Six Nations 2022 - England v Ireland, 12/03/22, KO 4.45pm - RTÉ2, RTÉ Player, ITV1, ITV Hub

Where did I suggest we didn't deserve to win the game? I didn't. That's your strawman.

We played dreadfully at times against 14 men, scored 4 quality tries (2 of which came when as Eddie said they were out on their feet due to a numerical disadvantage) and we won fair and square. If you are happy with that performance that's up to you. I am not. I celebrate the result but I am pretty disappointed in how we performed for much of that match.

I think another ref would be looking at Genge boring in which resulted in the scrum wheeling around repeatedly. Also worth bearing in mind that we were missing key players in the front row.

That is one of the most stressful games I've ever watched. Felt like we got totally dominated for most of it despite winning 4 tries to nil and by more than double scores.

Clear as day we need some changes for next week, POM was a non-entity and Healy just can't play at this level now. Losing 2 of our starting front row has been an even bigger blow than anticipated really. Beirne will get back in because Ryan will be out but he's fortunate as well, our best back 5 is the one that played NZ which is Ryan/Hendo/Doris/VdF/Conan. Henshaw also had a huge impact so I'd expect him to start.

POM was pretty much anonymous but I can’t think of anything he did wrong.

We didn't see him attacking their lineout or competing for poaches (that I can remember), so what's the point of him?

Well that last quarter of play of the match was absolutely remarkable. I am absolutely relieved that Ireland have got a BP win while playing against England at Twickenham.

But it had to be said, my god, that game was a hard hard slog for the regular rugby fan to watch at home. It was intense, it was fraught with so many unforgivable mistakes from start to finish.

And the state of the horrible gameplay from Ireland's numerous errors had the potential to allow the match to go England's way. It was clear to see that as the match wore on England were given all of the crucial advantages from the referee with possibly some big indications that they were able to go on & win it.

Although England did not have the clear head at all times with trying to keep composure in the whole match. Having them kicking penalties all throughout the length is not really a good trend to see in them. If they play other teams in the Championship; they do not sit idly by with winning the match by just scoring penalties. They go out & score tries whenever they nab the chance to get a few of them to get on the scoreboard.

That is what makes England so powerful when you go up against them in the 6 Nations. They produce the power & score loads of tries. But in this game against Ireland today; they produce the power on the pitch but only score penalties? That is not a normal trend from the likes of England at all. They certainly cannot risk doing that when they go up against France for the final round of the championship next weekend. England are going up against a team who are eyeing up a GS. France are going to have their eyes set on demolishing England from all angles if their French team watched the against Ireland at Twickenham today.

France would see England as being a much weaker team now who are not ready to take other teams on when a GS is there for France for the taking.

I would have thought it would be a clear & easy thing to say that England were going to score more tries to keep Ireland at bay today while they playing in this whole match. But England seemingly didn't cop that notion on in their head while they were playing against our lads in green. Ireland seemed to have a much smarter game plan in the final quarter with bringing on Conan, Murray & Henshaw etc to eventually see out the final result.

It was a real strange one tbh with it fraught with so much tension and lack of direction from Ireland's point of view. But I'm glad that Ireland finally won out the game to see England behind them.

Doesn't offer a carrying threat

Did nothing in the lineout, why was Henderson jumping at 2?

A word for our defense. We gave them nothing, they didn't look like scoring a try the whole match through open play. Smith was a non-factor.

We genuinely missed Ryan. He's not as big as Henderson but I think he's every bit as physical and also tidier at the lineout, which definitely struggled in his absence.

Beirne at lock just doesn't do it for me. I've seen it in games against Leinster especially where he just just doesn't have the mass to impose himself in tighter areas. He's a backrow forward for me. Excellent at running those shirt lines and busting a tackle. But don't ask him to get into an arm wrestle.

It seemed like an even more strange selection decision. In light of the fact we clearly decided not to target their breakdown.

I assume Henderson was calling the Irish line out when he came on.

I think France will crush England, they'll be much quicker then Wales and Ireland to spot where England is abusing the rules to grab penalties and lock it down. It took us 60 minutes to realize that we needed to avoid scrums because England were scooping up all their penalties from there. The key detail of the last 10 minutes was there were no more scrums at all and we pulled out 2 tries. I also think the penalty we gave away at the lineout with the players locking was intentional, Prior to that it was flagged to the ref that england were constantly doing it all the first half but never blown up for it and England were very much enjoying have slow line out ball that they dragged into an eventual scrum. After Ireland got caught doing the same thing England also stopped and suddenly all of england's lineouts were quick ball which were less reliable for them and gave us more opportunities.

France will not let that run on for near as long and once you remove those scenarios, England are individually great players but not a great team and holes start appearing.

On this match, yes Ireland had a fair bit of handling errors and yes playing against 14 men should have arguably been a cake walk. But I think the disallowed 2nd try sums up what it was like playing this england team, they took every opportunity to throw a spanner. Individually england has great players but are actually not very impressive as a team. While I think Ireland has good players, some over rated players but we are a better team, I think Lowe was fantastic all match but I think he was fantastic playing in his position and off the results of irish tactics, he was rarely out of position or showing up in unexpected positions. In contrast I think Maro Itoje is also a fantastic player, but he's fantastic because he individually is a huge pain in the arse to play against because he can potentially show up anywhere and deliver that key tackle or pick up a pass and run with it, even if some people feel he leans heavily into Jones's fishing for penalty tactics a bit too much you still cannot deny he is a great player. But I rarely seen an english setpiece that creates opportunities for Itoje. thats the difference between the two teams and one man down England players individually played harder and Jones's penalty seeking tactics kicked into overdrive. But I do feel we were the better team on the pitch.

It will certainly be a very strange day to analyse.

Scrums a disaster, a **** tonne of infringements all over the park and yet a win by double scores and by 4 tries to zip.

Has a scoreboard ever betrayed the on field visual so much before?

There's got to be some consequences for what happened. Surely Henderson must bomb out of the 23 in favour of Baird, though I acknowledge that will be difficult if Ryan is ruled out for that head knock.

Conan and Henshaw surely deserve to open against Scotland? Kilcoyne ahead of Healy also perhaps? The experience of Herring to start? We absolutely must see more of Carbery too?