Ireland vs England - Minute-by-minute

[Puja]

You know you love these.

Minute 1: Fazlet kicks off deep and it's a belter - high, into the 22, and about 2m from the touchline. Ireland gather and get Jonny May immediately on them. Good start. Ball is cleared to the 10m line. Lineout to us and it's thrown long to Manu charging up into the backline. Unfortunately Ireland have stationed Van der Flier there and he's brought down, but it's good front foot ball (despite Curry and BillyV nearly making a hash of the clearout through overenthusiasm). Very nice follow-up move where Youngs fakes right to Sinckler and Mako on the charge, pulls back to Farrell running a switch, who draws the defence and sends May on the crash. It's clearly come off the training paddock rather than off the cuff, but it's creative and done well and at pace, so who cares - more of that please. Ball is recycled for Sinckler, Manu, Curry, then Sinckler again to crash up, some off 9, some off 10 - we are having several options, hitting the ball at pace, and rocking the defence back. It is glorious.

Minute 2: More hard lines run, but we've lost forward momentum with the last few and Ireland are reorganised. BillyV carries solidly and Ireland look to go for the choke - Billy offload to Youngs who finds Farrell. A rewatch shows that Farrell is talking to his attacking line as the ball is coming out, gesturing at Daly and May to stay wide. He's right and makes a glorious pass across the face of Manu and Curry, and Daly converts the 2-on-1 with absolute textbook technique - seriously, you could use that to teach kids.

Manu's carried the ball twice hard, and it's that that makes the try - Earls has eyes for nothing but Manu and he's 100% sure that's where the ball is going. It looks like it's close to an intercept, but it's not - Earls is looking to hit Tuilagi and by the time he's realised the ball's not going there, it's past him. We give Farrell a lot of (deserved) shit, but that was good decision-making, good communication, and good execution. Had Cipriani done that, we'd've been drowning in commentator spooge by now.

Minute 3: Replays and D'Arcy being quite nice about us.

Minute 4: Fazlet kicks the tough conversion. Again, we give him shit, but a 7 point start feels different to a 5 point one and he's nailed that. Sexton restarts to the 22 and it's comfortable for Itoje in the end, although he's got no lift and Slade looks like he was going to go for it himself and interfere. All's well that ends well though and we end up making a couple of metres. Recycle, box kick and I thought May was in front, but on replay, he's got his timing perfect and he's just that fast. He's first to the ball, jumps high, and is utterly cleaned out in the air by Henshaw running in from deep. It's a clear yellow card not even given as a penalty and I hope the touch judge has bought a ticket like the rest of the spectators because it happened right in front of him and he does nothing. On the bright side, May knocks on when he's taken out in the air, George catches it from an offside position, and Garces signals that Ireland have knocked on despite a) Henshaw not getting a hand anywhere near the ball and b) the ball travelling towards the Irish line. Never mind. May is neither hurt, nor rolling around like a footballer, so all's well again.

Minute 5: Quick recycle and Youngs makes an excellent decision to repeat the box now that the Irish wing and full-back have been drawn in. Gorgeous kick that finds grass and bounces in to touch inside the Irish 22. Pretty much perfect start, which we then spoil by refusing to stand on our line at the lineout and giving away a free kick. Utterly pointless offence, without merit or benefit. Sexton goes long and central rather than for touch, which seems bizarre as it gives Daly a nice easy one to run onto a claim to get his confidence going. He then throws a rubbish pass to Manu to kill the counterattack though and we recycle just inside the Irish half. Notably Curry and Wilson and right there with Manu when he's tackled - there's not even the slightest sniff of a turnover opportunity.

[Puja]

Minute 6: Nowell carries the ball up as first receiver and Garces continues with odd decisions by deciding to ignore that the Irish tacklers are attempting to remove his head like a screw top. We recycle again, but not getting any change with runners so Farrell puts a nice high ball up on Earls. Again May looks offside from a casual glance, but he's absolutely spot on in slow-motion. He challenges for the ball and gets his hands to it, but Ireland manage to gather up the loose ball. Slade then drive Earls back 5m, stays on his feet and drives Best and Henshaw off the ruck with the help of Manu and May, only for Ireland to ignore the ruck that they've been driven off, go round the side and set a new one. Again, this happens right in front of both ref and touch judge. I was not being one-eyed when I felt we didn't get the rub of the green in the opening minutes!

