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

Joe McCarthy making a few people look a bit silly for the 2nd game in a row

Its going to be interesting now, he has made a good impression. If McCarthy goes on the plane, it would probably mean we bring either just 3 centres or 4 back-3 players (assuming we bring 9 front row forwards and 6 half backs). Because I think Ryan, Beirne, Hendo, Baird, POM, VDF, Doris, Conan, Prendergast will all travel. Unless McCarthy makes the plane over one of Hendo/Baird/Prendergast but I think Farrell will want to bring those three.

I was trying to work out who has the bigger arms. Probably Flannery is just shading it?

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Expected nothing more, nothing less from a pre-tournament game.

Plenty of rust but good flashes of stuff. Few penalties but all silly stuff, nothing cynical (the scrum was a joke, that ref is too slow) The lineout is really the only concern I would have, it was poor today.

Ryan nearly always plays much better when he's not captain, that first half case in point, almost like there's less weighing on him. Byrne's place kicking and in-field kicking was terrible, okay defensively and in attack but felt like you could replace him with any out-half, offered zero attacking threat himself. He's passing for the most part was on the mark apart from that throw to no one.

Bundee and Hansen had great games I thought, Keenan too in the little ball he saw. JGP had a quiet game but solid. As others have said, Prendegast had a very shaky first 20 minutes but improved the rest of the game.

You can definatley see we're holding back in the types of moves run off the lineout and scrum, keeping lots of stuff in the pocket for the games that matter.

Prendergast would have been Motm, but for Mack Hansen.

I think McCarthy and he are quite similar in that there's a looseness in their game and they'll make the odd error. But it'll be made up for with a huge play soon after. Both young forwards made some massive hits today.

Really poor RTE sports journalism for Andy Farrell's post match interview

Andy started by paying tribute to Keith Earls and how delighted he was for him to score

And then is asked

" He's making sure you can't leave him off the plane , isn't he? "

Absolutely clueless. I felt embarrassed for Andy Farrell having to answer such a question

Jennifer Malone getting into Earl's interview and Ferris's punditry.

Lovely stuff.

Apart from sheehan and conan neither of which seem overly serious we have come through todays preperations with a clean bill of health.

Ultimately thats whats most important.

That was a great result for Ireland today. Beating England was always in the mind of this Irish team. The performance though was not at the best with all of the errors that happened throughout the game.

We did have a lot of good stuff to see in it.

Lowe, Hansen and Keenan were on fire for the vast majority of the game which was great to see. Earl's try for his 100th cap was wonderful stuff.

The Irish lineout is something that needs to be sorted out very quickly though. They are a key asset to our gameplay being in a much better state than functional.

It cannot be stated enough though that Ireland's injuries are few and far between after we played England. Although Sheehan is out for a little while with a precautionary check on his foot. It does show us really good signs that our lads in green have a really solid line-up as they head over to France in September.

England though were absolutely awful.

Their performance in the whole team was embarrassing. They didn't have any focus in the team at all. Borthwick's legacy in England so far has not the legs to match Eddie Jones era with the England team. It shows from Borthwick's pov how they have been performing so far. England have been rubbish throughout their warm up campaign as they look ahead to France in September. With a poor campaign in the 6N from a few months back; they are not at the races at all. They really are falling behind in their performance as a team in these warm up games.

Vunipola's red card with his tackle against Andrew Porter really sealed his fate and the fate of the England teams chances in the WC this year. The decision from World Rugby about handing over the red card to him did not need to take that much time in being made final. When you look at the replays of the tackle against Porter. There is no question there that it is a straight red. Why did it take so long in making a decision at this point in the game while the replays on the tackle gave them the most easiest answers from the naked eye?

Referees in the past would not have had any issue when deciding about whether red cards should be put out for players or not if the players had made a huge error of judgment against the opposing side in the game. It's a big reason why these bunker decisions from World Rugby show a lot of weaknesses and vulnerability in their intent in how they ultimately make a good decision for the big international rugby games in future. The Rugby WC in France is going to be a big test for them to see if they succeed or become a big failure.

And if it does become a failure in that tournament? Where do these bunker reviews go from here? It would be a hugely stupid move if they were still in place without any changes made for the 6N next year.

Yes. Stockdale would have scored that too. I don't think any of Ireland's backs would have failed to score in that situation.

Delighted to see Earls score on his 100th cap. I remember Sexton doing the same. It is the stuff of dreams for them, no doubt!