchfinder, getting us down just. into their 22.

Minute 10: We throw long to Itoje over the 15, allowing the backs to advance. Ford takes it on the run and feeds Genge who hammers it up the middle. Underhill and Cole are in support to drive him on further (and make sure he gets to ground), and it's good ball, which Mitchell spins blind. We have the hint of an overlap here, but Furbank is spooked by Ireland threatening to rush up and carries himself. It's a poor decision, cause Earl was on a great line off his shoulder and could possibly have been in, whereas Furbank carrying is isolated and turned over (admittedly through some stellar work by van der Flier)

[Puja]

Minute 11: Sheehan cocks up the throw at the lineout and the ball spills loose to Genge. He feeds Mitchell, who has reacted very quickly and is racing around to the openside, and it's then a long wide pass to Ford who has drifted right into midfield. Ford then chucks a miss-pass to Slade and we've gone two thirds of the width fo the field in two passes from turnover ball. Brian Ashton would love this.

If that wasn't good enough, Slade runs onto the ball, feints to pass to Furbank to draw Lowe into shooting up, and then passes behind Lowe's back to Feyi-Waboso. Our man Manny steps inside and makes good metres with a ruck swiftly cleared by Furbank and Slade and then passed away by Mitchell within 2 seconds. Ford throws what could be called an "aggressively flat pass" (but which most neutral and Irish fans would probably more accurately call forward) and it's Genge careering into the Irish defence of forwards coming across from the lineout.

Minute 12: More instant ruck ball and we continue going the same way, having gone coast-to-coast over two passes and coming back having drawn a lot of the defence across with those hard carries by IFW and Genge. Both our second rows run hard lines off Ford, interesting what's left of the Irish defence, and Ford pulls it back to Slade who throws a good pass out for us to have another 2-on-1. Gibson-Park tries to fly up on Chessum to cut it off, but he gets the ball in and out of his hands swiftly to see Freeman free down the left. Unfortunately, the cover is coming across and he steps inside, but it's more metres, more Irish defenders drawn in, more quick ball.

Genge is stopped on the gainline with a good tackle next phase and we carry for two more one-out phases which don't get us much of anywhere and give Ireland a chance to regroup. Good defence.

Furbank calls for it as first receiver on the blind side and attempts to put through a grubber - it's blocked and we're quite lucky that it balloons up and then is lost by Gibson-Park chasing back. Keenan does regather, but we drive him into touch for an attacking lineout. Lucky bounce prevented that from being a KADAB. I was quite impressed by Furbank live, but that's the second time in the first 12 minutes that he's gone to the line as first receiver and made a poor decision. He's better than this.

This time it's George's turn to overthrow, clearing Chessum's hands at the very tail, and we are lucky that it bounces into Ford's hands.

Minute 13: We recycle, but it's slow ball and it's sent out for Genge to smash up. He puts in some nice footwork to absolutely mug off the first Irish tackler and then makes a few cm in contact to give good ball. Good carries by Chessum and then George before Mitchell goes on a wander from the base - Ireland are halfway focussed on the potential passing option and leave a small hole which Mitchell makes a half-break through, but unfortunately he tries to force an offload that was never on and the ball goes forward.

Simple Fucking Handl... oh wait, I don't need to do that this week

Ireland play with the advantage and kick for touch about 40m out.

Replay shows that I owe Mitchell an apology - the offload was on and it was actually Porter slapping it forward out of his hand that causes Genge not to be able to gather.

Minute 14: England throw to Chessum at the back again, but Ireland have read it and get a man up in front to slap it back. Itoje and Underhill are up and pressurising Ireland to make it difficult, but they get the ball away and Aki drives into Ford to make back the territory - he's brought down, but they're back up to the 10m line again.

Ireland kick long and it's a beautiful kick that deserves a 50:22 every day of the week, but the bounce of a rugby ball always hates you and the last bounces stops the forward momentum dead 5m away from touch. Freeman can come across to gather and kicks long to Ireland, who kick long to Mitchell. The 9 does well to catch and give a little pop pass to Ford to avoid being taken man-and-ball. Ford kicks downfield and finds grass splitting the gap between Irish backfield defenders, but the bounce of a rugby ball always hates you and it sits up rather than bouncing forwards, so Lowe can gather.

He kicks to us, we kick to them, but it's a bit shallower this time and so Ireland set a ruck and look to play with the ball.

