England v Ireland; Six Nations Round 3

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ENGLAND vs  IRELAND

Date: Saturday 27th February 2016
Venue: Twickenham
Kick Off: 16:50 (GMT)
Referee: Romain Poite (FFR)
Asst Refs: Nigel Owens (WRU), Alexandre Ruiz (FFR)
TMO: Shaun Veldsman (SARU)
TV Coverage: Live on ITV, RTE, FR2


Head to Head

Played - 119
Wins - 65/47
Draws - 7
Points - 1443/1037


Current Form

England:
W 40-9 v Italy
W 15-9 v Scotland
W 60-3 v Uruguay

Ireland:
L 9-10 v France
D 16-16 v wales
L 20-43 v Argentina


Recent Meetings

05/09/15 England 21 Ireland 13
01/03015 Ireland 19 England 9
22/02/14 England 13 Ireland 10
10/02/13 Ireland 6 England 12
17/03/12 England 30 Ireland 9



Teams

England


1 Joe Marler (Harlequins, 39 caps)
2 Dylan Hartley (captain, Northampton Saints, 68 caps)
3 Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 58 caps)
4 Maro Itoje (Saracens, 1 cap)
5 George Kruis (Saracens, 12 caps)
6 Chris Robshaw (Harlequins, 45 caps)
7 James Haskell (Wasps, 64 caps)
8 Billy Vunipola (vice captain, Saracens, 23 caps)
9 Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 54 caps)
10 George Ford (Bath Rugby, 19 caps)
11 Jack Nowell (Exeter Chiefs, 12 caps)
12 Owen Farrell (vice captain, Saracens, 37 caps)
13 Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 18 caps)
14 Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 17 caps)
15 Mike Brown (vice captain, Harlequins, 45 caps)
Replacements
16 Jamie George (Saracens, 5 caps)
17 Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 30 caps)
18 Paul Hill (Northampton Saints, 1 cap)
19 Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 44 caps)
20 Jack Clifford (Harlequins, 2 caps)
21 Danny Care (Harlequins, 56 caps)
22 Elliot Daly (Wasps, uncapped)
23 Alex Goode (Saracens, 20 caps)


Ireland


15. Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 68
14. Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 60
13. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht) 17
12. Stuart McCloskey (Ballynahinch/Ulster)*
11. Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster) 47
10. Jonathan Sexton (St Mary's College/Leinster) 58
9. Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 44
1. Jack McGrath (St. Mary's College/Leinster) 27
2. Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster) Captain 91
3. Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster) 56
4. Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster) 36
5. Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster) 33
6. CJ Stander (Munster) 2
7. Josh van der Flier (UCD/Leinster)*
8. Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster) Vice Captain 82

Replacements
16. Richard Strauss (Old Wesley/Leinster) 14
17. Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster) 56
18. Nathan White (Connacht) 10
19. Ultane Dillane (Corinthians/Connacht)*
20. Rhys Ruddock (St Mary's College/Leinster) 7
21. Eoin Reddan (Old Crescent/Leinster) 68
22. Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster) 27
23. Simon Zebo (Cork Con/Munster) 22

Ah the sweet smell of victory

RDW_Scotland wrote:Spoke too soon!

Mike Brown a lucky boy - very reckless to be fly hacking a ball next to someone's head.

Hopefully he will be cited - that was unbelievably reckless.

Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

Ill take the victory...but by god so much work to do.

Penalties and efficiency of taking chances must be fixed quick.

David-Douglas wrote:

RDW_Scotland wrote:Spoke too soon!

Mike Brown a lucky boy - very reckless to be fly hacking a ball next to someone's head.

Hopefully he will be cited - that was unbelievably reckless.

They looked at it in detail. He won't be cited

lostinwales wrote:Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

I'd agree with that. Not a great game for the neutral though.

Ireland very much missing 3 or 4 key players.

Can't see an issue with the Brown incident. The Dickson stamp on Hogg last week was much worse and didn't get cited.

Well, that wasn't as bad as I feared and not as good as I hoped, but on balance probably what I expected. Pleased with the three debutants and looking forward to what I believe will be a strong finish to the tournament with two home games.

