Rate the Rugby World Cup warm-up match between England and Ireland at Twickenham, and leave your thoughts on the game in the comments section below.
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Rate the match: World Cup warm-up, England vs Ireland
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Not the result I expected or wanted but England deserved it on the day. Ireland should of showed up before half time and the result have may have been different. I didn’t keep count but how many knock-ons, turnovers in that first half?
Good win but no more.Had 2nd half equalled 1st half it would have been an excellent win.We didn’t put them away.But at least we can play Fiji with some confidence.Get a comfortable win and we should then beat Wales.Do that and a win v Oz is then very possible.
Jamie George should start
A good win, but I’m not sure if England were good or Ireland bad. A bit of both first half. Second half more even though. George’s line-outs never looked in doubt.
I didn’t get to see it unfortunately. How did Burgess get on (am assuming he got about 20 mins at the end)
Also, how were Parling, Wood, the line out and the scrum?
Ta!
burgess solid, 1 big hit and didn’t look out of place. parling played well and Wood man of match, carried well today which really made a difference to the back row. Brown, May and both Youngs also very good although line out and scrums still looked a bit shaky
I haven’t seen the game but if Wood was really MotM, our WC hopes will be massively boosted. Niggliest, most frustrating back rower on the planet at his best, hasn’t been that way for a while though.
England needed the performance as much as the win. Ireland were poor in the first half. I just hope it wasn’t a ploy by Schmidt to lull us into a false sense of security!
Wood getting MOTM highlighted the need for all three back rowers to carry when possible as well as win turn over ball. If he can keep that up it will ameliorate Morgan’s slight lack of fitness,although he showed up well too and will be second choice to Billy V I’m assuming.
Lawes is a concern. The fire seems to have gone out for some reason. Parling and Kruis might be a good pairing,with JL on the bench.
Brown was excellent.ditto Watson and May had a very good game although his catching still needs some work.
George did his chances no harm at all and the subs worked reasonably well.
All in all it was a million miles from the Paris debacle. Roll on the 18th.
I think Morgan will start over BV, he seems to generate more go forward ball than Billy who seems a little weaker having lost that weight.
I would go with Morgan everytime Stu. I just feel he is still a little way from full fitness and isn’t quite his bullocking self.
BV does seem less dynamic but when you a stone in weight that is one of the pitfalls. Thank Bomber for that. I bet you a pound to a penny that when the WCup is over a lot of the forwards who have been trimmed down in size will be brought back up to their previous weights by their club diet and fitness bods.
Good team win with some stand out performances. Wood, Robshaw, May and Brown. Although the lineout and scrum weren’t great in the first half, I thought Tom Youngs was great in the loose, tackling and carrying excellently. Would be tempted to start with George and have Youngs on the bench for impact.
Wood did exactly what I was hoping he would, carry the ball. And when he did he looked to threaten the defence.
Our back row is not quick enough and this will cost us in the end. What has happened to Courtney Lawes and Dan Coles nowhere near their best. On the plus side our backs look good we can look forward to plenty of tries if the forwards can supply decent ball
What pleased me a great deal was at long long last England no longer kick off long but short and clobber the catcher.They are also finally playing an effective kick chase game.May in particular was excellent in this regard.
Yes Cole almost looked disintersested yesterday-avoiding injury or is he off his game?
It would be interesting to see if that happens Teecee, also to know whether the players feel more or less effective for it. Although Barritt played well he isn’t going to bring JJ into the game much and it did seem a little disconnectedetween them, nit picking though as overall it was a good performance.
Wood is like the old Richard Hill…..The man no one notices, but puts in all the graft. Morgan played well considering the time he has been out of the game, Vinipola did as well when he came on…looking good in the back row. I think the subs came on at the right time and shifted the game around a little securing the win. Tom youngs really should be passing better than he did to cost us the try with a forward pass….but again May could hang back a little more to force a straight/rear pass, he has the pace to run onto it. Many defences will be worried sick about him, and the Bath boys facing them……bet the premiership is going to be great watching Bath later in the year. Just think what the score could have been if England had scored that 3rd try earlier on….Ireland may have gone to pieces……
Cracking start by England, an area that has been a real weakness in our recent past. Still not quite clinical enough, Farrell’s poor pass being the pick of the bunch, amazed the scoreline was 15-13 going into the final 20 mins, it looked like wed dominated up until that point. Still we managed to shut ireland out and it never looked like they’d score.
Positives
-our backs under the high ball
-wingers who look very dangerous with ball in hand
-tactical kicking v good
-lineout (wasn’t terrible, not great either)
-work at breakdown
-no injuries! (Wales ;) )
-bench was mostly positive, wasn’t particularly impressed with burgess, george, wiggles worth launch bury were all good
Negatives
-lineout
-scrum wasn’t particularly impressive
-lack of carriers across team
-the way England seemed to drift out of the game after periods of domination
Plenty of positives, but no doubt Ireland played well below par.
Yes it really is funny isn’t….. Banastre……….. that Webb has probably shattered shattered his ankle and Halfpenny has suspected knee ligament damage.
Or as you out it above………………….(:-))….plenty of positives
If I made a similar comment about 2 English players being so seriously injured b 4 the RWC, you + all your fellow countrymen on these threads would call me everything under the sun for ‘English-hating.’