Minute 15: It turns out that that was a lie, as they set up one ruck and then box-kick it. Ford catches and has a moment of thinking he could outpace the one-man chase, before realising he's not 21 anymore and passes it to someone who is. Feyi-Waboso beats the first man and carries up to nearly the 10m line. Ben Spencer would've been calling Disco at that ruck for a box-kick, but Mitchell sees space and feeds Earl on the burst. Mr Celebrations puts in some excellent footwork to bamboozle Doris and draw in Porter to bring him down, at which point Earl offloads to George who has picked a fantastic line through the channel that Porter's just vacated.

George accelerates through the hole... for certain values of acceleration. It's good enough to gain 20 metres and he slows to take contact on his own terms and present quick ball, aided by a great clearout from Chessum. The ball is out as quickly as Mitchell can get there - O'Mahoney charges up to try and take Ford out, but he puts the ball through his hands in a blink of an eye and sends Furbank through a half-gap. Bit of a juggle from the Wing Commander, but he holds on and we get more quick ball. Chessum then carries next phase and uses good footwork to get through a weak tackle and steal a few more metres. We then send Genge into contact and, while it's a big tackle that slows the ball, the tackler also gets stuck in the way and we draw a penalty.

We do have the advantage and it looks like Ford's going to put a grubber or chip through, but he changes his mind and goes for a drop-goal. It's not his best effort under pressure and barely makes the foot of the posts, so we come back for the penalty.

[Puja]

Minute 16: Replays while Ford prepares himself to kick.

Minute 17: Used all of the minute and that kick came dangerously close to the far post, but it's 3 points and we're 8-3 up.

Ireland take their time with the kick-off, so nothing else happens.

Minute 18: Ireland kick long and Earl has plenty of time to catch and then beat the first chaser for pace, before straightening and driving into contact to make ground and set up a ruck. Mitchell clears and it looks like he's using a very different box-kicking technique this week - it's very front-facing instead of sideways facing and looks awfully like the flawed technique that got JVP charged down so much when he very first broke through. Still it works well enough here and goes up to the halfway, although doesn't quite find touch. Ireland throw it inside, but Slade is up hunting on the outside to cut out any further passes and presses Keenan into the maw of Martin's channel where he gets chopped down. Underhill goes for a jackal, but puts his arms on the floor beyond the ball and the ref signals advantage. Ireland try to play, but a good tackle by Lawrence leads to slow ball and they go back for the pen. Poor play by Underhill.

Minute 19: Ireland kick the penalty down to just inside England's 22. England offer Ireland the front of the lineout, Ireland accept, and it ends as a 0-0 draw - Itoje can't screw up their maul or ball, but they can't move it anywhere, so they play it away. It's passed to Gibson-Park, who runs at George at the tail of our lineout, drawing him in before popping to Aki, running fast a hard line at the soft transition area between lineout and backs... only for Aki to have both of his legs removed by a diving Underhill special. Just superb technique and I'll forgive him the jackalling fuck-up last minute for that. Aki bounces to his feet quickly and makes another couple of metres, but that tackle was potentially try-saving, no matter that it was a distance out from the line.

Ireland try to carry in with Doris, but he is tackled well and England jackal beautifully to get the ball back... only for the ref to give a penalty. It looks like a very harsh call on first watch, but it's another one that Amashukeli has got absolutely right, Lawrence has made the tackle, bounced to his feet, got onto the ball, but he's not got himself all the way back on his side. 7/10 international refs wouldn't've spotted that and 7/10 international refs would've been wrong.

Minute 20: Ireland go for goal and Crowley requires less time than Ford, getting the job done easily within this minute. 8-6.

[Puja]

Minute 21: Ford once again clears the lifting pod and finds Aki. Feyi-Waboso isn't quite as fast up this time and Aki reckons he can make ground down the touchline, but Chessum is once again there as backup and puts in a very good tackle to take him into touch. It looks like it hurt him and he takes a few minutes of physio before he can play on. He's good to go though, which is good, cause he's had a great start to the game.

England set up like they're going to the tail again, but they've learned from Ireland pressurising them there twice in a row and instead throw a trick play to Cole at the front who immediately feeds Mitchell. Ireland attempt to flood through, so Mitchell abandons ideas of passing wide and steps back inside to offload to George, who makes ground.