Congratulations England and good luck for the rest of the tournament

I think a lot of BS is about to come our way regarding the non try and Mike Browns boot!

lostinwales wrote:Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

I agree best team won that one. It's up to Wales to stop them now.

Disappointing result but England deserved the win.From an Irish point of view Dillane looked excellent in his short cameo and McCloskey had some decent cameos.If Dillane can play like that from the start then himself and Henderson will be a hell of a partnership with pace,strength and ball handling skills.

Gwlad wrote:I see England have gone back to blunt instrument rugby when they have surgical execution out wide.

What a waste of massive amounts of possession.

Ireland have been superb in defence and have looked dangerous ball in hand however their pack is losing the game

Once things open up i expect the Irish backs to show their class.

Mystic Meg strikes again
Good win by England against a determined Irish defence.

Notch wrote:Well, that wasn't as bad as I feared and not as good as I hoped, but on balance probably what I expected. Pleased with the three debutants and looking forward to what I believe will be a strong finish to the tournament with two home games.

Congratulations England and good luck for the rest of the tournament

Same to you guys. There is still a lot of smart things going on with Ireland and there is hope for the future

Odd feeling at the end of that game, Irish fans will be pretty angry with what looked like a stone cold try, and then Mike Brown going at a ball near Murrays head numerous times with his boot, however I don't think Irish fans can complain about the result.

Congrats on another win England, 3/3 is probably well deserved thus far, toughest game to come next round, and both teams looking pretty solid, I'd argue the best 2 teams so far by a pretty large margin.

That 2nd spot is ours my NH cousins hands off

In fairness, when a player is injured as a result of a tackle in the air we hear things like 'duty of care for the player' and "careless" and "reckless". Surely this all applies for the Brown incident. You can't go at it with your boot like that and then shrug when your stud nearly takes an eye out...

Firstly, congrats to England and their fans, that was a great win by a team better coached with more hunger

Very impressed with Ireland's debutants thought they all played well, especially McCloskey. Ireland under Schmidt are remarkably in decline. Injuries aside that passive defence is poor and the selection policy needs to be looked at. The form players that Schmidt has been ignoring turned up. Can we now see Jackson play?

David-Douglas wrote:

lostinwales wrote:Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

I'd agree with that. Not a great game for the neutral though.

Ireland very much missing 3 or 4 key players.

Yes, a large Sean O'Brien shaped void in particular.

George Carlin wrote:

David-Douglas wrote:

lostinwales wrote:Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

I'd agree with that. Not a great game for the neutral though.

Ireland very much missing 3 or 4 key players.

Yes, a large Sean O'Brien  shaped void in particular.

POM, Henderson and Cian Healy also add to the pack, not to mention Ross once he's had a chance to recover...

It seems like Irelands power players and carriers all seem to be out at the same time.

A great win for England this. putting England played 3 won 3.

Ireland missing a lot of players due to injurie. But you can only play what is in front of you, Ireland looked dangerous with ball in hand but England doing enough to contain them. Even with Haskell in the bin and Ireland battering England's line they still held out.

So Wales up next. Lets see how this match goes. I am not even thinking about England winning the Grand Slam.

But i am very surprised how well England are plying so far. But like they say so far so good.

Well done England. Looking strong! I feel you'll have too much for Wales next game. The slam is on the cards for you.

Congratulations to England. They certainly deserved the win. However it must be said that as good as the likes of Billy V were, their carrying stats were made to look much better due to the Irish defence allowing such players to build a head of steam. We seriously need to re-evaluate our passive defence. Some of our players looked totally battered before the end of the first half.

Also, the decision making was just dreadful. I am not entirely sure why Schmidt is not reverting back to the territory and pressure type games we are known for, and trying to implement some inventive attacking manoeuvres when we are in the opposition 22. Yet we are almost doing the opposite. We are trying to move the ball out wide from our own 22. When we are deeper into the opposition half we are narrow and slow. Why? It doesn't make any sense to me.

I strongly disagree that any national side with a whole country to draw from should be excusing themselves because of missing a few players.

The absence of our injured players is only a part of the story for these lacklustre Irish performances. Can't remember being this uninspired by the national side.

