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Three things England must do to ambush Ireland in Dublin

By Liam Heagney
(Photo by Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)

So erratic have England continued to be under new head coach Steve Borthwick, they are poised to sign off against Ireland on yet another underwhelming Guinness Six Nations campaign with more losses than wins. That became a dubious trait under the previous incumbent Eddie Jones. The Australian may have won three titles, two in his first two years in charge, but his long reign was also pockmarked by three damaging two-wins-from-five efforts in the last five seasons.

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Borthwick now faces England making that a fourth two-wins-from-five in six seasons unless they can cause what would be considered one of the greatest Six Nations upsets ever.

Ireland, the No1 ranked side in the world and a team that has won 21 of its last 23 matches, are gunning for the Grand Slam at their Dublin home against an England team licking its gaping wounds following last Saturday’s humiliating record 53-10 home loss to France.

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It seems like a mission impossible for Borthwick and co but here are some areas they should focus on in their bid to ambush Ireland and spoil the St Patrick’s weekend title-clinching party:

Being nuisance scrum again
Borthwick has named an England team with just six of the same starters from last March’s fixture between the two teams. Three of the repeat picks, though, consist of the entire front row of Ellis Genge, Jamie George and Kyle Sinckler and they will surely be confident of making a dent to the Irish scrum.

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A year ago, with Frenchman Mathieu Raynal in charge, the penalty count at the set-piece was six-one in favour of the English, a momentum that infuriated Ireland. They claimed the following week that “the referee has come back and said a few decisions went against us when they shouldn’t have”. England were raging, too, Jones suggesting his pack was insufficiently rewarded as no Irish prop was yellow-carded.

“We want to have a powerful scrum and if World Rugby want to have the scrum in the game, they have got to allow the strong scrums to dominate. We are disappointed we didn’t get more out of that,” bemoaned Jones at the time.

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South African Jaco Peyper is this Saturday’s referee and both teams come into it with a 2023 championship record of conceding just three penalties each at the scrum. That suggests Irish stability but England need to get stuck in ASAP to see if they can get the official on their side and frustrate the Andy Farrell scrum just as they did a year ago.

Carrying with greater purpose
Borthwick has painted a picture that France and Ireland, the world’s number two and number one teams, rely heavily on kicking but the curious reality is that England have kicked more in this tournament, 4,117 metres to 4,115 by the French and just 3,782 by the Irish.

Kicking, of course, is a very important part of the game but ball-carrying must surely be a priority if England really are to aggravate the Ireland defence. For instance, it would be so exciting to see Henry Arundell regularly going full tilt out wide, but the return of Manu Tuilagi in the midfield appears timely.

The powerhouse has a W6 L0 record against the Irish and was heavily involved in repeatedly punching the holes that secured the 32-20 win in Dublin that essentially irrevocably fractured the 2019 Joe Schmidt team.

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Alex Dombrandt was credited with 44 metres from seven carries last week, but that involvement came long after the French back row had established dominance and were a long way down the track to securing their record-breaking result. The struggling No8 needs to perform like never before at Test level, while his team in general needs to better look after whatever ball they do get.

A statistical eyesore is England registering 21 knock-ons in championship 2023, flagrancy in contrast to just eight Ireland fumbles. England must also protect their lineout as the Irish have stolen six throws in recent weeks, while they must also guard against the offload, a skill that Ireland is much improved at given their tally of 27 this term compared to 11 in 2022.

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The 16 miserable seconds stat
There has been plenty of fighting talk this week from England amid the gloom of last Saturday’s brutal battering at the hands of the French. Loosehead Genge guaranteed the English would “come out swinging” and that “there is definitely some dog in this team”, a narrative added to by Borthwick at his Thursday night media briefing in Dublin with his reference to “forthright conversations”.

Thing is, they only need to look to last year’s game versus Ireland to see the blueprint for defiance against the odds. Despite losing Charlie Ewels to a red card after just 82 seconds, England were level at 15-all with just 10 minutes remaining before a late power surge sealed the 32-15 Irish triumph.

Where England struggled to better reward that defiance was a brutal inability to secure territory and apply pressure. They spent only a miserable 16 seconds in the Irish 22, relying instead on five Marcus Smith kicks for their points. The moral of that story is they need to stress the Irish defence where it most hurts – as close as possible to the try line.

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Trevor 35 minutes ago
Will forgotten Wallabies fit the Joe Schmidt model?

Thanks Brett.. At last a positive article on the potential of Wallaby candidates, great to read. Schmidt’s record as an international rugby coach speaks for itself, I’m somewhat confident he will turn the Wallaby’s fortunes around …. on the field. It will be up to others to steady the ship off the paddock. But is there a flaw in my optimism? We have known all along that Australia has the players to be very competitive with their international rivals. We know that because everyone keeps telling us. So why the poor results? A question that requires a definitive answer before the turn around can occur. Joe Schmidt signed on for 2 years, time to encompass the Lions tour of 2025. By all accounts he puts family first and that’s fair enough, but I would wager that his 2 year contract will be extended if the next 18 months or so shows the statement “Australia has the players” proves to be correct. The new coach does not have a lot of time to meld together an outfit that will be competitive in the Rugby Championship - it will be interesting to see what happens. It will be interesting to see what happens with Giteau law, the new Wallaby coach has already verbalised that he would to prefer to select from those who play their rugby in Australia. His first test in charge is in July just over 3 months away .. not a long time. I for one wish him well .. heaven knows Australia needs some positive vibes.

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B
Bull Shark 4 hours ago
Jake White: Are modern rugby players actually better?

Of the rugby I’ve born witness to in my lifetime - 1990 to date - I recognize great players throughout those years. But I have no doubt the game and the players are on average better today. So I doubt going back further is going to prove me wrong. The technical components of the game, set pieces, scrums, kicks, kicks at goal. And in general tactics employed are far more efficient, accurate and polished. Professional athletes that have invested countless hours on being accurate. There is one nation though that may be fairly competitive in any era - and that for me is the all blacks. And New Zealand players in general. NZ produces startling athletes who have fantastic ball skills. And then the odd phenomenon like Brooke. Lomu. Mcaw. Carter. Better than comparing players and teams across eras - I’ve often had this thought - that it would be very interesting to have a version of the game that is closer to its original form. What would the game look like today if the rules were rolled back. Not rules that promote safety obviously - but rules like: - a try being worth 1 point and conversion 2 points. Hence the term “try”. Earning a try at goals. Would we see more attacking play? - no lifting in the lineouts. - rucks and break down laws in general. They looked like wrestling matches in bygone eras. I wonder what a game applying 1995 rules would look like with modern players. It may be a daft exercise, but it would make for an interesting spectacle celebrating “purer” forms of the game that roll back the rules dramatically by a few versions. Would we come to learn that some of the rules/combinations of the rules we see today have actually made the game less attractive? I’d love to see an exhibition match like that.

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