Breakdown - The Five Reasons why England lost to Ireland

The dust has settled, the bruises are healing and the Guinness-induced comas have *almost* cleared up, so now we’ve got the chance to look at why one side are still chasing a Grand Slam, and why the other is not.

 

The below are all areas where England failed to deliver – but you could also read them as areas where Ireland were simply better.  Either way, here are the 5 key battlegrounds that will be causing Stuart Lancaster to consider changing his apparently one sole facial expression (I call it 'mild contemplation').

1.  Poor Kick Chase

It was easy to declare that Johnny Sexton and Connor Murray had better games from the boot than Youngs and Ford, and to an extent that was true.  However, the latter were not helped by any stretch of the imagination by a kick chase that resembled a group of (rather burly) men ambling about on a Sunday stroll.  There were plenty of times when the half-backs put the ball in an area, with enough hang-time, for England to apply real pressure, but time and again the likes of Kearney and Zebo were allowed to gather the ball under no real pressure.  Compare that to Ireland, who had their wingers and back row haring after every kick, meaning that the likes of Goode and Watson were often met with a face-full of Irish elbow when attempting to claim any high ball, and meant that (more often than not) they were beaten to it.

2.  Rubbish Ruck Clearout

Yes, I should probably consider using a more technical term than ‘rubbish’ but it does seem appropriate, and it comes down to a mixture of aggression and technique, or a lack of both in England’s case on Sunday.  When Ireland decided to keep the ball in hand – not all that often, admittedly – they blasted English players out of the way before the carriers had even hit the ground, flying in low and hard to make it impossible for any white-shirted individual to get their hands on the ball.  At times it was like the England players were simply consumed by a green wave, but they could not replicate that themselves.  As a perfect example in the first half, Chris Robshaw carried well before being brought down by Tommy O’Donnell, but Dave Attwood (instead of getting underneath the backrower and cleaning him off the ball) damply draped himself over his man like a wet towel, missing the opportunity of the clearout, gifting Ireland the penalty and killing any English momentum.

3.  Poor Decision Making

Do you know which side kicks the most in world rugby?  The All Blacks.  The all-singing, all-dancing All Blacks.  And Ireland emulated that by refusing to play any rugby inside of their own half, putting the pressure onto England and seeing who would blink first.  And England did, spectacularly, like an overly flirtatious maid batting her eyelids.  Too often, on the odd occasion when England did field a kick without too much pressure, the temptation to run it back was too great and – especially in Goode’s case – they ran into problems more often than not.  There was also the youthful exuberance, so useful in so many ways but so self-destructive in others, which heaped pressure on the side – both Ford and Watson had moments where they skinned several defenders and broke free, but instead of taking smart options and holding onto the ball, they tried impossible offloads which were inevitably knocked on – the ability to keep your head, even when you’re “on a roll” will come with experience.

 

4.  Wobbly Set Piece

Ok, the scrum wasn’t wobbly as such, but it wasn’t the dominant force we expected.  It meant that one of the advantages, one of the platforms that England expected to be able to launch from was taken away.  Now, Dan Cole had a fine game in other aspects but the fact that the Irish eight weren’t marching backwards didn’t help England’s cause – but it was the lineout which was really troublesome.  Dylan Hartley is usually a reliable architect of a successful machine when it comes to lineouts, but on Sunday it had the nasty habit of collapsing at crucial moments – think of 5 metres out from the Irish line in the first half.  Although why Hartley decided to throw long in such a pressure situation with that beanpole Devin Toner lurking towards the back, is anyone’s guess.  England banked on dominating Ireland’s set-piece and securing all of their own – sadly, that didn’t happen.

5.  Indiscipline

At times on Sunday, the Aviva Stadium resembled a South American street-festival, such was the frequency of Craig Joubert’s whistle – mainly against the men in white, and the vast majority of it entirely justified.  Now some penalties are necessary, we all know that (slowing the ball down with the Irish camped on the line in the first half was one example) but the inability of players to listen to the referee and use their noggin cost England not only points but momentum in attacking positions as well.  James Haskell strikes me as a thoroughly nice bloke but I have to question his grey matter when he consistently decides to risk sticking his hands into the ruck, or flopping onto the wrong side, when there is no immediate threat.  He wasn’t the only one, but he was one of the main offenders in a list of mostly experienced players.

 

It’s not all bad news for England of course – they made more line breaks, beat more defenders and made more offloads than their Irish counterparts.  The statistics show that they were in fact the more dangerous side with the ball in hand – but it’s knowing when to pull the trigger which is the key to giving England a seat at the top table once again.

@ruckedover