Ireland spin it wide from their 22 and we are slightly narrow, but Stockdale attempts to take Curry on the outside only to be matched stride for stride and cut down. Curry then ruins it by coming into the next ruck as clearly the second man and competing for a ball in an obviously set-up ruck. Poor play. Ireland attempt to spin it wide again, but our defence shuts them down and it would've been a very dangerous turnover if Curry hadn't been a prat. Back for the penalty.

Minute 7: Ireland kick for touch

Minute 8: Nice short lineout move from Ireland and we are nowhere near. Hopefully Borthwick's going to copy that one, cause that was lovely. The maul is set, good ball comes out, and then Ireland spend the next three phases with our rush defence smashing them back 8m. Murray kicks the ball away, May is onto it, turns and releases a gorgeous kick into the Irish 22... that bounces on the touchline. Inches away from being glorious. Shame and now Ireland are rewarded for being second best so far with a lineout just outside our 22.

Minute 9: Ball spun off a lineout and Curry is up sharp on Sexton, forcing him into an unspotted forward pass to Aki. Curry does tackle Sexton, but it's not a big one - Lawes would have cleaned him out (and I believe does later in the game if memory serves). Probably a bit too nice. Ireland run a couple of phases and then Sinckler gets pinged for not rolling away. It's another silly offence - doesn't gain us anything as Ireland weren't threatening and it was screamingly obvious. That's 3 in 9 minutes. Sexton uses the advantage to put the high cross-field kick up on May who deals with it handily. Surely the better option would've been to put a horrible garryowen onto the crossbar and see how Daly's nerves were holding up?

Minute 10: Nothing much. Replays.

[Puja]

Minute 11: Sexton kicks a routine penalty from in front of the posts. A gifted 3 points that Ireland don't deserve.

Minute 12: Farrell restarts and it's not quite as good as the last one, although still good. It lands 5m from touch rather than 2m and picks out an Irish lifting pod. A word for Jonny May as well - his run is perfectly timed so he's at full-pace on the halfway line as Farrell kicks. It is beautiful technique and unlucky that Irish got a lifting pod there to deny him. Murray box kicks and Daly judges it perfectly to let it go out rather than play it.

Minute 13: Our first lineout and we go short to Itoje. Solid, but not really innovative to get quick ball. Still, we set up a very functional maul that provides a clean base for Youngs to box kick off. Once again May is absolutely on the money with the timing of his chase and the technique of running outside of touch to avoid being taken out. Just a shame the kick is so rubbish really. It's about 20m too long and straight down Earls's neck. Unfortunately Curry has decided that he's used up his niceness and follows through on Earls. It's definitely late and looks worse because it's a solid tackle, but it's a wrapped arm on the chest, only just late, and is nothing more than a penalty offence. Ireland look to use the advantage and it's notable for really good positioning and cover by Daly on a grubber through.

Garces goes to the touch judge and the same guy that ignored May getting cleaned out in the air says that it's "en retard et un epaulle - c'est un carte au jaune." This is utter bollocks, but you can't blame Garces as the touch judge is certain that it's a dirty hit as well as being late. It's clearly not. Looking at it again, it's a massively harsh call - it's only just late. It is definitely late and a penalty, and the fact that it's such a dominant tackle makes it look worse, but it's a millisecond off being something that Lawes gets applauded for. Bloody touch judge has stitched Curry right up there, as if it had gone to the TMO that was a ticking off at worst.

Minute 14: Commentators mention that it's his first career yellow and he's got to be grumbling about that. Ireland win the lineout and spin it wide with a pass that can charitably be called flat. We are not getting the rub at all. Ireland make a bit of ground across a few phases, but it's only just over the gainline and not looking dangerous. Good defensive alignment, BillyV has had a couple of nibbles at the ball to slow things down, Kruis has made some big tackles - it's all very comfortable. Stockdale attempts to round Slade who shows him the outside and then takes his ankles.