Well played England and well deserved. You probably should of hadecs few more points

I hope in the next two weeks that Wales do a lot of homework, there's much to improve on. Looking forward to the 'title decider' anyway, it'll probably be another Wales win.

mikey_dragon wrote:I hope in the next two weeks that Wales do a lot of homework, there's much to improve on. Looking forward to the 'title decider' anyway, it'll probably be another Wales win.

Based on performances so far England have to be favourites

Maybe Mickey,

But at least if England do win we won't have to put up with you for a few weeks while your absent sulking.

GeordieFalcon wrote:I hope it also shuts up all these people who says Billy cant play 80 mins!!!!

He gets it from climbing all the hills of Pontypool, Ireland paid for tackling high trying to hold him up for the turn over.

glamorganalun wrote:

GeordieFalcon wrote:I hope it also shuts up all these people who says Billy cant play 80 mins!!!!

He gets it from climbing all the hills of Pontypool, Ireland paid for tackling high trying to hold him up for the turn over.

GF is it like that time a lot of you lost your wifi just after the world cup game? I'll be around, I would only stay away if we win. I can't be bothered to read endless pages of more ref-blaming from you lot.

I would rate England a 6/10 for this. Plenty of possession and territory and yet a complete lack of skill and ability to take their chances in the first half. Ford again looked poor in the first half. Respect to Ireland for their 2nd half performance, but England eventually wore them down. The penalties and yellow cards showed yet again that discipline is still a major issue.

Wales will obviously believe in themselves in 2 weeks time, but at least England are more powerful in the forwards now. I also thought the ref was harsh on England and maybe England's reputation results in refs being quicker to ping them.

Before this game i actually thought that  what with Ireland being 6ns champions that they ( Ireland ) would up their game from the last 2 weeks and win this game.

majesticimperialman wrote:Before this game i actually thought that  what with Ireland being 6ns champions that they ( Ireland ) would up their game from the last 2 weeks and win this game.

From what I saw Ireland were a lot closer than the final score reflects.

Well done England seconded try was great

majesticimperialman wrote:Before this game i actually thought that  what with Ireland being 6ns champions that they ( Ireland ) would up their game from the last 2 weeks and win this game.

There still four weeks left

eirebilly wrote:Firstly, congrats to England and their fans, that was a great win by a team better coached with more hunger

Very impressed with Ireland's debutants thought they all played well, especially McCloskey. Ireland under Schmidt are remarkably in decline. Injuries aside that passive defence is poor and the selection policy needs to be looked at. The form players that Schmidt has been ignoring turned up. Can we now see Jackson play?

Lol good one.

clivemcl wrote:I strongly disagree that any national side with a whole country to draw from should be excusing themselves because of missing a few players.

The absence of our injured players is only a part of the story for these lacklustre Irish performances. Can't remember being this uninspired by the national side.

Completely disagree with this,I'm loving the direction this team is headed,good young players coming through and looking to play rugby in every area of the pitch.We now have a couple of hopefully easier games to really integrate the up and comers so if we have a normal injury situation I expect us to at least get our first test win in S.A. over the Summer.

The coaching from this game was absolutely poor - unless there was mutiny amongst the players and they decided to ignore Schmidt. The passive defence, the decision making and the worrying sign that Schmidt is being played by the media and opposition coaches. Eddie Jones knew exactly what he was doing when he said Ireland will mostly look to kick the ball away. He was looking for the bite and he got it.

This decision to play "expansive rugby" in our own 22 is completely mad. It didn't lead to anything and it seems as if the comments that we constantly kick the ball and lack inventiveness have seeped their way into the minds of the players and coaching staff. We are playing in the totally wrong areas of the field and purposefully avoiding to kick the ball when necessary.

Also, this highly attritional style of defence is clearly destroying our players. How can we expect players such as Stander or Heaslip to carry the ball effectively when they are already totally spent? Stander in particular was involved in almost everything and just seemed drained when he had the ball. The sponge approach is failing and we cannot sustain the pressure.

David-Douglas wrote:

lostinwales wrote:Ireland had their moments but you can't say its not a deserved win for England

I'd agree with that. Not a great game for the neutral though.

Ireland very much missing 3 or 4 key players.

