Six Nations Review - Ireland 19 - 9 England

A bit of role-reversal is always fun.  If you were told Ireland and England were playing, and one of those sides had ground out 9 consecutive wins through ruthless, smart rugby played by a side with a backbone of grizzled veterans, whilst the other was an inconsistent but exciting blend of talent and creativity just finding their feet in the Test arena, I know which peg most of you would hang the green shirts on. 

But the truth is that Joe Schmidt inherited an aging Irish side, and the rugby mastermind has used this well and truly to his advantage.  He has a side who have all experienced the agony and ecstasy of Test Rugby, a side who know how to claw their way to victory when the pressure is on...there is a reason that Irish fans are cautiously optimistic about their chances at Rugby’s showpiece later on in the year.  England, on the other hand have unearthed – through a hand forced by injury, more than anything – a side that is filled with fire-cracker excitement and one that still has the likes of Manu Tuilagi to return to fitness.  It’s a side that has plenty of promise, but not a whole lot of time to fulfil it, despite an all-action opening two rounds, which have yielded two victories.

England though, have made a habit of being slow starters in the Championship so far, and Sunday was no different.  From kick off, Simon Zebo gathered, Ireland cleared their lines, won the battle for the high ball and then won a penalty for offside.  Johnny Sexton stepped up and delivered the 3 points from distance.  Easy.  And there was no respite for the men in white from the restart, as Billy Vunipola was penalised from the kick-off and allowed Sexton to claw his side up to halfway without breaking a sweat.  From there, more smart kicking pinned the visitors back by their own line and there was a very real danger of the Irish getting out of sight before the game had even begun.  Following an Irish scrum 5 metres out, Sean O’Brien and Rory Best both went close to barging and wriggling over the line, only to be denied by good tackles from George Ford and Vunipola.  It eventually resulted in a penalty though – perhaps necessarily conceded – and Ireland were 6 – 0 up after 10 minutes.

It was indeed 10 minutes before England actually had the ball, and they immediately threatened.  Slick hands out wide and a smart chip did earn a lineout in the Irish 22 and, from there, the pack built up some decent pressure to earn a penalty advantage, Ford taking advantage with a sweetly struck drop goal to get his side on the board.

It had been predicted that the aerial battle would be critical, and the game didn’t disappoint – or did disappoint, depending on how entertaining you find the sight of blokes hoofing the ball up into the air over and again.  Ireland were certainly getting the upper hand, with a ferocious kick chase forcing Anthony Watson and Alex Goode into mistakes, whilst Tommy Bowe and even Simon Zebo were looking imperious, but it was the visitors who had the next shot at points, Ford skewing a long-range penalty attempt off to the left.  They had a chance for more shortly afterwards, as Ford went for the corner off of a kickable (but tricky) penalty – however, Dylan Hartley’s throw was woefully short and easily (and gratefully) picked off by Devin Toner.  Another chance wasted.

It would be pretty much the last chance of points England would have in the half. Robbie Henshaw was becoming more of an influence of the game, firstly turning over Vunipola and then winning another penalty as Luther Burrell failed to quickly distribute a pass, with an overlap outside him, and was collared on his 22 metre line by the Connacht man.  Another 3 points later, and it was 9 – 3 to the men in green.

England just couldn’t get the foothold they needed in the game – they were losing the kicking battle even though the majority of kicks by Ford, Youngs and Goode were reachable, but there was no intensity to the kick chase (certainly not when compared to the Irish’s, anyway) and whenever they did get go forward, the standard of the clearout was not good enough, with Dave Attwood doing an impersonation of a wet flannel in one ruck after Chris Robshaw had made good ground.

There were moments – a great pass by Ben Youngs sent Jack Nowell (in for Johnny May) free down the left, and his chip and chase forced an English lineout in the Irish 22 – but they were few and far between.  Ireland should have been further in front – Sexton missed a penalty following a crunching hit on his opposite number, Ford – but they were good value nonetheless for their 9 – 3 lead at the break.

England came out after the break knowing that this was where they had impressed in their opening two encounters – but it didn’t really go according to plan.  After Anthony Watson had made a promising dart which led to nothing, Alex Goode came to his side’s rescue after Ireland had broken through and hacked the ball ahead.  The Saracens man did brilliantly to evade three tacklers from behind his own goal-line and surge out of his own 22 – if only he had looked to his right, he had men free, but it was still a marvellous piece of play.

