Three things England must do to ambush Ireland in Dublin
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments on RugbyPass
This is short sighted from Clayton if you ask me, smacks of too much preseason planning and no adaptability. What if DMac is out for a must win match, are they still only going to bring their best first five and playmaker on late in the game? Trusting the game to someone who wasn’t even part of planning (they would have had Trask pinned in as Jacomb preseason). Perhaps if the Crusaders were better they would not have done this, but either way imo you take this opportunity to play a guy you might need starting in a final rather than having their 12th game getting comfortable coming off the bench.
1 Go to commentsThanks 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.
21 Go to commentsWhat a load of bollocks. The author has forgotten to mention the fact that the Crusaders have a huge injury toll with top world class players out. Not to mention the fact that they are obviously in a transition period. No this will not spark a slow death for NZ rugby, but it does mean there will be a new Super Rugby champion. Anyone who knows anything about NZ rugby knows that there is some serious talent here, it just isn’t all at the Crusaders.
2 Go to commentsI wouldn’t spend the time on Nawaqanitawase! No point in having him filling in a jersey when he’s committed to leave Union. Give the jersey to a young prospect who will be here in the future.
4 Go to commentsIt was a pleasure to watch those guys playing with such confidence. That trio can all be infuriating for different reasons and I can see why Jones might have decided against them. No way to justify leaving Ikitau out though. Jorgensen and him were both scheduled to return at the same time. Only one of them plays for Randwick and has a dad who is great mates with the national coach though.
53 Go to commentsBrayden Iose and Peter Lakai are very exciting Super Rugby players but are too short and too light to ever be a Test 8 vs South Africa, France, Ireland, and England, Lakai could potentially be a Test player at 7 if he is allowed to focus on 7 for Hurricanes.
7 Go to commentsPencils “Thomas du Toit” into possible 2027 Bok squad.
1 Go to commentsDon’t see why Harrison makes the bench. Jones can play at 10 if needed, and there is a good case for starting her there to begin with if testing combinations. That would leave room for Sing on the bench
1 Go to commentsWhat a load of old bull!
1 Go to commentsOf 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.
29 Go to commentsIrish Rugby CEO be texting Andy Farrell “Andy, i found our next Kiwi Irishman”
5 Go to commentsI certainly don’t miss drinking beers at 8am in the morning watching rugby games being played in NZ.
1 Go to commentsThis looks like a damage limitation exercise for Wales, keeping back some of their more effective players for the last 20/25 minutes to try and counter England’s fresh legs so the Red Roses don’t rack up a big score.
1 Go to commentsVery unlikely the Bulls will beat Leinster in Dublin. It would be different in Pretoria.
1 Go to commentsI think it is a dangerous path to go down to ban a player for the same period that a player they injured takes to recover. Players would be afraid to tackle anyone. I once tackled my best friend at school in a practice match and sprained his ankle. I paid for it by having to play fly-half instead of full-back for the rest of that season’s fixtures.
5 Go to commentsJust such a genuine good bloke…and probably the best all round player in his generation. Good guys do come first sometimes and he handled the W.Cup loss with great attitude.
2 Go to commentsWord in France is that he’s on the radar of a few Top14 clubs.
5 Go to commentsGet blocking Travis, this guy has styles and he’s gonna make a swift impact…!
1 Go to commentsWhat remorse? She claimed that her dangerous tackle wasn’t worthy of a red! She should be compensating the injured player for loss of earnings at the minimum. Her ban should include the recovery time of the injured player as well as the paltry 3 match ban.
5 Go to commentsArdie is a legend. Finished and klaar. Two things: “Yeah, yeah, I have had a few conversations with Razor just around feedback on my game and what I am doing well, what I need to improve on or work-ons. It’s kind of been minimal, mate, but it’s all that I need over here in terms of how to be better, how to get better and what I am doing well.” I hope he’s downplaying it - and that it’s not that “minimal”. The amount of communication and behind the scenes preparation the Bok coaches put into players - Rassie and co would be all over Ardie and being clear on what is expected of him. This stands out for me as something teams should really be looking at in terms of the boks success from a coaching point of view. And was surprised by the comment - “minimal”. In terms of the “debate” around Ireland and South Africa. Nice one Ardie. Indeed. There’s no debate.
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