[su_dropcap style=”flat” size=”4″]T[/su_dropcap]his game brought up some uncomfortable truths that Ireland have to address going forward.
These are truths that, perhaps, Scotland and Wales are not currently capable of showing us but England certainly were. First to statistics and how deceiving they can be.
This was a game that statistics say that Ireland had 61% possession with 59% territory over the full game. They tell you that we made 32 more carries than England and that we had 110 rucks (contact points) to England’s 69. They tell you that England made 180 tackles to Ireland’s 106.
But the game doesn’t feel like that, does it?
Here comes the first truth: England had very little respect for our ball carrying rotation.
And why wouldn’t they? Their entire selection in the pack was based around nullifying it. Three locks starting. Two locks on the bench. Jones started two destructive tacklers in the back row alongside the other lock. They had two hard carrying midfielders and two #10s to move them around with one of those being a hybrid #10 that could take defensive contact like a midfielder.
England didn’t have the carrying threats of Mako and Billy Vunipola so why try to duplicate what those players bring in regular phase play?
Instead, England used their kicking game to target weaknesses they identified and worked field position to exploit those through their lineout off Tuilagi.
To get an idea, have a look at what England did off their very first lineout possession.
Top ball to Youngs off the lineout, swing wide to Ford who drops it off to Tuilagi on the crash into Sexton and Van Der Flier. Ford drops back into the pocket and launches a contestable kick for Daly into the central part of the Irish backfield between Larmour and Conway. Daly is just about offside for me here …
… but this was a pre-called play and he was sprinting before the ball was even in Ford’s hands for the kick.
In England’s regular phase play between the 10m lines, they looked pretty ordinary.
Underhill got badly wiped by Healy and Ryan on this phase and on the very next phase, Ford went back to that central contestable aiming at Larmour.
May won possession and England attacked on the transition. When they found a mismatch at the edge – our entire front row – Aki was unable to blitz up on Daly so the English fullback had all the space and time he needed to kick deep into Ireland’s backfield.
Why didn’t Aki take that space? He was worried that the front row couldn’t crab across, perhaps. Or he knew that stepping up on Daly might expose Conway to a 2 on 1 with Tuilagi and Joseph.
So he dropped back and Slade took the space. Ireland survived this one – just about – but England were showing they could access our half of the field without the need to go through multiple phase sequences.
After Ireland defended the resulting lineouts from this exit, Ford went after Larmour once again.
This kick wasn’t as accurate as it should have been but Larmour seemed to panic and didn’t call the mark. From the resulting scramble, Murray looked to exit from deep central position – more central than he’d typically look for in a box kick but he gets decent range.
May is underneath the kick on the touchline but the situation is recoverable as long as Stockdale can bundle the English winger into touch.
He’ll be really disappointed not to have shunted May into touch more decisively, but even then I think May’s toe was on the touchline as he took possession.
Without sounding too catty, I think Stockdale has to get solid contact on May to put him so far into touch that even Romaine Poite can see it.
When England come back infield, Ireland are frantically trying to reset our defensive line. England came back infield for two phases, hit Lawes for a big platform in a central position. From here, England went after Larmour again.
Ireland had transitioned to our 22 defence – 14 up and 1 back. As the sole backfield defender, Larmour’s positioning would be critical.
Larmour has drifted onto Ford’s line in the backfield. Youngs has spotted this – or perhaps this was pre-called and designed play – but either way, he sent the ball between Larmour and Sexton and, as often happens with a bouncing rugby ball, a Rugby Event happened and Ford touched down the bouncing ball.
That put England ahead and they would not relinquish it.
The killer score came from a similar scenario. Murray exited from almost the same position but his kick this time was way poorer – May brought the ball infield on transition and Joseph made a crucial break in broken field.
Farrell spotted where the space was and directed Young on where to go on the next phase.
Ireland almost turned the ball over on the try line but O’Mahony was adjudged to have been illegal. England would turn that pressure into a 14 point lead with a well-worked kick over the top that was very poorly dealt with by Jacob Stockdale.
It seemed definitive because it was.
Offensively, England smothered our attack with their linespeed and targeting of our key ball carriers. Our front five were unable to project themselves on the opposition in contact points. That doesn’t just mean carrying the ball, it means latching and driving, it means blowing guys back off rucks, it means pinning defenders to the floor and hurting them. I’ll have an article on that later in the week but I’ll show you what I mean with one GIF. We had a decent attacking position off a scrum in the first half and broke well down the flanks. We secured the ball and had a big openside play to work with. What you want here is your front five banging onto this ball and smoking the cover defence off #9 and setting a huge platform for your attack on the next phases. Let’s look at what happened.
James Ryan gets triple tackled by Curry, Lawes and Underhill. Smashed backwards.