Minute 22: It's passed out and Genge takes it to the line before popping to Earl who takes us into the 22 with metres after contact. We then use Feyi-Waboso off Ford's inside shoulder, which again makes some ground. It's quick ball and we do have a backline outside the 10, but Ford for some reason decides it's drop-goal time - he's not in the pocket, he has to step back inside to get on his right foot and, by the time he gets it away, it ends up bouncing off van der Flier's chest. Bizarre decision and not very well executed.

Thankfully, it bounces kindly away from vdF and lands in Earl's arms for him to make another jinky run and recycle the ball, with good clearouts from IFW and Slade.

We play away for a couple of phases and Underhill makes a nice little half-break off Ford's shoulder to get us back into the 22. We go for one-out runners again, before going wide - Ford spins a pass for Slade to run onto, but he's well tackled by Ireland and Earl has to work to clear out. Ireland think that the ball is about to spill out of the back of the ruck, but it doesn't. Ireland go up in anticipation, which leaves them all offside as Mitchell snatches the ball up in fear that the ref might call it as having come out. Amashukeli makes the right call and we have a penalty 6m from touch, just outside the 22.

Minute 23: Slade kicks for the corner. It's a good call to my mind - it'd be a difficult kick for points and would lose us a lot of momentum and territory if he missed it.

We go for another trick play - Itoje backpedals and is lifted near the back, dragging the Irish lifting pod with him, only for George to lob it perfectly over the front men to land in the gap that Itoje's just created, where Earl is running in from scrum-half. It's a gorgeous play, executed perfectly, and it's hugely unfortunate that Sheehan reacts quickly enough to drag Earl down a bare metre before the tryline.

Minute 24: It is slow ball and England attempt to resuscitate it with a one-out carry from Underhill that drags in defenders and gets us to the edge of the line. Unfortunately, the clear-out is a little too good and the ball is exposed. Beirne nips in while Chessum is still organising his support for his pick-and-go, and picks up the ball - there is a definite question whether he had got back onside, a la Genge earlier, but I'll let him have it because it's very sharp play and probably a try-saver for Ireland.

Ireland reset and then pass back to Lowe to clear, but Chessum is up on him and gets a touch on the ball that deflects it infield. Furbank runs onto the ball and tries to get past van der Flier - he does just enough to get an offload away to IFW who takes into contact. Furlong goes in for a jackal and is cleared out by Genge in a fashion that I'm really glad didn't see a TMO replay - looks like another tucked shoulder, flying in at speed, with Furlong reeling away clutching his face. I saw it live and spent the next phase of play praying we wouldn't get an interjection from Jonker in de Bonker.

There's some good solid carries coming in here - George, Martin, Furbank with a jinky run back against the grain, Chessum - and we're mixing it up off 9 and 10, but we're not going anywhere forwards right now, just hanging around the 22m line. It comes to a head when Martin tips the ball onto Genge who gets levelled with a double-tackle and immediately starts screaming to the ref about head contact. I can't tell one way or another on the single angle that the TV picture gives me, but it certainly looks a lot less dangerous than his last clearout to me, so he's got a cheek to be complaining. Still, de Bonker Jonker is silent on both sides and we manage to make this the first England v Ireland game in five attempts not to have a red card.

Minute 25: We spin it out and Lawrence spots that Frawley is dashing up to cut off our chance of an overlap out wide, so instead puts in a very useful grubber behind him. Furbank is first to the bouncing ball, but Frawley gets a hand in there and does enough to force the fumble. Lawrence gathers it and takes it under the posts and grounds it rather sheepishly - he knows it's not a try. More high marks for Amashukeli here - he starts to signal a knock-on, realises that Lawrence is going to gather and score and holds off on blowing his whistle until the ball is grounded. If he goes with his instinct and calls a knock-on straight away, then he can't give the try if the TMO shows him to be mistaken - by waiting and letting the ball be grounded, he allows room if he's wrong for the try to be awarded. Good refereeing.

The TMO, embarrassingly enough, takes nearly 3 minutes of looking at it, before Amashukeli gets bored and just decides for himself that it's a scrum. George gets arsey with the ref about checking for the high tackle on Genge, but he rightly gets a scolding.

More praise for the ref - his early conversations about not doing axial loading on the bind have given us a steady and stable scrum that plays away within the minute. Aki runs at Ford, but Lawrence steps in to be the second man and the tackle is good. Ireland set up a caterpillar and box-kick away to touch 45m out.


