There Was No Luck Needed For The Irish! They Were Just Better!

Ireland 19 – 9 England

Ireland claimed an impressive victory over England with Robbie Henshaw scoring the only try of the match and it was also the centres first international try for the Shamrocks.

Joe Schmidt’s men lead by captain Paul O’Connell and fly half Jonny Sexton opened the English defence with ease, grated England made it easy for the Irish by giving away sloppy penalties in kickable areas for Sexton.

Even though this was one of the worst performances I’ve seen England play. You cannot take anything away from Ireland they were superb and exploited England in pretty much in every department and you may disagree and say “oh England threw it away” and “the ref gave terrible decisions against us” and you’re right but I think Ireland were the better side in attack, defence, set piece and of course kicking.

I don’t get no joy in saying this because I know a few Irish supporters and they are going to be mightily smug. One of them even tweeted me saying “Pog mo thoin Sasana” which, if you don’t know your Gaelic means “Kiss my ass England”.

However, as much as I can praise Ireland we need to talk about what happened to Stuart Lancaster’s men.

The first is the common curse for this England side, which is they don’t start well in the opening quarter of a match and in this tournament alone, they’ve conceded around 24 points in the first 15 mins of the last three rounds. This is not good enough for a team looking to win the grand slams, let alone the World Cup in 200 days and this needs to stop to have any chance to compete.

People will be taking how bad the defending was and right to say so, but it was our attack which were conceding some of the penalties and this was down to many things such as the time it took Ben Youngs to get to the breakdown. Everyone knows how good Ireland are at getting to the breakdown and too many times they won the turnover.

Ireland could have won less turnover ball if Youngs decided to pull his finger out and got to the ruck quicker. Too many times the Leicester scrum half got to the ruck and slowed the game down, which was to the host’s advantage and I think he should be dropped because not only for his performance in this game but he’s been at best average against Wales and Italy.

It’s time to bring some pace into the half backs and the one scrum half who has been Mr. Consistent in the Premiership this season is Joe Simpson. The Wasps speedster is what the position needs and Simpson has the pace, footwork and quick thinking England needs and he would have a great partnership with George Ford.

Speaking of Ford even though he didn’t have his best game it wasn’t great as Sexton showed why he’s one of the best 10’s in the world and made England youngster his bitch and yeah, Ford scored a few penalties but the overall kicking game was terrible. 

Why did we continually kick to Simon Zebo? Was he highlighted as a possible weakness under the high ball because it didn’t work. It was the same for every high ball throughout the game Ford, Youngs or Alex Goode would kick but there was no one chasing!!!

This highlighted how badly we missed Mike Brown because he would be competing for every high ball England or Ireland kicked and without Brown we’re much weaker.

The other problem the Red Rose had were at the set piece, Ireland dominated us in the scrum and line out and even though we should have gone for the kickable penalty which would have made the score 6 – 6 I understand why Chris Robshaw went for a line out. 

England were phenomenal during the Autumn Internationals as we won 92% at the line out and they backed themselves and knowing if they won the ball, their maul could have set up a try and I respect that.

Ultimately, it didn’t work mainly because O’Connell and Devin Toner are brilliant at winning opposition line out ball and then when England got to the scrum, Ireland had a field day, there was nothing the English pack could do the Irish eight were just too strong.

Now comes the defence and personally I don’t think it was that bad compare to the above because they defended their line excellently, but it wasn’t great as we gave away silly penalties and now with Courtney Lawes back playing, he’s going to be in the squad, but as a replacement because it’d be disrespectful to Dave Attwood and George Kruis if Lawes come straight back into the starting 15.

Now England need to make changes to the squad and first to go is Billy Twelvetrees. The Gloucester captain proved how crap he is in the cameo he made yesterday and how many good games has he truly had in the 19 caps he’s played for England. I don’t even care who replaces him I’d happily have Kyle Eastmond or Henry Slade instead because they’re better players.

As I’ve mentioned before, I think it’s time to drop Youngs and bring Simpson in, just because I think the Wasps scrum half can offer more or maybe give Richard Wigglesworth a starting place because he’s the best kicking scrum half in the Premiership.

These next couple of changes is not because I don’t like the players it’s because I think these players make England better. First, I’d drop James Haskell to the bench and bring Tom Wood back and it’s nothing against Haskell I just think Wood is a better tackler around the breakdown and offers more in the line out. 

Next is to drop Goode and bring Brown back in mainly because of his kick and chase is much better and how comfortable he is under the high ball and even though Goode did a suitable job it showed how far ahead the Harlequins fullback is of everyone else.

We’ve got another two weeks to wait till England host Scotland at Twickenham so we’ll see who makes a name for themselves in round 17 of the Aviva Premiership.