Minute 15: Itoje and Wilson rush up on Furlong, Wilson spots the little offload coming and switches targets at the last moment and the ball spills loose. Great work in defence. The ball comes back to Mako who spins out a better pass than Youngs sometimes manages, and suddenly we have Farrell, Manu, Slade, and May with 35m to play with and Irish tight forwards in front of them. Basically, Farrell needs to just run onto the ball to put himself in front of Manu and then just spin it one more out. Instead he looks for the long kick to the open space (which, to be fair, there was a lot of), sees an Irishman rushing up and tries to step inside, gets caught and the whole thing breaks down after a selection of hospital passes. We go back for the scrum. Missed opportunity.

[Puja]

Minute 16: Our scrum, and we try a fancy move where Billy passes to Youngs running blind, with the ball due to be zipped back open to Farrell running the other way. Full marks to Youngs, who sees that Murray has read it and is there to intercept or smash Farrell man-and-ball. He turns it into a dummy, rounds O'Mahony and then kicks downfield. It lands in Henshaw's arms, but Youngs neither threw an intercept, nor was caught behind his gainline and has traded possession for 30m of ground. Again, we give him shit, but he's done well there.

Ireland recycle and take it up to the halfway line. A few phases, but our defence is looking really solid. We are still a bit narrow and a team with better passing might have punished us, but with May's pace I suppose we can afford to take some risks. New Zealand would've made 30m, whereas Ireland are loopy and are caught behind the gainline. They go the other way and we are again narrow - I have less confidence about Nowell's ability to cut down fast-footed wingers. Ireland make ground, but not huge amounts.

Minute 17: We're back in alignment well and an iffy pass sees VDF knock on. May picks up the loose ball and gives Daly a counterattack. He decides to kick and it's half charged down, which isn't ideal as it could've bounced anywhere, but it goes into touch for our lineout.

Minute 18: Our lineout and a throw to the middle is read and competed. We win the ball back, but it's scrappy. Incidentally, there's no gap whatsoever, which is what we got free-kicked for earlier. Box for "closing the gap" was obviously checked already.

We recycle once and then Youngs box kicks. This one is good, landing just ouside the 22 and four things happen in quick succession. 1) May is blatantly and cynically taken out off the ball by Murray, 2) Itoje jumps for the ball, a bit unnecessarily as he could have caught without jumping, 3) Earls has his eyes on the ball and runs smack into Itoje's arse, sending him tumbling, 4) Irish players scream, "SIRRRRRR!!!" like a rentboy in the fantasies of Jacob Rees-Mogg. Now, in order - Murray should be penalised for blocking May, Earls should possibly harshly be penalised for taking Itoje in the air, and the Irish players who shrieked should find where they've misplaced their testicles.

What actually happens is that Garces gives a penalty to Ireland for Itoje "clearly charged the player without the ball." It is an unnecessary jump from Itoje (as it would've resulted in him catching the ball at waist height, rather than head height) and he has done it to put off Earls, but he is definitely going for the ball and he's allowed to jump. The touch judge who had such strong opinions about Curry's shoulder has gone back to being a spectator and Ireland have a penalty which should have gone the other way on two counts. To add insult to injury, the rest of the minute is spent with Rory Best arguing that it should have been a yellow card. Incidentally, Farrell goes to talk to the ref and he is calm, courteous, unemotional, and knows when to give up a lost cause. A definite improvement.

Minute 19: Ireland win the lineout, give a horrible tapdown to Murray who narrowly escapes getting murdered by a charging Itoje, who's probably feeling aggrieved. Ireland don't get anywhere for a few phases, so a very good box kick is put up on May, who goes into traffic and comes out with the ball. Earls could have done better with competing, but that's still good work from Bambi. We recycle and Youngs box kicks well to clear our lines. May is again blocked on the chase. Touch judge was busy inspecting a fine ladybird that he had found and so saw nothing.

Minute 20: Three minutes left of the sin-bin and the game hasn't really left the half-way line. Good management by England. Lineout goes to the back and Kruis has read it, but he'd need to be Stretch Armstrong for his arm to reach across to where that ball has been thrown. M Garces has no problems. The touch judge has spotted a pretty lady in the stand and is attempting to catch her eye. Ireland spin it and another "lateral" pass sees Earls run at full tilt into Stander. He'll probably take that as a win though, as his trajectory was taking him straight into death by Vunipolae. M Garces does not believe the game has been affected by Earls's continued survival and gives a Gallic shrug when England protest accidental offside.