Of course I should have realised that being English you clearly feel you have the right to laugh about those two seriously injured Welsh players.
Those comments/parenthesis and the utter arrogance (so so typical of England rugby fans) that goes with you for making those comments are one of many reasons why everyone in the Rugby World other than the hosts want to see England lose their much-heralded and already ‘claimed’ win of RWC 2015.
Oh………….. and if you think that performance yesterday makes you World beaters think again. Wales beat them in Dublin the week before.
Are their no idiots who type before engaging brain in Wales then Enoch? I find that VERY hard to believe!
No true fan of the game has a chuckle when any player gets seriously hurt.
Your hypocrisy is staggering, Enoch. Simply staggering.
“Hopefully C+ntbutt will break his leg and this will rule him out for the next few weeks???” Prophet Enoch – Sept 15
Is wishing an injury on yoour own player worse than expressing joy/ relief over the injury of an opposition player? Discuss…
Yeah that was my reaction to this tirade. If there was anyone on this forum who would crow about injuries to England players it would be Enoch.
No-one is laughing about these injuries – there were certainly no smiles in the predictably partisan Orange Tree in Richmond on Sat – but to ignore the fact that the loss of Halfpenny and Webb is going to damage Wales’s chances of getting out of the group of death is just daft.
Anyone heard any news on this BTW? The WRU seem to have gone very quiet. Which probably isn’t good news.
Unconfirmed, but:
Webb – 8-12 weeks (lisfranc)
1/2p – 6-12 months (ACL)
Amazed he risked 1/2p to be honest, his knee was heavily strapped for the game. I’m sure had LW been fit one week earlier he’d have got the nod for this game.
Well Benjit and Petetboyb
Try reading the content b 4 you comment.
Explain the ‘smile’ face’ and joy from your countryman (Banastre above 6 Sept 10:56) expressing elation at the serious injuries to Welsh players,
If an injury to C+ntbutt is the only way to get that useless guy out of the team then so be it. Same goes for P+sshand.
Both useless but loved by the coach who refuses to change when better players are available. The only way to get that changed is if the useless ones get injured.
As a Wales fan I can make whatever comment I like about Wales players.
Find a reference where I express joy on an injured English player??
You won’t find it. There have not been any. Perhaps I’ll lower myself to the Banastre;s level and really give you something to get upset over.
The sheer hypocrisy here is a host of English people saying
‘He would say that wouldn’t he’
When in fact, he has not.
Clearly your prep schools didn’t teach you how to parse a text or even read a straightforward sentence properly.
I’d ask Pappa + Mamma to seek a refund on the fees they bought your education with if I was you.
Wow, you totally get me Enoch. Now if you’ll excuse me, but you’re interrupting my usual pre dinner snack of caviar and champagne.
If anyone needs me I shall be roaming my estate flogging poor people. Good day to you sir.
A good match, decent performance. Shame about the POC try, we got suckered in there, but hopefully will be better prepared if we meet them later on the tournament.
Very relieved that we had no injuries like Wales and possibly Ireland. Ireland will be sweating on Murray and Sexton.
Thought Morgan looked good but Billy played like a headless chicken when he came on and made some poor decisions.
Overall reasonably happy, but hope we don’t get carried away. Still lots of improvements needed.
Agreed Benjit. A good curates egg ,if such a thing exists! Billy V seems to have lost his way as well as his belly. Some of his “tackling” in the Paris game was just bizarre,he was about five feet in the air at one point which takes some doing when you’re 19 stone.
As you say he looked a bit lost yesterday too. that’s worrying when Morgan is not quite up to speed. Let’s hope we don’t rue the dropping of Easter after all.
Jamie – can we ban E(u)n(u)och please?
Really not a Wood fan, but he was outstanding yesterday. Did everything asked of him (and everything we have criticised him for not doing before) – won two turnovers and even had a couple of galloping runs reminiscent of Croft. I will go find some humble pie.
Need to work on our composure and finishing. 3 tries went begging there. The Wood/Robshaw offside mess up was just daft.
But positives – back row were brilliant and balanced combination. Back three looked so threatening – with pace like that it pulls the defence out of shape and will make opportunities for Joseph. Watching May steam-roll Bowe was a moment of pure joy. He really seems to have added some bulk to his pace. Brilliant under the high ball as well. And we finally seem to have sorted our kick chase!
Line-out was much better. Having the third (and fourth with Morgan) makes such a difference. Not perfect by any stretch though. My biggest concern is the scrum, and surprisingly it looks like Cole is at fault. Possibly down to Youngs smaller stature at hooker or the lack of a hefty tighthead lock like Atwood, but Ireland are hardly the greatest scrummaging unit in the world. They are good, but Argentina and SA are better. Wales at full strength as well. Even Italy would worry me based on how they played. We need to sort this out…
Wales two looseheads got pinged off the park against Italy but agree that Arg and SA would cause us problems and the advantage we had over Australia is not looking such a boon anymore
Enoch,were you dropped on the head as a child by Edward I ?
Banastre. I am quite sure that Enoch’s real name is The Honourable Tarquin Cholmondeley–Smythe, lately of Harrow and currently resting at his country estate in Oxfordshire…