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What Osborne made of Ireland's 'intent factor' after Farrell criticism

Jamie Osborne of Ireland/ PA

Ireland full-back Jamie Osborne is relishing the prospect of getting “stuck into” England as the two sides battle to remain in the hunt for Guinness Six Nations glory.

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The 24-year-old claimed the opening try in Saturday’s tense 20-13 success over Italy to help Andy Farrell’s team bounce back from a heavy round-one defeat away to reigning champions France.

England were tipped to be the greatest threat to Les Bleus’ hopes of retaining the Championship title before suffering a Calcutta Cup upset at the hands of Scotland following a routine win over Wales.

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Osborne, who is deputising for the injured Hugo Keenan in the number 15 jersey, is in line to make his third successive Test start on Saturday at Twickenham after returning from a three-month absence due to a shoulder issue.

“It’s hugely exciting – I think any sport, Ireland versus England is a proper game,” he said.

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“England at Twickenham, you’ve seen how good they’ve been recently at home.

“They’re a team with very high confidence and we’re probably a team that is starting to build now, so we’re coming into it a little bit differently.

“But I can’t wait to get stuck into them if I am selected. I think we’re building something good here.”

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England had won 12 consecutive matches since losing 27-22 in Dublin on the opening weekend of last year’s Six Nations before coming unstuck in a 31-20 defeat at Murrayfield.

Steve Borthwick’s side, who travel to unbeaten title favourites France in round five, remain on a nine-game winning run at home.

Osborne believes Ireland can take encouragement from their narrow victory over Italy after head coach Farrell accused his players of lacking intent during the tournament opener in Paris.

“Andy alluded to the intent factor last week and how it wasn’t really there, and it wasn’t perfect (against Italy),” said Osborne, who injured his shoulder in Ireland’s November win over Japan before making his comeback at Stade de France.

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“But I think we brought a lot more intent. We had some very nice passages of play and it might have been a wide breakdown or the last pass that we’d come undone by.

“I thought it was a lot more positive anyway. There’s a lot to work on but I think we can be pleased with the intent part of the game.”

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JW 5 hours ago
New report details source of Ardie Savea's All Blacks frustrations

Yeah it’s hard to be critical of Razor but of choices in his first year of the loosies he constantly played Ardie at 8. It would seem that was always the plan and that Hoskins was surplas to requirements (7, with Dalton then Cane, as was fairly happy with but understand the calls to drop Cane for his last test, along with TJ, and 6 was shared around nicely I thought) and he didn’t have the alround game of Ardie to simply overtake him at 8 (and use Ardie elsewhere). Of course he did that exact thing next year, too late for HS. Then last year 7 was fine if though the same problem was brought about by using Ardie (always leaves a component of a back three missing) there so often stopping Dalton from getting opportunities. At 6 Parker just had one or two too many games for me but 8 was shuffled around nicely, even if I don’t know why Lakai was thought to be the key there.

Of course a lot of rotation was brought about by, you guesed it, injury, still. Now to be fair to Razor, in reality we have no idea if he had to manage Ardie this way, based on NZRs desires with his contract (we have seen them move heaven and earth to retain him), and if he benched him often whether that would have caused him to leave or not. Or even that Hoskins would have accepted a jersey unless it was with a single digit on it, and a regular pick, as he had had to work his way back to the team without a big bump in his contract (of loosing AB selection early on) of other people his standing, so he also might have still put his family and therefor more over the jersey.



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