Ireland make a few metres on the rebound and both Slade and Nowell are suckered by a pass behind a runner that see Ringrose in space. It's the first time we've been broken in defence and it's well done by Ireland. It's shut down well by Daly coming across and the grubber looks to have been covered by May swinging in to cover full-back while Daly's up. Unfortunately, a rugby ball bounces where it likes and May gets nutmegged by a last-second change of direction. He's back and is down and up swiftly, but Ringrose tackles him well. Stockdale comes in and attempts the head unscrewing that Nowell got earlier. Garces is right there. Right there. He is more concerned with Stockdale's arm on the ball, rather than his arm under May's chin and after three "Leave it"s, a ruck is formed and we secure the ball.

[Puja]

Minute 21: Youngs box kicks, but doesn't quite find touch, which is inexcusable. Nowell nearly makes it better with a great chase, but Sexton offloads to Stockdale who is in space down the left... only to get crunched by Billy. A good chase and high workrate got us out of jail there. Stockdale offloads blind inside and Wilson is on the loose ball. A significant amount of cheating on both sides sees slow ruck ball to England and Youngs fires it back to Farrell who chooses to kick downfield to the grass, as Ireland had all their men covering the missed touch. A pretty good call, as it gains us about 60m to form a defensive line. Henshaw is brought down on halfway and the danger is passed.

Minute 22: Itoje is quick to jackal and decides to take the ref out of the equation by stripping the ball back, rather than clinging on and screaming for a penalty. Good call. We've got quick ball, Ireland look rattled, Youngs gets ready to chuck it out... only to discover that Garces has wandered into the passing lane for no apparent reason and blocked him off. Garces ducks, but the damage is done and Youngs has a brief panic before popping it off to Wilson 2m behind the rest of the forwards, presumably with a whispered apology. Wilson does a very good job of handling a pack of angry Irishmen long enough for Kruis to come back and secure the ruck and we recycle.

Farrell kicks high and it's a beautiful one on Earls - just a metre in from touch and right there for May. Unfortunately May is too quick or too slow - can't quite get there in time to compete and has to stop and tackle Earls without any momentum. Good decision-making to avoid taking him in the air though. A blind offload inside finds Daly who is then shepherded towards touch and blindly offloads inside him. This finds Stockdale at pace and suddenly Ireland are behind us. Youngs brings him down well, but Ireland have quick ball and we are a mile offside in midfield. M Garces shows he's blind in both eyes however and lets play continue.

Minute 23: Sexton chips over the top and the ball shows it still hates Englishmen by bouncing cruelly away from Billy's hands. George dives on it cynically and it's a penalty to Ireland. Kicked to touch and it's a lovely nudge from Sexton to see them 5m out. Curry back on.

Minute 24: Ireland set up a maul and it initially looks like good defence from England, but Ireland wheel it and go to within a metre of the line. Ireland rumble round the corner a few times and Healey goes over. That same damned touch judge comes round and says definite try to Garces who is unsighted, but television pictures show that Mako's hand was always underneath it and the ball was never grounded. Again, if it'd gone to TMO, it likely would've been ruled out. I do want officials to make onfield decisions instead of referring everything to the TMO, but it would be nice if they were *correct* decisions!

Minute 25: Replaaaaays.

[Puja]

Minute 26: As Sexton is setting up for the conversion, Garces asks the TMO if he is happy with the grounding. He doesn't appear to get any answer and is saying, "Glenn, can you hear me?" He appears to give up without an answer. Given how confident the touch judge was, I can only assume this was inspired by an England complaint. Given that we didn't hear Farrell on the ref mike swearing and shouting, this suggests it was a quiet complaint and, more importantly, one that seemed to get something done. Someone has definitely been coaching him.

Minute 27: Conversion is good. We kick off and it's deeper without a chance for a big chase. We still drag Earls down in his 22 and defend a few unchallenging phases before a box kick. Daly takes under no pressure and passes inside to Billy who tries a step and probably would've been better just running straight to bosh. We have a selection of phases off 9 and 10 that don't really worry anyone much. Slade almost gets a break, but gets surrounded by Irish and held up. Both I and BillyV give up hope at that point and assume that the choke will lead to a turnover, but Garces for some reason doesn't call maul and after an age, Slade gets himself to ground and it's still our ball. I'd be fuming at that if I were Irish.