Watson made another fine charge moments later, but it was soon the same story of disappointing indiscipline by England as Dylan Hartley failed to role away and gifted Sexton another 3 points, and five minutes later it was to get much worse.  Surging towards the English line, the Irish pack earned a penalty advantage and Conor Murray – who had been on the money with his kicking and service all afternoon – took the opportunity to try something different with a deft chip over Alex Goode, the chasing full back beaten to the ball by a leaping Robbie Henshaw, who crashed down for the score.  It was fantastic piece of enterprise by Murray and Henshaw, and Sexton made it a 7 point play with a superb touchline conversion.

The only good point to emerge, from England’s perspective, from this 5 minute period was the fact that Johnny Sexton pulled up after his kick with a hamstring complaint and had to leave the field – and, from that point, Ireland lost a lot of their fluency.  England, conversely, began to develop something that looked like intent.  Firstly Billy Vunipola thundered off the base of the scrum and put in a grubber which just rolled dead after galloping for 30 metres, and in another set piece soon after the England pack finally caused the green machine to creak and earned Ford a shot at goal, which the Bath man took to pull the visitors back to 19 – 6.

Ireland were still causing havoc at the breakdown, however, and most of the English endeavour was in open play rather than through structured patterns, with any ball being presented to Youngs usually slow and scrappy.  Dan Cole and Jack Nowell did try to spur their team into life, however, with a couple of big charges, the former smashing headfirst through Cian Healy in a brutal charge up the field, and Ford chipped away with another penalty to make the score 19 – 9 with 10 minutes remaining.

Finally, the England of the last two rounds game into sight, with powerful carries from the Vunipola brothers and veteran Nick Easter providing a platform for the visitors to work off, but they still could not cross the Irish whitewash, with Peter O’Mahony immense in the tackle area and at the breakdown.  Easter was disallowed a try for blocking after attempting to burrow over from 2 metres whilst Nowell also had one chalked off in the last play of the game for an alleged forward pass from substitute Billy Twelvetrees (something I still, personally, cannot see).  The truth was though that, aside from that last 10 minutes, England did not deserve a try – Ireland, though, thoroughly deserved their win.

It was easy to be critical of Ireland before the weekend – they had looked underwhelming in their opening two games and devoid of attacking intent.  But Sunday reminded us of one thing – the men in green now have 10 straight victories and Joe Schmidt has given them a pragmatic, and ruthless, mechanism with which to win Test Matches; they now lead the Championship outright and remain on course for a Grand Slam.  This dark horse is emerging from the shadows of the World Cup race.

And for England?  The mountain of expectation shouldn’t come crashing down, but it should be rebuilt at a more realistic size – this is a young side, and plenty of the mistakes that ultimately cost England the chance of competing in this game can be put down to inexperience.  But for how long have we been saying that?

Ireland Player Ratings

15.  Rob Kearney – 7 – Faultless under the high ball and put in a few testers of his own.  Didn’t see a huge amount of his running threat when joining the line but he is always a focal point on the counter.

14.  Tommy Bowe – 7 – Magnificent again under the high ball, even if England didn’t apply enough pressure.  Had a good battle with Jack Nowell down his flank.

13.  Jared Payne – 6 – The jury is still out.  He was a rock in defence and kept Joseph well shackled but we didn’t see too much of his threat with the ball in hand.

12.  Robbie Henshaw – 8 – Superbly taken try and straightened the line well afternoon.  Applied excellent pressure to the English backline and made 14 tackles – although he did miss 6.

11.  Simon Zebo – 8 – He was targeted by the English kickers and his place was allegedly under pressure but he did not falter.  Superb in the air and we saw a couple of glimpses of his footwork, too.

10.  Johnny Sexton – 9 – It speaks volumes at how the Irish control markedly diminished after he left the field.  Mostly excellent goalkicking and he helped his side dominate territory whilst on the field.

9.  Connor Murray – 9 – A fantastic display by the 9, not just in terms of his kicking and game management but also his opportunism in setting up Henshaw’s try.  Man of the Match.

1.  Jack McGrath – 7 – Held his own against Cole and was a force in the loose as well, clearing out the breakdown with plenty of gusto.  Not a lot of joy with the ball in hand though – 1 metre for 11 carries, an average of 9cm per charge.

2.  Rory Best – 8 – I am not usually a fan of Best but he ran an impressive lineout and was a thorn in England’s side at the ruck, pinching a couple of turnovers as he so often does.

3.  Mike Ross – 7 – Did a superb job at preventing the expected dominance of Marler from ever occurring.  As usual, did not do a whole lot else, but his work took away a major weapon of the English.