Right, that's me done for the evening. Enjoy all - probably more tomorrow.

Puja

[Which Tyler]

Thank you for doing this

My preconceived notions from my first watch of this match:
We didn't radically change what we've been doing all this 6N - we just reduced the incredibly basic fuckups and suddenyl what we were building all came together. In terms of individuals, Amashukeli was excellent (I expected nothing less, as I really rate him as a ref), Ford played well with ball in hand, Furbank was generally good with a few mistakes, Underhill had a good game, I was wrong about Chessum on the flank being a bad idea, Feyi-Waboso and Earl were immense, Slade had an annoyingly good game after I wrote him off last time, Daly and Care did their absolute best to lose us the game off the bench, and Dombrandt was utterly anonymous. Let's see how many of those were actually true!

Wait - Dombrandt actually got onto the pitch?
I genuinely thought he sat the bench for the full 80

[loudnconfident]

Thanks for this, @Puja - very informative and entertaining as usual!

[Danno]

Jonker in de Bonker is making me giggle far more than it should. Top work.

[Mr Mwenda]

Yay! Thanks Puja, nice reading through my hangover!

[FKAS]

Thank you for doing this

My preconceived notions from my first watch of this match:
We didn't radically change what we've been doing all this 6N - we just reduced the incredibly basic fuckups and suddenyl what we were building all came together. In terms of individuals, Amashukeli was excellent (I expected nothing less, as I really rate him as a ref), Ford played well with ball in hand, Furbank was generally good with a few mistakes, Underhill had a good game, I was wrong about Chessum on the flank being a bad idea, Feyi-Waboso and Earl were immense, Slade had an annoyingly good game after I wrote him off last time, Daly and Care did their absolute best to lose us the game off the bench, and Dombrandt was utterly anonymous. Let's see how many of those were actually true!

Wait - Dombrandt actually got onto the pitch?
I genuinely thought he sat the bench for the full 80

Came on for Chessum. Stood near a lot of rucks carefully inspecting the grass. Made one carry where he got nowhere and then offloaded to Freeman who was left with a metre of space and needing to offload before the Irish defence put him into touch. That's what I remember at least, Puja will no doubt correct me in time.

Dombrant looked noticeably slimmer though, I wonder if his time in camp has been heavy on the conditioning side of things.

[TheDasher]

Glad you highlighted that Underhill tackle on Aki Puja, just mentioned it on another thread. Also agree on Chessum who seriously emptied the tank, he got visibly tired second half but was superb at times.

[Mr Mwenda]

Thank you for doing this

My preconceived notions from my first watch of this match:
We didn't radically change what we've been doing all this 6N - we just reduced the incredibly basic fuckups and suddenyl what we were building all came together. In terms of individuals, Amashukeli was excellent (I expected nothing less, as I really rate him as a ref), Ford played well with ball in hand, Furbank was generally good with a few mistakes, Underhill had a good game, I was wrong about Chessum on the flank being a bad idea, Feyi-Waboso and Earl were immense, Slade had an annoyingly good game after I wrote him off last time, Daly and Care did their absolute best to lose us the game off the bench, and Dombrandt was utterly anonymous. Let's see how many of those were actually true!

Wait - Dombrandt actually got onto the pitch?
I genuinely thought he sat the bench for the full 80

Came on for Chessum. Stood near a lot of rucks carefully inspecting the grass. Made one carry where he got nowhere and then offloaded to Freeman who was left with a metre of space and needing to offload before the Irish defence put him into touch. That's what I remember at least, Puja will no doubt correct me in time.

Dombrant looked noticeably slimmer though, I wonder if his time in camp has been heavy on the conditioning side of things.

In my memory, Dombrandt came on and was solid and disciplined. Linked once with Smith and made a safe carry in the build up to the drop goal. But nothing game changing.

[p/d]

Dombrandt was absolutely fine for his 14mins on the pitch. CCS was superb.

Chessum and Underhill were poor on making metres but were really physical, which was great to see.

[FKAS]

Dombrant certainly didn't do anything wrong but he didn't do much in general. Functional in stark contrast to CCS who was brilliant on both sides of the ball. With the emergence of CCS and the other young 8s, this 6N could be Dombrant's last chance to claim a regular slot in the side. With the injury to CCS he may well get another go next weekend.