Minute 28: We continue failing to threaten around the 10m line.

Minute 29: Fazlet's had enough and puts in a nice little grubber that stops 5m from the Irish line. Henshaw kicks and we've got Slade and Nowell on the counter. Nowell gets 5m through the tackle, quick ball and Faz pulls back to Slade who grubbers into the 22 again. This time Henshaw slices his kick under pressure from Curry and we get a lineout just inside the 22.

Minute 30: Nice tap-down from the lineout, but Youngs takes too long winding up for the pass and gets caught. Thankfully Manu clears up well and we recycle still on the front foot. A couple of phases and Youngs passes to Manu who draws the attention of a few Irish players, BillyV is running a crash ball line off him which attracts a few more, and everyone is left flat-footed and Manu pulls it back beautifully to Farrell. Slade is running a great short line off him, but as Ireland scramble to cover that, it's pulled back to Daly. Stockdale has to come up to cover and Daly grubbers behind him. This time the bounce of the rugby ball hates Irishmen and it bounces away from Stockdale who juggles to try and pull it back in. Nowell sees an exposed ribcage and flattens him, the ball spills loose and Daly is first man there. A bit of fortune, but deserved.

[Puja]

Minute 31: Conversion is good. Again, well done Faz - 10-14 feels very different to 10-12.

Minute 32: Kickoff finds Slade who deals with it well. Youngs box kicks nicely to the 10m line and May takes it from under Henshaw's nose when he has absolutely no right to. I suspect that's one part Well Done Jonny and two parts Jesus Christ Robbie.

Minute 33: Youngs decides that doing well is boring - his next box-kick is 7 metres too long and just hands over possession. Still, we have a good chase and a well time rush up out of the line from Faz (I know, right!?) sees Ireland pushed back. Curry is being a menace at some of these rucks - he's not getting a turnover, but he's upsetting the Irish and making them commit players.

Minute 34: Ireland have moved 10m backwards in possession from really good English defence, so box-kick ahoy. George, Nowell, BillyV and Slade are all in a position to contest, but they hang back, presumably on a loud call of "MINE!" from Daly who is rushing in at full tilt. He's wrong - it wasn't his and never was. It was Nowell's ball every day of the week, but since Daly's called and failed to get there, it's now Garry Ringrose's and he's halfway through before being brought down by Billy. Thankfully Nowell shows off his openside chops by arriving first, latching onto the ball and securing the penalty. Except that this is Garces, who stares blankly at it until Nowell is levered off by Healy.

We are still narrow in defence and Ireland look to go round us, but Youngs does well to shepherd Henshaw to the outside where May is waiting. We do look vulnerable out wide but, one Ringrose break aside, we always seem to have it very comfortably covered and can give up metres to bring them down. Maybe it's all very well planned? Ireland recycle and move backwards 10m across three phases against rush defence and dominant tackles from George, Curry, and Wilson.

Minute 35: Another two phases and another -5m, and it's box-kick o'clock again. Again, May is picked out. Again, May catches without any real problems. If this is a tactic for Ireland, it isn't working. We recycle to get May out and it's our turn to kick to the winger. Ours is better, both the kick and the winger - Earls blatantly looks over his shoulder to try and block May, but isn't actually effective and May castles Murray into touch for an England lineout.

[Puja]

36th minute: Again, simple front ball to Itoje. We are not showing much innovation at the lineout. Offload to Youngs who sends a good long pass to midfield where Farrell chips deep. Ireland's midfield have come charging up at full tilt as they're watching Manu and Slade offering themselves off Fazlet's right, but May is the real threat on his left, running to be level and full pace when the kick is made. Henshaw does well to cover, but May pulls him down and drags him back to his own try line. The ruck is right on the try line and Itoje has a dab over the top to see if he can touch it down if it touches the line. The ref shout "No!" which shows a lack of understanding of the laws, and unfortunately the television doesn't show the reverse angle to see if Maro actually made it. I'd be interested to see.

Murray's box kick doesn't make touch and Billy has learned from last time and just charge this one up rather than trying to be cute. Quick ball for England and if Youngs whips it out to May he's in. Unfortunately, he takes a second for a cup of tea and a biscuit and the chance is gone, but George still takes the ball to 15m out. May plays scrum-half, presumably out of frustration and England take a few phases of big runners crashing up. Ireland show no inclination to release on the ground nor roll away, but that's okay apparently.

