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

This rhetoric is getting very tiresome. Every match thread or post on Instagram or Facebook over the past 18 months on an Irish match is flooded with SA supporters spewing the above horsesh*t. You'd actually think Irish fans are going around saying we're going to win this year, anything but. Those that are, are generally about thirteen years old and have no recollection of the pain and suffering of previous world cups.

The 3rd test in NZ is the best I've ever seen us play but let's not forget that NZ clawed their way back in to that game and it took some heroic defending from the likes of Tadhg Beirne to seal that victory. Now the question I ask is have NZ improved since? I would say yes, immeasurably. Have we improved / evolved since? I don't think so.

Will it matter? Maybe not, worse teams than Ireland in its current state have reached RWC finals but they didn't have the nightmare draw we have. We have to be better than we've ever been to navigate our way to the semi final, never mind win the tournament.

Maybe it will all click but I'm not buying this 'holding back' talk at all. Name one RWC where we unleashed hidden moves? It's never happened. The body of evidence this year is troubling, 2 sloppy warm ups, looked figured out and rattled in the final 6n game, sloppy in the Italy 6n game, good against France and a woeful Wales, decent against Scotland. I don't think it's negative to say if we show up at the RWC up and down like that we're going home early.

Lets look at that another way. We dominated NZ over the course of three tests. There was a fair gap between the two sides. Has it closed since? Maybe, but it's hard to tell and I wouldn't say immeasurably. NZ certainly looked to have found a better balance with Barrett at 12 and they have looked more accurate come breakdown time but there are caveats to that too. The southern hemisphere is at it's lowest ebb in quite some time. South Africa looked distinctly average and Australia are a mess. Argentina are a Jekyll and Hyde team.

I cannot understand the criticism from some regarding the England and Italy games. These are preseason games folks, and were the first games for the players. Genuinely, were you expecting timing of passes, runs and lineout throws etc. to be at a very high level? Show me another team sport where that is expected? It's a bewildering stance. The biggest takeaway from those 2 games for me is that we have looked really well physically.

I'd also argue you and others are reading way too much into this 'holding back' talk. Nobody is suggesting we are holding an arsenal of super secret strike plays. What is most definitely true though is that we would not be showing all of the different attacking pods etc. I think that's fair enough to say.

If I'm being honest about our chances in the world cup, I feel we are in a really strong position. I think we are ahead of France and if it wasn't a home world cup I'd be fairly sure we'd beat them. I'm not 100% sure on NZ but at worst I think it's a 50/50 game with them. I fancy us strongly against everyone else. Maybe I'm wrong about how good we are but I think our CV over the last year is considerably better than anyone else's. It's a very exciting time for Irish rugby. It's time now to find out if we are good enough.

Decent performance overall. Some definitely inaccuracies in the first half and England made life hard on us with their linespeed and aggression. Despite the gap in form and current performances, England still always make life difficult on us and we struggle with their style including the last two 6N games when the final scoreline suggested a far more comfortable win than it was.

Our discpline again was patchy, particularly in the first half although the referee was very hot on the whistle to the point of pedantry.

Our back three is sublime. Any one of the three could have been in contention for MOTM but the cross field kick probably nudged Hansen in front. Keenan is a dream of a full back. One uncharacteristic kick out on the full aside, he was safe as houses and carried back with a little bite and awareness. Hansen was excellent in his general play and made a couple of great reads. Lowe was similar and his kicking was superb. In general, our back three kicking was great. It says a lot about how we approach things when our back three have more kicks than our halfbacks. Compare that to England where 22 of their 26 kicks came via Ford or Youngs. Predictable and once our backs were dealing with those kicks, they had nothing in attack.

Midfield was tidy. Aki threw a couple of dodgy passes early on but recovered well to have a decent game. Supported well for the try and good spot for the pass for Earls' try. Ringrose was busy. Took his try well and linked up well with those around him. Think he was carrying a knock for a lot of the game. He was down in a bit of pain before his try which is why he was out on the wing to begin with. Then went to ground immediately after making a hit on his own line where his shoulder looked in trouble. I don't see him playing again until Tonga.

