Ire versus England - RTÉ 2 Saturday Aug 19th 17.30pm

phog

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006323#Comment_121006323

The one I remember had nothing to with England nor the picture being painted it was lifters getting it wrong, simple as that, there's zero excuse for it from the top seed international team. That's basic stuff.

ionadnapokot

We have seen a few of these warm-up matches over the years to know what are the only important things to get from them

1. A win.
2. No Injuries to key players.
3. Key players looking fit and sharp.

If Sheehan is ruled out it’s a real body blow. He’s the best hooker in the world.

Kennan, Lowe and Hansen were all outstanding. Aki and Ringrose were very good.

Something is off with the Forwards. Most of them look underpowered, slow and rusty. We heard that they are doing allot of ball work in training but the forwards must have done heavy training the last week in Portugal.

Notable exceptions Ryan and Joe McCarthy.

Furlong looks miles off. He needs games. I think he has to play against Samoa and Romania and then rest for SA. 

Agree with above about that continued offside at the lineout. Its ridiculous at this stage. Blame is squarely with the players.

Side Note - Jamie George throwing in at the lineout is a thing of beauty.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006367#Comment_121006367

To be fair, lineout aside, I'd add POM to the list of forwards who played well, in his time on the pitch. Sheehan too. Thought Beirne and VdF were both quiet but grew into it as the game wore on, which I think is fine for their first starts.

Porter and Furlong probably the 2 that'll be most disappointed. I wouldn't be too worried about Porter, but Furlong's dip in form seems to be pretty sustained at this point.

Interested Observer

The stats say we only lost 3 lineouts on our own throw, would have thought it was more than that.

Tackle success rate for both teams is extremely low, guess it shows more than anything this was a warm-up game.

Rigor Mortis

Furlong did a serious number on Genge. I agree he hasn’t gotten back to previous heights but he did a lot of good work on Saturday.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006474#Comment_121006474

We didn’t lose too many line outs directly, but we did cough up the ball off the back of them a few times too. A penalty for the lifter obstructing the ball carrier, a turnover when England ruined a maul, another turnover when POM dropped the ball because they got through our maul. Those things aren’t counted in that stat.

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006367#Comment_121006367

We definitely had issues and inaccuracies up front but I don't think for a moment that we looked underpowered. We drove them off their own ball at a couple of rucks, we were on top of them in the scrum until the final 15 minutes, we turned over at least two of their mauls (one driven into touch and another held up) and we knocked them back in the tackle on a number of occasions.

Hopefully the issues at the line out will be sorted. That aside (and discipline) I think our pack was generally solid.

Buer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006474#Comment_121006474

Retaining possession might be the measurement there. I wonder how it would read if it was based on clean ball actually caught by the jumper. I'd imagine the penalty conceded for the lifters blocking at the maul was considered a line out win, for example. Or a spilled/overthrown line out where we managed to dive on it.

OldRio

England are masters of closing the gap at lineout. I think they were warned once but ploughed on regardless.

ionadnapokot

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006524#Comment_121006524

There was a few moments that we looked underpowered. The obvious ones were Prendergast and Furlong. Counter rucking was good but contact areas were where I saw Irish forwards struggle early.

Remember England played with 7 forwards after the Vunipola yellow/red on 52'.

Then McCarthy came on for POM (53', 3 second rows on the pitch) and the Irish pack immediately started getting over the gain line.

Ryan with a good carry (Ryan & McCarthy are who I already mentioned were the exceptions) got beyond the gain line and sucked in their pack and Lowe scores with oceans of space 54'.

England threw in the towel after that.

The scrum was a disaster now for both teams in all fairness. I couldn't say Ireland had a good day out at the scrum. Some solid sets. Not on top though.

Dubinusa

We won ugly! We won and did it comfortably. I agree with some of the worries that posters have, Furlong in particular looks a shell of himself. But even then, he was better than his opponent. We know he was the best th in the world and perhaps he's not anymore but, he's still very good.

The line out was poor. Plenty of time to fix it. Besides, if Henderson plays there's rarely many problems as he calls the line out. Next weekend there will be another chance for the lads to improve the line out.

On Prendergast, I think he's getting a look to see if he's a replacement for P.O.M down the road. He's very athletic and quick and we all saw what a counter rucking menace he is. He slowed England's ball and seemed to be involved in most rucks. He's a Faz type of player! Plus, he's very good. He's got considerable size and speed! I hope he improves and works his way into the squad.

I'd have liked to see Loughman get more time. His cameo was too short to help his cause.

AbusesToilets

Small word on Keenan's tackling, his technique is superb. He had a bunch where he made a head on hit, whilst managing to get low around the knees and buried his man.

Keenan and Gibson Park are both rumoured to be extremely fit and athletic. Huge engines, massive work rates and both very quick. They don't need to be the biggest because their timing and accuracy are top drawer but Parks coming through the kiwi dev pathway and Keenan 7s has had a clear impact on their styled of Rugby and in particular - the effectiveness of their tackling regardless of the opponent.

TRC10

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121007733#Comment_121007733

One thing about Keenan that often goes unappreciated, which undoubtedly comes from his 7s experience, is his breakdown work. It's absolutely outstanding. In the build up to Ringrose's try, he single handedly secured a ruck against 3 England players. His technique is phenomenal.

molloyjh

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121006949#Comment_121006949

Are you sure you were watching the same game? We had 57 gain line carries in that game, 11 more than England. We turned over more ball. We had better a ruck protection %. We absolutely handled the contact area well on Saturday. We can’t be skittling guys for fun for 80 mins. And one thing England were able to do for the most part was front up for that part of the game. But I don’t recall (m)any examples of us being driven back on our ball or losing the collision to any great degree on theirs. Momentum and defensive style will mean we will cede metres at times, but I don’t think we ever gave up more than we should have in the collisions.

ionadnapokot

edit: forget about that

Good article (sorry it's paywalled) showing shape of the attack for the tries. Highlighting the role of Lowe and Hansen as second receivers.

A phase later, Hansen is nestled in behind a three-man pod…

…and ends up somewhere in the middle of the field, clipping a kick-pass over to Ringrose

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/rugby-union/2023/08/21/ireland-sophisticated-and-fluid-attack-puts-clunky-england/

realhorrorshow

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121007799#Comment_121007799

His ball placement is also probably the best I've ever seen. Small thing but it matters.

Wegians89

Didn’t realise Prendergast had the most carries and most meters made of any forward on Saturday and was one of only three Irish players to make double digit tackles.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121010567#Comment_121010567

He played very well. His versatility has cemented his place on the squad imo, in a 19/14 split

Trojan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121007799#Comment_121007799

After carrying it. Here's the timestamp: https://youtu.be/h59kdLxUrV8?t=66