[Adam_P]

Freeman does so well with a take-and-give as the last Irish man tries to fly up to take him man and ball - I was going to criticise him for passing behind Slade, but getting the ball away there at all is worth applauding.

It was Furbank rather than Freeman with the quick take and give. Didn't fluff it when it counted!

[Puja]

Freeman does so well with a take-and-give as the last Irish man tries to fly up to take him man and ball - I was going to criticise him for passing behind Slade, but getting the ball away there at all is worth applauding.

It was Furbank rather than Freeman with the quick take and give. Didn't fluff it when it counted!

Good catch - I actually noted at the time that it was Furbank, but my brain keeps trying to type the wrong name when I'm referencing one of those two. Fureman and Frebank.

Puja

[Puja]

Minute 26: England have clearly decided that throwing to the back of the lineout is not the right call at present with Ireland defending it so hard. As such, we feign to go backwards and end up lifting Martin at the front, relying on Mitchell's long pass to provide width. It's solid enough, although Ford does have to stretch for it, and allows us to send Earl up into midfield. From there, we go wider, with Slade running a line off Ford. It's his first mistake of the game (after a dire effort against Scotland) - he goes too high into contact and then doesn't fold his legs to get his knees to the ground, instead squatting down like he's trying to use a French public toilet to try and tug the ball out of Henshaw's grasp. It doesn't work, the ref calls maul and then gives the scrum to Ireland when it doesn't come out. That's a basic contact skills fail, especially when you're playing against Ireland.

Minute 27: The scrum is again efficient and gets the ball in and out within the minute. Porter gets a good angle on Cole - possibly on the side of illegal, but we're going to call it a celebration of the dark arts - and Ireland go forwards. England don't bring it down and Amashukeli doesn't just give a penalty for going backwards. Instead the ball spits out via bad control from Doris putting it in line to be kicked by the second row. It's a lucky break for him though, because the scrum has wheeled the same way the ball goes and he can pick up the loose ball with a 2-on-1 against Mitchell. He draws and gives to his 9 down the wing...

Minute 28: Feyi-Waboso has done a belting job of reading the situation and charges up to challenge Gibson-Park in the battle of the double-barrels down the Touch-Line. JGP manages to get a kick away, but IFW puts pressure enough on to make it go into touch and bring him down just in case there was any thought of a chase.

England have the lineout about 17 metres from the line and go to the front with Martin again - it's clean ball, but Ireland drive through on his lifter and the ref gives us a penalty and an escape from our 22. Slade kicks up past halfway.

Minute 29: The lineout is to the front and it's good skills from George to hit Martin right at the top of his jump. We go for the tap-down and then long pass into midfield again. Ireland know it's coming and try to charge it down, but the quality of the execution - George to Martin to Mitchell and away without a single readjustment or inaccuracy - means that they get nowhere near it. Little things like that please me.

Ford drifts on the pass, angles his shoulders and eyesight so it looks like it's going out the back to Slade and lays off a late pass to Lawrence on the bosh. Ireland were ready for him, but it's with half an eye on what Ford looks to be doing and that means Lawrence ends up 5 metres over the gainline, rather than smashing into a brick wall and stopped dead. Underhill and IFW are there immediately to clear out and the ball is in Mitchell's hands in under 2 seconds again.

Mitchell has a little dart, which attracts the interest of both close Irish defenders, meaning that they then have to scramble when he passes to George running a hard line who gets over the gainline again. Unfortunately the presentation is interfered with by the Irish tackler rolling away and Mitchell has to dive on the loose ball to rescue it. The ref doesn't give a penalty for the interfering, but Ireland concede penalty advantage anyway for being offside as they fail to beat Mitchell to the ball on the floor. Even with the scrappy play, we ruck really efficiently over the top (the Underhill and IFW combination doing a great job) and get the ball back to play with.

Earl goes for a dart, but there's no hole there and the ball gets ripped from his grasp - but we're lucky and it falls to Underhill who makes a nice carry that gets us going forward again.

Minute 30: Ford then decides to gamble for free on the advantage with a chip over the top - it's not perfectly placed, but it's good enough that Lawrence can challenge and he's probably a bit irked that he knocks on rather than catching cleanly. Wouldn't've been through or anything, but it would've been more momentum. Not sure if that was a good use of our advantage or not - we didn't have a full backline outside of Ford (Chessum was on the wing) and it nearly came off, but it wasn't going to lead to a try-scoring opportunity and I feel like a gamble on advantage should be go big or go home, you know?