Halfbacks were fine. Nothing really more. JGP was relatively quiet. No stand out moments either good or bad which is unusual for him as he normally has something in both columns. Byrne struggled a little bit in the first half with the English linespeed and his pack were having similar issues. We were getting a lot of man and ball in the back line off slow ball but Byrne's style doesn't help in that regard when he's relatively static. He grew into it though. The passes for the tries were nice but he should be nailing those. His biggest contribution by far was defensively where he was making very solid hits on people. It was his dump tackle, stopping Daly dead, that led to the turnover and kick from Ryan which ultimately ended with the Hansen try. He'll be disappointed with the goal kicking even if they were tricky kicks. We're probably still none the wiser as to who will be in the 22 jersey as Crowley was very quiet in his 22 minutes although I'd lean towards Crowley. But I'd also be telling Crowley he has to mind the ball more.

Back row was good after a quiet opening spell. VDF in particular was mediocre in the first half before bursting into life after the break with a number of strong carries. His pass straight to Ford (bailed out by Keenan) was very poor but showed lovely hands to put POM away for the Aki try. POM himself was tidy. A solid blindside performance in the knowledge that he's about to turn 34 and has some big weeks ahead. He was deployed in the Jack Conan wide channel role which he can perform at but we get more from him elsewhere by being a pain in the arse. That role went to Prendergast who, after a wobbly start and two spills/rips, came roaring back and was our best forward for me. He might not be the carrier that a lot of others are but he had a number of really effective and smart plays. The pick of those was for the Earls try. He picked up the McCarthy offload from his laces and spun a pass to midfield where VDF was much better placed for an effective carry. So many back row players are putting their heads down in that situation and barrelling into the nearest defender. It was as good as any centre would do. He managed some massive tackles, winning a penalty on his own 5m line with a jackal too. Really impressed with his counter ruck too where he blew through Itoje to scrag Youngs which then led to Beirne rucking and England conceding a penalty.

Locks were decent and again, grew into things after the break. Farrell must have given them a solid kick in the arse at the break. Ryan's discipline was poor in the first half but didn't get whistled again after that and was far more prominent around the park. Beirne was fairly anonymous in the first half but also really grew into it contributing some big plays in the tight and was still firing into tackles late on. They have to take their share of the blame for the line out, Ryan in particular given he was calling it. But I imagine he was being slightly more cavalier with his calls than he'll be in a month. Throws to the tail repeatedly aren't what we normally see.

Front row was good in the scrum but also has to take some blame for the line out. Furlong looks to have lost a little dynamism although he did have one or two forceful carries in the second half. Porter was very quiet around the park. Good to see them on top of the English scrum though given past issues there. Sheehan was going fine until his injury which is a big concern. Herring was similarly fine but again, lineout woes continued with him and at least one or two of those looked to be ropey throws. One crooked and one right over the top of the jumper.

I recall we botched three lineouts in a row in a warm up in 2011 with Flannery throwing to POC so it happens in these games even when you've the best personnel available.

A couple of the bench were very impactful. Bealham brought a lot of energy and physicality. Absolutely got away with the penalty on our own line which should have gone to England given he clearly came off the ball and went back again. He also conceded a scrum penalty and got done in defence for a line break. He'll be disappointed with those but his work around the park was very solid particularly in the tight where we started to boss England (having three locks on the field probably a factor). Loughman really wasn't on enough to contribute although he was done in defence once, Marcus Smith leaving him on his ass although that's no surprise given he does it to backs all the time.

Joe McCarthy had a big 20 minutes. Stopping Lawes dead and picking him up, turning over the ball on their 22, turning over a maul on our 22 and getting his hands on the ball a number of times. If there was any doubt about him being on the plane beforehand, it's certainly gone now.

Doris was in the Loughman bracket although made one sneaky play at a ruck which caused the English scrum half to knock on after a break, swinging his leg over the ruck.

Murray was not good. Bit of a weird showing. If he wasn't Conor Murray, Casey would be expecting to leapfrog him on the back of the last few weeks. A shocker of a pass that caused Crowley to spill in his own 22 and directly led to their try. Then he delayed at the base of a scrum and ended up scragged and flinging a pass back out of the tackle again in his own territory. Just far too casual. He's fine because we know what he can do.

Crowley was quiet but little came his way, won't thank Murray for the pass. Offloaded to an English player on his own 22 as he went to ground. Doesn't want to make a habit of those moments. Needs to find that balance between his running ability and making the right decision about when to reset and not force it.

Earls. Carlsberg doesn't do 100th caps.

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.

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.

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.

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.