37th minute: Quick hands give Nowell a bit of space, but he's faced with four Irishmen with no support and gets bundled out.

38th minute: England try to give away another free kick for not standing on the mark at the lineout, but are let away with it. Even better, the resulting lineout is given not straight when it's a heck of a lot better than that one earlier in the half. 5m scrum.

39th minute: Billy picks and goes blind, and POM does well to bring him down. He offloads to Nowell, who has overrun it slightly - I think he was planning to ruck over rather than expecting the offload - and can't dive for the corner. He's stopped a metre out though and Ireland again don't feel like rolling away or releasing. In fact Sexton is quite happy lying on the wrong side, right up until Itoje grabs onto his shirt and holds him in, at which point he gives an Oscar-worthy performance of a man prevented from rolling away by cynical play, oh gods, help me touch judge, I think he might have punctured something vital, I just want to get back onside and see my family again, let me go you big brute, etc, etc.

40th minute: We roll round a few times, neither going forwards nor backwards. Finally, the Irish incur Garces's wrath and the arm is out for advantage. This is where I'm annoyed with Youngs us. I was going to say Youngs, but on rewatch, he's been dragged into the ruck by flailing Irish hands (presumably may as well be hung for a sheep as for a lamb). Nowell goes in to play scrum half, but Mako picks up and goes and we all know how that ended. However a look up would see either pass left for the back to try something, or pass right for a massively unfair contest of BillyV vs Connor Murray down the blind with 12m of space. Billy is scoring that every day of the week. I can understand rolling around on default normally - gods knows it's tempting when the line is *right there*, but when we have advantage, it's a sin not to pass it out.

It's a clear double movement for me - Mako hits the deck and then propels himself forward with his legs. Fair decision from the ref and TMO and I think a poor decision from Mako to not accept the tackle.

Farrell kicks what is not a simple penalty and we go in 10-17.


There you are. I'll do the second half at some later date.

Puja

[Digby]

Top stuff

[16th man]

Great work.

It was a miserable 40 minutes from Garces.

[Scrumhead]

The Nowell jackal in the 33rd/34th minute was perfect. Textbook, legal technique and he was on the ball for what felt like forever and Graces just ignored it. Stonewall penalty to us.

[Digby]

In the 39th minute when Billy goes blind off the scrum I did wonder about our scrum work, okay it's far from easy to get the right shoulder up, but surely if it's planned we can take the left back and give Billy an extra 50cm or so against POM breaking off to tackle him?

[Puja]

In the 39th minute when Billy goes blind off the scrum I did wonder about our scrum work, okay it's far from easy to get the right shoulder up, but surely if it's planned we can take the left back and give Billy an extra 50cm or so against POM breaking off to tackle him?

I thought that live, but on rewatching, it's a really competitive and strong scrum that neither side can get any advantage from. Any attempt at shenanigans would have just destabilised the scrum for Billy's pickup. It's just a well defended 5m scrum and you've got to give Ireland credit for it.

Puja

[Digby]

Billy can make the call having already made the pick up, you only need a slight shift

I also wondered on the cynical dive on the ball from George if he hadn't had a go at some front row thinking and reasoned he was behind where the ball was played? I keep meaning to look back at what effort Billy was making vis a vis the offside line and what was being done to Billy vis a vis the offside line. Certainly if it was cynical, and it probably was, it's a shining example in our opening period of giving away penalties for free of correctly taking a penalty to kill play

[Puja]

Billy can make the call having already made the pick up, you only need a slight shift

I also wondered on the cynical dive on the ball from George if he hadn't had a go at some front row thinking and reasoned he was behind where the ball was played? I keep meaning to look back at what effort Billy was making vis a vis the offside line and what was being done to Billy vis a vis the offside line. Certainly if it was cynical, and it probably was, it's a shining example in our opening period of giving away penalties for free of correctly taking a penalty to kill play

The scrum really wasn't there to be shifted - both sides were close to maximum strain and good technique.

On the pen, I think you're being harsh. If George doesn't kill the ball, it's loose behind our defensive lines, there are Irishmen chasing and a stray boot could see the ball go anywhere. It's a cynical penalty that led to points, but I'd say it was the right thing to do.

