6 Nations: England v Ireland - Our Favourite Bestest Neighbours - 17 March 2018

First topic message reminder :

I’ve always thought that England are a very good team and their fans are lovely and the most popular.

Feel free to add your own thoughts as we approach next weekend’s match as we travel over to visit them and celebrate with them.  And I’m sure that they’ll be as welcoming and fun-filled as they always are whenever we play them.  

As we all know, it’s only a game and sure it doesn’t matter who wins.....


Lovely England Team

Watson, May, Joseph, Te'o, Daly, Farrell, Wigglesworth, Simmonds, Haskell, Robshaw, Kruis, Itoje, Sinckler, Hartley, Mako

George, MArler, Cole, Launchbury, Armand, Care, Ford, Brown

Super Controlling Unbelievable Mauling Monster Yeti Irish Team

Kearney, Earls, Ringrose, Aki, Stockdale, Sexton Murray, Stander, Leavy, O'Mahony, Ryan, Henderson, Furlong, Best, Healy.

Reps: Cronin, McGrath, Porter, Toner, Murphy, Marmion, Carbery, Larmour.

SecretFly wrote:France '81 I think I heard.

No, I'm not going back to bloody wiki to find out!!!  F**king wiki has me demented.  The number of times I've had to resource that site this season to do me telemetries and detailed analysis of trend and records and scorelines and try counts.

Not going near that place again until next Spring.

Now I must check out wiki to see when Spring starts next year................

What? Excuse me? That’s the second time you’ve said that. Have you been snorting the cabbage soup again?

I do...................................em........................................do a bit..................................of numbering and things that scare the life out of me..................IF I get into a passionate mood. And this 6N, I've been a tad passionate.

But my head aches still though, Pot. I ain't a natural at the Stats. It's like getting my teeth pulled without a pliers.

robbo277 wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Under Schmidt Ireland have in total scored more tries than any other team in the 6N which makes it quite odd that he has also been consistently criticised for Irelands attack.

Unless I've messed up my maths (possible)...

Ireland 2014 - 2018: 16, 8, 15, 14, 20 - total 73
England 2014 - 2018: 14, 18, 13, 16, 14 - total 75

Ireland have the most since the World Cup, but in the Schmidt tenure they were hurt by only scoring 8 in 2015 (they made up for that crushing disappointment with the consolation of the Championship).

It might be tries not including Italy? Not going to run the full numbers, but Ireland only scored 2 against Italy in 2015, so if you consider England or Ireland would normally manage expect 4, that could be the difference.

I probably just counted it wrong

Very similar anyway and good record.

Austin Healey having something to say about supposed Irish 'playacting' against England. Any English fans out there agree?

Personally, I saw none.

http://rugbylad.ie/former-england-international-accuses-ireland-playacting/

He's still upset BOD knocked crap out of him boxing all those years ago.
Also suffers from little man syndrome, look at me syndrome and please please remember me syndrome.
All very sad

I assume he means the charge down. The neck roll. Bits and pieces. More about making sure the ref sees it to make a decision to be honest. Engand don't do it. And I've been critical of them for that.

In the last two England v Ireland games England have spent way too much time and energy targetting Sexton and Murray and not enough on just playing better than Ireland. It hasnt worked for them at all. Eddie Jones has said that all trams target to opposite 10 for some rough stuff but I think that England are fixated on it more than most. NZ do it a bit too.

They nearly every Ireland game concede a penalty while cleaning out murray at a ruck before the ball is out just to get an early hit on him. Its fairly cheap cynical stuff.

"a lot of screaming, a lot of noise...."

So, is it players guilty of droning out the home crowd?   Massive effort from the Irish lads if they managed that!  

or

Is it Irish players' showing too much passion?  Shouting at each other on the field to keep themselves motivated and connected, slapping each other on the back and being vocal in praise for things done well?

or

Loud and clear directions being given between players so that systems kept running smoothly?  Young players being yelled at by older heads to keep their patterns in check?  Training on the hoof?  Vocal, vocal, vocal control of the game at all times?


Unsporting of them for sure on any or all those fronts.

I have no issue with Healys opinion. He is a provocateur by nature, no issue with that either. I quite like him.

Don't mind him, it's his scarves I learned to hate.

Austin Healy complains about Ireland playacting.
Pot complains about Kettle....

eirebilly wrote:Austin Healey having something to say about supposed Irish 'playacting' against England. Any English fans out there agree?

Personally, I saw none.

http://rugbylad.ie/former-england-international-accuses-ireland-playacting/

You can hear the exchange on the BT podcast. Ben Kay was talking about how referees were inconsistent at the breakdown, especially with tacklers rolling away, but noted that everyone except England adapted to it. He cited one example when England ball was being obstructed, and Care was slow in digging it out. Meanwhile, Murray, in similar circumstances, made a point of bumping into the obstructing player, and won a penalty.

Healey then made his comment, noting that the whole Irish team operates that way. He wasn't suggesting that Ireland get fake penalties, but rather that they ham it up to make sure the referee registers an offence. While Healey doesn't really like seeing rugby played that way, he had a grudging admiration for Ireland's ability to control the game.

Healey is aware that there are things he doesn't like as a pundit that he would have done as a player. He didn't like it when Dylan Hartley said they won't listen to outside criticism but Ben Kay pointed out that's exactly the sort of thing he'd have said himself.

Makes perfect sense.

It does.

carpet baboon wrote:He's still upset BOD knocked crap out of him boxing all those years ago.
Also suffers from little man syndrome, look at me syndrome and please please remember me syndrome.
All very sad

Funny, but that’s exactly how I’ve always felt about BOD!

The Oracle wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:He's still upset BOD knocked crap out of him boxing all those years ago.
Also suffers from little man syndrome, look at me syndrome and please please remember me syndrome.
All very sad

Funny, but that’s exactly how I’ve always felt about BOD!

Didn't realise you were from New Zealand.....

The Oracle wrote:

carpet baboon wrote:He's still upset BOD knocked crap out of him boxing all those years ago.
Also suffers from little man syndrome, look at me syndrome and please please remember me syndrome.
All very sad

Funny, but that’s exactly how I’ve always felt about BOD!

Burn the heretic