4.  Devin Toner – 7 – Imperious at the lineout, both on his ball and when challenging the opposition’s.  Crucial steal in the first half may have helped swing the game.

5.  Paul O’Connell – 8 – Led from the front once again and was everywhere in the loose, making 12 tackles.  His hard graft in the rucks, clearing out with aggression, will have been appreciated by his colleagues.

6.  Peter O’Mahony – 8 – Another Irish big name to step up when required.  Like O’Connell, the Munster skipper was a brutally physical presence and key to the Irish winning quick ball.

7.  Sean O’Brien – 6 – A couple of promising early rumbles but George Ford actually handled him pretty well and the Tullow Tank had to leave in the first half following a bang to the head.

8.  Jordi Murphy – 7 – Perhaps not the ball carrying panache that you generally expect from an 8 but there is no doubting his industry.  11 tackles and a couple of turnovers were crucial for his side.

Replacements – 6 – Tommy O’Donnell echoed Murphy in working his socks off, Ian Henderson looked menacing but Ian Madigan did not control the game as well as Joe Schmidt would have hoped, whilst Cian Healy was ineffectual on his return.

England Player Ratings

15.  Alex Goode – 5 – There was one moment of absolute brilliance, where he wriggled out of trouble from behind his goal-line, but otherwise he was not great under the high ball and tended to take the wrong option on the counter-attack, running into trouble.

14.  Anthony Watson – 6 – Did some brilliant stuff and then followed each play up with something average.  Beat plenty of players and made a couple of gorgeous breaks, but was ropey under the high ball and gave the ball away cheaply at times.

13.  Jonathan Joseph – 6 – Did not see the ball in a lot of space, thanks to good Irish defence, but his footwork does impress and we saw some good hands and defence on show.

12.  Luther Burrell – 6 – Carried strongly and made some hard metres on several occasions.  But questions remain about his defence and his natural ball playing skills, especially when he missed an overlap in the first half.

11.  Jack Nowell – 7 – Like the rest of England’s back 3, did not look great under the high ball but he at least brought some intent and intensity to the attacking game, making 3 clean breaks in the process and looking dangerous throughout.  Great battle with Tommy Bowe.

10.  George Ford – 6 – A bit like Watson, did some great things, like jinking his way out of trouble, but would generally follow it up with a balls up – which probably comes down to inexperience. Given a lesson in game management by Sexton.

9.  Ben Youngs – 5 – Forced to deal with slow ball which any scrum half would struggle with and this completely negated his running threat.  His kicks were not overly successful either, but this was also due to a poor chase.

1.  Joe Marler – 5 – England expected dominance from him but he didn’t deliver.  He was also surprisingly quiet in the loose for someone who is usually so prominent.

2.  Dylan Hartley – 4 – Under real pressure for his spot now.  Despite crowing how he had ‘repaid Lancaster’s faith’ despite two average showings, the lineout was again wobbly at crucial times and he was outsmarted and outfought at the breakdown.

3.  Dan Cole – 7 – Again, didn’t get the scrum dominance we expected but he was magnificent in the loose.  10 tackles, 0 missed and 20 metres from 3 carries are great stats for a tighthead.  Was targeted as a turnover threat though at the breakdown and generally kept a safe distance away.

4.  Dave Attwood – 5 – Don’t get me wrong, 19 tackles made is a superb effort, but the silly penalties he gave away and the poor clear-out technique piled more pressure on his side.

5.  George Kruis – 6 – Again, a big tackling effort, and some noteworthy carries too.  However, like most of the pack he was out-muscled at the breakdown for the majority of the game.

6.  James Haskell – 4 – He was meant to be one of England’s big carriers but 1 metre from 5 carries is a real let down – as are the 3 penalties he conceded, which yet again raise concerns over his discipline.  A prime example of why England lost this game.

7.  Chris Robshaw – 6 – 100% from the skipper once again but he was not supported well enough.  15 tackles made and he always looked to get over the ball but the Irish rucking was too well disciplined.

8.  Billy Vunipola – 8 – Arguably England’s best performer.  He put in 13 tackles and made more metres than the rest of the pack put together. One of the few players to play with a real intensity.

Replacements – 7 – They mostly had a positive impact – Easter, Croft, Mako Vunipola, Tom Youngs and Wigglesworth all added urgency and made metres upon introduction.  Billy Twelvetrees, though, couldn’t hit a barn door with his distribution.