[Puja]

Minute 31: Fairly regulation penalty kick for Ford, but it has the same trajectory as his last kick, without the curling inside the post bit. Very poor miss.

Ireland are in no rush to take the 22 drop-out and seem to be trying to slow the game down.

Minute 32: Crowley kicks the 22 long and Ford has all the time in the world to gather, get himself and his chasers in position and then put up the !!!SPIRAL BOMB!!!. It's a bit too long to compete for however and Frawley does a very good job of reading it and watching it all the way into his arms without too much pressure.

Ireland recycle and carry up once, but Itoje and Martin are once again making an utter nuisance of themselves at the ruck, so Ireland get it out and kick it long. Ford is under it and puts up a more regulation high ball for Freeman to chase, but it's too long again and Frawley can catch and call mark uncontested. He gets everyone onside and then kicks for touch just beyond halfway.

Minute 33: We go to the front at the lineout again and Mitchell's showing a weakness in his left-to-right passing here. When the lineouts have been on the right, his very long pass has been a smooth, accurate, bullet to Ford's hands, while this is the second one in a row on the left where his pass has been significantly floatier and required the receiver to stop and jump for them. Something to work on in training.

Earl takes it and goes on a jinky run that's enough to bring us back level with where the lineout was. England set up a caterpillar and Mitchell pumps it high into the air - it could be a little bit longer, but it does at least allow Freeman to compete and he is first to get hands to the ball. Unfortunately, all he can do is set it up like a volleyball and Ireland snaffle it back. Cole holds the catcher and Itoje absolutely finishes him, so Ireland are knocked back and with slow ball, therefore caterpillar...

Minute 34: ... and box. Furbank catches and easily rounds Keenan, before being faced with the full defensive line. He dips low and drives in, showing good technique, but unfortunately he's up against Doris, who literally picks him up and holds him horizontal, like a dad holding his kid who wants to play Superman. Thankfully for Furbank's dignity, Doris can't hold him there for long (and Itoje's in there to sack Doris anyway), so we do get to floor and scramble it back, but there's no hope of a counter-attack anymore.

Still, we do pass away the slow ball out to the backs - Ford pulls back to Freeman, and Freeman sends Chessum up through a half-gap, but unfortunately the gap is closed and Chessum is isolated. Aki is quick in over the ball and it's a penalty - if I was complaining I'd say that he does put his hands on the floor first, but it's close and not really worth complaining about.

Minute 35: Crowley kicks the penalty from 45m out - it just about limps over the bar, but it's three points the same as one that sails through and Ireland are in the lead at 8-9 when it should really have been 11-6 a couple of minutes ago.

[Puja]

Minute 36: England kick off long to Aki again and he decides against going to the wing where Chessum is waiting and instead takes on IFW, who brings him down. Ireland, rather boldly, decide to play, passing it to Crowley who offloads to Furlong. Our defence is up fast and tackling well, so now they've moved backwards 5-6 metres while leaving themselves under their own posts. No more adventure on the next phase - back to Lowe to boot it into touch. England lineout about 35m out.

Minute 37: England throw to the back for the first time in a while and this time Itoje goes up uncontested. We form a maul which is functional and trundles a few metres, but isn't a massive threat to Ireland, so we spin it out. Mitchell's long pass from right to left is lovely to Slade at first receiver - he takes to the line and looks like he's feeding Earl on the crash, only to pull back for Ford. Ford then puts a lovely pass behind Lawrence's hard line to find Feyi-Waboso who is in space.

The Irish have not been able to drift with the threat from Earl and Lawrence's dummy lines, and some crisp passing gets us into a 3-on-2. Feyi-Waboso runs a gorgeous line, attracting the attention of both of the last two Irish defenders before putting in a pass for Furbank, who promptly drops it. Massively disappointing on two counts. The first is that he's running a hard line on IFW, which is not reading the situation at all - Keenan has had to stay tight because he's not convinced the inside man has IFW covered, so basic overlap training says go where the defenders aren't. Even if he catches that ball, he's running straight into Keenan, rather than around and taking on the 2-on-1 with Freeman. Secondly, it's not a difficult pass to take and he's taken his eyes off it because he's thinking about the imminent contact with Keenan. He is *so* *much* *better* than this kind of rubbish.