Puja

[Mikey Brown]

Good spot on Youngs making that unsupported break from the scrum (when Nowell was in there) because the path to Farrell was blocked, it did seem incredibly stupid at the time.

[Digby]

Billy can make the call having already made the pick up, you only need a slight shift

I also wondered on the cynical dive on the ball from George if he hadn't had a go at some front row thinking and reasoned he was behind where the ball was played? I keep meaning to look back at what effort Billy was making vis a vis the offside line and what was being done to Billy vis a vis the offside line. Certainly if it was cynical, and it probably was, it's a shining example in our opening period of giving away penalties for free of correctly taking a penalty to kill play

The scrum really wasn't there to be shifted - both sides were close to maximum strain and good technique.

On the pen, I think you're being harsh. If George doesn't kill the ball, it's loose behind our defensive lines, there are Irishmen chasing and a stray boot could see the ball go anywhere. It's a cynical penalty that led to points, but I'd say it was the right thing to do.

Puja

As a 9 I'd have complained after the game that scrum didn't give me what I'd have wanted, maybe more was not possible, but I'd want to be pushing for more next time

And we agree George did the right thing giving away the penalty

[Puja]

Billy can make the call having already made the pick up, you only need a slight shift

I also wondered on the cynical dive on the ball from George if he hadn't had a go at some front row thinking and reasoned he was behind where the ball was played? I keep meaning to look back at what effort Billy was making vis a vis the offside line and what was being done to Billy vis a vis the offside line. Certainly if it was cynical, and it probably was, it's a shining example in our opening period of giving away penalties for free of correctly taking a penalty to kill play

The scrum really wasn't there to be shifted - both sides were close to maximum strain and good technique.

On the pen, I think you're being harsh. If George doesn't kill the ball, it's loose behind our defensive lines, there are Irishmen chasing and a stray boot could see the ball go anywhere. It's a cynical penalty that led to points, but I'd say it was the right thing to do.

Puja

As a 9 I'd have complained after the game that scrum didn't give me what I'd have wanted, maybe more was not possible, but I'd want to be pushing for more next time

And we agree George did the right thing giving away the penalty

Right - I've just realised that I misread you. Thought you meant it was a shining example of giving away penalties for free, rather than a shining example of a sensible penalty amongst our freebies.

Puja

[Danno]

Love these - thanks.

Love ruck marks too....

[Mr Mwenda]

Tah for doing this, interesting stuff.

[Puja]

Love these - thanks.

Love ruck marks too....

What a great idea! I'll send you the link the the full match video and you can make a start on them tonight.

One thing which is notable on the rewatch so far is the amount of work that Wilson, Curry, and Kruis are getting through. They've all be excellent at little-heralded work.

Puja

[Greebo]

Thanks for doing this Puja.

For some strange nerdy reason I really enjoy reading this....

[Danno]

Love these - thanks.

Love ruck marks too....

What a great idea! I'll send you the link the the full match video and you can make a start on them tonight.

One thing which is notable on the rewatch so far is the amount of work that Wilson, Curry, and Kruis are getting through. They've all be excellent at little-heralded work.

Puja

Actually, I may have time to at least get through the first half this week. Would need to dig out Raggs' guide

[Banquo]

Thanks for doing this Puja.

For some strange nerdy reason I really enjoy reading this....

I don't. It often confirms my confirmation bias.

Its great stuff, and really helps with untangling some myths eg Kruis isn't very good, etc

[Puja]

Love these - thanks.

Love ruck marks too....

What a great idea! I'll send you the link the the full match video and you can make a start on them tonight.

One thing which is notable on the rewatch so far is the amount of work that Wilson, Curry, and Kruis are getting through. They've all be excellent at little-heralded work.

Puja

Actually, I may have time to at least get through the first half this week. Would need to dig out Raggs' guide

Who says sarcasm never leads to anything positive! Good work sir.

Thanks for doing this Puja.

For some strange nerdy reason I really enjoy reading this....

There's nothing strange about it. My writing is delightful!

It's actually surprisingly fun to do, not least because I see so much more when I'm forced to slow things down. Not least because my first watch is coloured by emotion, nerves, and two small angry children who want my attention/to watch Numberblocks instead.

Puja