Not a great game but better than most in this tournament; certainly a million miles better than Wales versus France.

Another dull performance from Ireland. Attack is predictable, the lineout has been terrible, scrums struggling. Yawn

I think Ireland were desperately unlucky not to get a try in that second half, but that's the third game in the tournament that England's bench really made a difference.

I think Brown was very fortunate to not concede a penalty for his clumsy hacking at the ball that injured Murray. The citing commissioner may still have something to say about it.

It wasn't malicious but it was definitely clumsy.

I think Brown was very fortunate to not concede a penalty for his clumsy hacking at the ball that injured Murray. The citing commissioner may still have something to say about it.


That was a complete accident. No malice what so ever, Murry was just unlucky that is all.

No need for the citing team to get involvled.

RuggerRadge2611 wrote:I think Ireland were desperately unlucky not to get a try in that second half,  but that's the third game in the tournament that England's bench really made a difference.

I think Brown was very fortunate to not concede a penalty for his clumsy hacking at the ball that injured Murray. The citing commissioner may still have something to say about it.

It wasn't malicious but it was definitely clumsy.

He did concede a penalty, or someone did.

Ireland's kicking game when it came together did get them a lot of ground. (Excellent) breaks apart though they really didn't cope with English aggressive defense.

VDF's (non) try - I wouldn't have been upset if it had been given but I can see why it wasn't. Sort of balances out Hartley's non try in the 1st half (which may not have been a try but wasn't a double movement - and in my view should have been scrum 5)

Who writes for the Belfast Telegraph?

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/six-nations/england-trounce-ireland-2110-in-six-nations-clash-at-twickenham-player-ratings-34492429.html

I'd add that as predicted England are winning ugly, but they are doing it by grinding the opposition down. This will be tougher with Wales

LondonTiger wrote:Who writes for the Belfast Telegraph?

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/rugby/six-nations/england-trounce-ireland-2110-in-six-nations-clash-at-twickenham-player-ratings-34492429.html

Wouldn't take them to seriously they are very poor at best, we are used to their awful coverage in Ulster lol

Well done England, deserved the victory and it should be a really interesting contest v Wales.
Ireland were uninspired today really, we really miss some of the power players and were constantly getting hit behind the gain line. I agree we should have kicked more in certain situations maybe Eddie Jones did get to them but they really should not worry about what people think I mean New Zealand kick a lot and you don't see them worrying.
Our defence was very lay offish again, the sponge defence just cannot hold up they need to be more aggressive. Maybe we are paying for not really having a defence coach at the moment? We have to hit guys like Vunipola so much sooner and just focus on putting him down then you can target other guys for the choke style tackle.
I think maybe now in the alst 2 games we give guys a chance the likes of dillane, jackson, gilroy and let them get in there. We can't win the championship now so we need to start thinking for the future.

Totally frustrated by the result, which I believe should have been closer to reflect the efforts (to end on 17 would have been a nice little confidence booster for the players)
.... BUT it was certainly a better performance over two halves than I had expected. I expected a bit of a rout.  

This England side has a lot of sharp and powerful teeth coming at you from all angles at pace for long stretches, it was always going to be tough for Ireland to survive the onslaught that was always coming.

But they clung in there and as the game progressed they actually became emotionally stronger - more emotionally involved rather than worrying too much about the tactics and blackboard moves.  It's a team with a good few new faces and anything they try will take time to mature but that was a much better outing than I expected.  And that emotional fire that came in the second half is a pleasant sight - it's what this new Schmidt era needs, players ready to move away from the science of following instructions to the letter and playing instead with a ferocity of bloody minded intent.

There's gloom around of course but for me, I see hope.  Congrats to England, playing rugby the way it should be played - force, power, sucking in defenders then casually pulling it far far away with high pace and accuracy.  Breathless stuff to defend against and they'll get better.

We did right with the defending strategy in my opinion.... a more committed defensive posture would only have sucked more of our players into bluffs that would have been quickly offloaded away out of trouble and into space..... England have so many attacking options that to concentrate on downing or stopping one or two of them is only being invited to give more room to others.

I do think we're suffering in the interim period between Kiss leaving and Farrell arriving unfortunately.