That has to go down as a try-scoring opportunity missed. Lovely backs move though.

Minute 38: We once again get the scrum done and dusted in the minute. Gibson-Park thinks about going blind, thinks better of that thought and then goes open - could've been dangerous with this English defence, but his dithering has confused us and Lowe ends up having lots of time to clear. It's a brilliant kick and Furbank ends up taking it into touch just inside our 22. I've seen a lot of criticism of Furbank for this, but he's got very little he can do - he's running back to try and get under it in the first place and the ball is landing about 5cm one side of the touchline or the other. If he leaves it and it's straight into touch, he's a hero and it's a lineout back on the Irish 22, but if he leaves it and it bounces in play, it's likely a 50:22. He's backpedalling, trying to work out where he is and what to do, and he very nearly rescues the situation, with just a toe touching the line before he flings it back inside. Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition.

Absolute beggar of a turnaround though. Should've been 13-9 and England kicking a conversion, and now one mistake and we're facing an Irish attack on our 22.

Minute 39: Ireland throw to the front and then off the top and into midfield, trying to send Aki at Ford. He only finds Earl and George, but it's enough to make a dent and force us to backpedal. Ireland get quick ball and run some forwards at speed against England for 2 phases, at which point someone goes offside. I can't see who the offence is given against, tbh - the only suspect I can see if Ford and that's very harsh indeed if that's the case.

Minute 40: Ireland play with the advantage and try a pull-back ball and Crowley throws a very brave flat miss-pass in the face of the England rush defence - it's beautifully aimed though and threads the needle to find McCarthy on the burst. McCarthy can see space in front of him and thinks he's through, only to get utterly blindsided by Martin who has read the play and puts in a textbook perfect tackle to demolish his ribs and knock the ball free. A thing of absolute beauty, made better by the fact that Martin then bends down to offer McCarthy a commiserating hand up while the Irishman is trying to work out which week he's been knocked into.

The ref confirms that the offside was against Ford - it's *very* marginal, but it is Ford's fault for not making sure he's definitively behind the back foot. We don't need to be pushing the margins there.

Minute 41: Crowley slots the simple kick and the half-time score is 8-12. Feels very unfair given the run of play, but Ireland have taken their chances and we're definitely at fault for the points that we've left out there on the pitch

[FKAS]

"Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition"

You do but a fullback needs to know where the touchline is. Positioning is everything, have to flick the eyes down to the pitch like checking the mirrors in your car. You don't stare at them it's the briefest glance then back to the main focus which in this case is the ball. I also think Furbank would have got less stick had he not just cocked up moments before at the other end.

Great work again Puja. I certainly felt at halftime that we had some real signs of life in terms of our attack and that the defence has worked well with Ireland having created not very much.

[Banquo]

"Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition"

You do but a fullback needs to know where the touchline is. Positioning is everything, have to flick the eyes down to the pitch like checking the mirrors in your car. You don't stare at them it's the briefest glance then back to the main focus which in this case is the ball. I also think Furbank would have got less stick had he not just cocked up moments before at the other end.

Great work again Puja. I certainly felt at halftime that we had some real signs of life in terms of our attack and that the defence has worked well with Ireland having created not very much.

I feel - but will have a look- he just wasn't deep enough, given we know how long Lowe can kick, if he's deep enough, he's got time to get outside the touchline and then easier to step into the field to take or just let it land out on the fly. Not a good look, but whether G-P's faffing 'lured' the backfield forwards a bit, I'd need to check.

However, I thought he added substantially more than he detracted, and in attack brought energy and purpose; he also took a very good and important high ball under the posts, so credit for that. I do think the jury is a bit out, but he has the ability to cement his place imo.

[Mellsblue]

"Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition"

You do but a fullback needs to know where the touchline is. Positioning is everything, have to flick the eyes down to the pitch like checking the mirrors in your car. You don't stare at them it's the briefest glance then back to the main focus which in this case is the ball. I also think Furbank would have got less stick had he not just cocked up moments before at the other end.

Great work again Puja. I certainly felt at halftime that we had some real signs of life in terms of our attack and that the defence has worked well with Ireland having created not very much.

I feel - but will have a look- he just wasn't deep enough, given we know how long Lowe can kick, if he's deep enough, he's got time to get outside the touchline and then easier to step into the field to take or just let it land out on the fly. Not a good look, but whether G-P's faffing 'lured' the backfield forwards a bit, I'd need to check.

