6 thoughts on “Six Nations 2018: Ireland team to play England”

1. That’s a bloody strong pack and the replacements for them aren’t half bad either!

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2. It’s going to be another day of the forward pack doing most of the hard work, and an unnecessary amount of territorial kicking to give the opposition possession, with little or no creativity in attack, just brute force. It’s enough against northern teams but too limited to beat the best. It might not even be enough to beat a flagging England side.

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   1. I have a quick question, have you ever actually watched a recent Ireland game? Or looked at any of the statistics?

      Ireland have scored more tries than any other team (at 17, Wales are second with 12), have 3 try BP (Wales are second with 2). So if Ireland have no creativity in attack, what are other teams doing?

      A stat on the BBC last week said Ireland have had the lowest number of opposition line-outs in the tournament, which means they aren’t kicking for touch. They have had consistently above 60% possession across their four games, so they are presumably not kicking the ball away unnecessarily either (unless each team is kindly handing it back?).

      As for your northern teams point, I would be confident that 4 of the top 5 teams in the world right now would be NH. Unless Rassie Erasmus can have a major effect, all of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland would feel confident against any team that’s not NZ. And while they wouldn’t say it to the media, I suspect Ireland, while not favourites, would fancy their chances in the home game against NZ too.

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      1. I’m with you, GKDA; Ireland may not be flashy ATM, but it works – both in terms of winning, AND scoring tries while doing it. It reminds me of the criticism Exeter usually face; critics call them boring, even though they score more tries than most. You just can’t please some folk, sadly!

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      2. Hmmm..tries scored are not necessarily an indication of attacking creativity. I remember Nick Easter scoring 4 tries against Wales – but given they were from a combined distance of about a foot they were hardly indication of Easter’s attacking nous.

         Ireland are masters of keeping hold of the ball, and all forms of tactical kicking (not necessarily those that aim for touch) and well-taken interception tries – nothing wrong with that, it’s very effective and it wins them games.

         I think the point is though that if you can take that basis and bolt on some attacking genius, then you have the type of team that wins you world-cups. For Ireland the signs are there that it may well be possible – Ringrose and Stockdale are great finds and that Carberry lad has a a certain je ne sais quoi.

         But at the moment the attacking game plan is limited and that will sometimes leave them exposed – hence needing a miracle drop goal from Sexton to beat France

         And by the way, as an England supporter of many years, I am entirely well-versed in limited attacks!

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3. Ireland look very strong and settled
   Should be a great game Looking forward to a great Paddy’s day

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