Toner is ahead of the target, isn’t animating for the ball and the English fringe defence know for certain that they don’t have to worry about him relatively early.
When I watched this game back I saw our front five losing collision points over and over again. England backed their defence to win them the game if they could hit our weak points and it came off perfectly.
We tried to work a few kick plays to compensate. Here was one – quite well worked – that Sexton bailed on at the last second.
The action with Furlong was designed to compress England on the right side of the field before using a reverse play to bring Henshaw, Larmour and Stockdale onto a diagonal Sexton kick.
We tried to engineer a kick chase on Joseph too but got blocked down.
These narrow phases were designed to cluster England’s primary line so that Joseph would drop back deep to an isolated position in the backfield as this is his side of the field. You can see Conway moving the AR out of the way two phases before to give himself a clear line of attack. Stander is there to hit the ruck or support Conway if we win the aerial battle. Itoje did well to block it down and the chance evaporated.
We scrapped back in the second half but most of the same problems applied. We couldn’t project ourselves with ball in hand, our front five lost a rake of collisions and that fed into everyone else’s performances. The bench brought a bit of pop into the game as England transitioned to their bench but it was a long way back with England adding a third try in the second half.
It was a poor performance overall, but one I really think that we can take a fair bit from going forward into the French game. England told us the truth today – we need to find more dynamic physicality in our front five starting and off the bench.
It’s crucial that we take the real truth away from it, rather than cosmetic change for change’s sake.
The Wally Ratings: England (A)
The Wally Ratings explainer page is here.
Players are rated based on their time on the pitch, if they were playing notably out of position, and on the overall curve of the team performance. DNP means the player did not feature and N/A means they weren’t on the pitch long enough to warrant a fair rating.
| Names | Rating |
|---|---|
| Cian Healy | ★★ |
| Rob Herring | ★★ |
| Tadhg Furlong | ★★ |
| Devin Toner | ★ |
| James Ryan | ★★★★ |
| Peter O'Mahony | ★★★★ |
| Josh Van Der Flier | ★★ |
| CJ Stander | ★★★★ |
| Conor Murray | ★★ |
| Johnny Sexton | ★★ |
| Jacob Stockdale | ★ |
| Bundee Aki | ★★ |
| Robbie Henshaw | ★★ |
| Andrew Conway | ★★★ |
| Jordan Larmour | ★ |
| Ronan Kelleher | ★★★ |
| Dave Kilcoyne | ★★★ |
| Andrew Porter | ★★★ |
| Ultan Dillane | ★★★ |
| Caelan Doris | ★★★★ |
| John Cooney | ★★★ |
| Ross Byrne | ★★★ |
| Keith Earls | ★★★ |
Notable Players
This was quite poor. I rated Stockdale and Larmour down because I felt that they had very poor games that are well below their level from a composure perspective and on some mechanical stuff like their work in the air defensively. A really harsh learning experience for both players but one that should help them grow professionally.
I rated Devin Toner as poor because the game almost completely bypassed him. He had quite a few ruck arrivals but an awful lot of them were ineffective or unneeded. He didn’t manage to disrupt the English lineout, made very little impact on our ball and wasn’t a factor on phase play. A tough one.
Murray and Sexton had individual poor moments galore with missed exits and missed kicks at goal being the most visible. That said, nowhere is more affected by lost front five battles more than halfback so that mitigates it slightly for me.
With that in mind, I thought Healy, Herring and Furlong were well below their best. Furlong, in particular, looked really off.
Van Der Flier was a bit off-colour for me because, for the most part, the game drove right past him given the way England attacked. We didn’t do a good enough job of getting the ball into his hands in the wider areas.
Caelan Doris replaced Van Der Flier, which moved O’Mahony to the other flank, and the young Leinster man had a very visible game. Great energy on the ball, pace and real impact. Great to see.
I thought CJ Stander and Peter O’Mahony did really well in the back row. Stander worked relentlessly to get Ireland going but found himself eating double and triple tackles on most phases. As one of Ireland’s two lead carriers, England could afford to spend those resources on him and it paid off. But he kept at it, made some good carries regardless and was our top defender.
O’Mahony made a brilliant lineout steal on our 5m line, slowed down England’s ruck ball really well when required, almost won a crucial breakdown penalty before (wrongly, in my opinion) getting pinged and made three or four really crucial carries of the ball. He made some big interventions in defence and was a reliable lineout outlet when we needed it.
James Ryan was my top performer from an Irish POV. He’s just relentlessly good. He was the sole starting tight five forward to go out there and dominate his opponents. Ryan stuck big shots in defence, carried into brick walls all day and brought real menace to the breakdown. Even in defeat, he’s top drawer and can’t help but show what a complete player he is.