However, I thought he added substantially more than he detracted, and in attack brought energy and purpose; he also took a very good and important high ball under the posts, so credit for that. I do think the jury is a bit out, but he has the ability to cement his place imo.

He’s definitely in credit given what he did in attack but he does need to cut out the glaring errors. This week was better than last so it’s a step in the right direction. He’s on record as struggling with confidence so perhaps he’ll slowly improve as he grows in confidence. As you’ve stated previously, he’s pretty key to the new attack so let’s hope he continues to improve. There are trade offs with any player you select, bar RICH LANE!!!

[p/d]

Get rid of the ‘tache.

[Puja]

"Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition"

You do but a fullback needs to know where the touchline is. Positioning is everything, have to flick the eyes down to the pitch like checking the mirrors in your car. You don't stare at them it's the briefest glance then back to the main focus which in this case is the ball. I also think Furbank would have got less stick had he not just cocked up moments before at the other end.

Great work again Puja. I certainly felt at halftime that we had some real signs of life in terms of our attack and that the defence has worked well with Ireland having created not very much.

I feel - but will have a look- he just wasn't deep enough, given we know how long Lowe can kick, if he's deep enough, he's got time to get outside the touchline and then easier to step into the field to take or just let it land out on the fly. Not a good look, but whether G-P's faffing 'lured' the backfield forwards a bit, I'd need to check.

However, I thought he added substantially more than he detracted, and in attack brought energy and purpose; he also took a very good and important high ball under the posts, so credit for that. I do think the jury is a bit out, but he has the ability to cement his place imo.

I think you've nailed it on him not being deep enough - he is backpedalling all the way to even get into position. I think the issue was twofold: firstly, Ireland passed the ball into midfield for Lowe to kick so he couldn't sit too deep in case it was going to be an attack, and secondly, it was a hell of a kick, going from 22 to 22 and it's not unreasonable to not've expected it to've gone that far.

So far, my m-b-m review of Furbank is very ambivalent. He's made three mistakes in attack, two of which have led to turning over good attacking ball, which is just too high. Before I watched the French game, I was leaning towards recalling Steward, simply on the basis of the French weakness under the high ball, but having watched it and seen their all around defensive weakness, I'm thinking maybe Furbank to keep the attacking tempo up.

Puja

[Banquo]

"Sometimes, it's just a kick that was too good and you have to give credit to the opposition"

You do but a fullback needs to know where the touchline is. Positioning is everything, have to flick the eyes down to the pitch like checking the mirrors in your car. You don't stare at them it's the briefest glance then back to the main focus which in this case is the ball. I also think Furbank would have got less stick had he not just cocked up moments before at the other end.

Great work again Puja. I certainly felt at halftime that we had some real signs of life in terms of our attack and that the defence has worked well with Ireland having created not very much.

I feel - but will have a look- he just wasn't deep enough, given we know how long Lowe can kick, if he's deep enough, he's got time to get outside the touchline and then easier to step into the field to take or just let it land out on the fly. Not a good look, but whether G-P's faffing 'lured' the backfield forwards a bit, I'd need to check.

However, I thought he added substantially more than he detracted, and in attack brought energy and purpose; he also took a very good and important high ball under the posts, so credit for that. I do think the jury is a bit out, but he has the ability to cement his place imo.

I think you've nailed it on him not being deep enough - he is backpedalling all the way to even get into position. I think the issue was twofold: firstly, Ireland passed the ball into midfield for Lowe to kick so he couldn't sit too deep in case it was going to be an attack, and secondly, it was a hell of a kick, going from 22 to 22 and it's not unreasonable to not've expected it to've gone that far.

So far, my m-b-m review of Furbank is very ambivalent. He's made three mistakes in attack, two of which have led to turning over good attacking ball, which is just too high. Before I watched the French game, I was leaning towards recalling Steward, simply on the basis of the French weakness under the high ball, but having watched it and seen their all around defensive weakness, I'm thinking maybe Furbank to keep the attacking tempo up.

Puja

I do need to watch again, but a 15 should not be backpedalling from a set play, especially given that Lowe's boot is hardly a secret, he does a high % of Ireland's exits.

I'd still keep him in the team, as a signal of intent as much as anything. He needs to be a bit less ambitious in some ways, and tbh some of the passing has been less than sympathetic.