England vs Ireland - minute-by-minute

[francoisfou]

Jonker in de Bonker is making me giggle far more than it should. Top work.

[Puja]

Minute 41: Ford kicks off to Aki again, but this time IFW is through on him and very nearly gets it back England's way. Ireland do regather and recycle though and then kick long to where Furbank is waiting. He passes inside to Ford and then chases the high ball, getting a hand to it and forcing the knock-on from Crowley.

I was watching the Wibble rugby video about our chase game the other night - yes, I know, sad git, but there's a lot of detail in how our kick-chase works and why it works so well. Apparently we recover 30% of our high kicks, the highest in the world. Looking at the first two chases of this half , I can absolutely believe that.

Minute 42: Another stable scrum, which England get to the back and play away. Flat pass to Slade at first receiver, who takes the ball to the line before pulling back to Ford. Ford runs at the line and then offloads to Feyi-Waboso who is running at speed. He's only 14st, but his speed and dynamism in the carry means that he makes bigger dents than Cokanasiga's done in years. He's brought down inside the 22, but Furbank is over and Mitchell is there and dive-passing away within a second. It should be gorgeous attacking ball, but unfortunately Earl fumbles an inside ball off Ford's shoulder and, while he manages to hold on, it costs him all his momentum, and Lawrence ends up clearing out from the side to make sure van der Flier doesn't get over the ball. Ireland escape with a penalty.

Minute 43: Crowley kicks the penalty out for an Ireland lineout 43m out. There's a bit a messing around with the gaps and alignment and, by the time the ref has scolded them, the lineout goes into the next minute.

Minute 44: Another scoreless draw at the lineout - England offer Ireland the front, Ireland take it and try to set a maul, but they can't go anywhere and we can't disrupt, so Ireland break away and make a little bit of ground in contact before being brought down. It's slow, so caterpillar and box - it's not a great kick in distance, but Ireland get it back as Freeman leaps majestically but fails to take the ball with him.

Ireland get quick ball, play into the midfield, and our defensive line goes to pieces. It looks like another defensive error from Slade at first glance, but I think weirdly enough it's actually Feyi-Waboso's fault. Ireland run a standard forward-runner-off-9-pulls-back-before-contact move and it leaves us heavily outnumbered on the wide, maybe a 6-on-2. In most defensive systems, they're screwed, but this is built into FJones's one - the idea is that Slade comes charging up and cuts off the deep pass from Crowley to Aki, which eliminates any option of getting the ball to the wing (barring a long loopy over-the-top miss-pass), the winger comes dashing in to hit anyone taking a short flat pass behind Slade's back, and the cover defence corner-flag like crazy to cover in case the miracle ball over the top does go.

However, IFW is playing a different defensive system in his head and his initial movement is to stay wide, like he's expecting Slade to drift over to him and for them to back off and trade territory to buy time for the inside defenders to push across. By the time he realises that he's fucked up, Slade has already leaped up to block the wide pass, and Crowley has double-pumped and put in the short flat pass behind Slade's back to Doris.

At this point, we are absolutely screwed. Doris is in behind and, while we scramble very well indeed, there's just too many numbers and Ireland convert it efficiently to put Lowe in at the corner.

Minute 45: Crowley misses the difficult conversion and the score is 8-17. Don't know about you lot, but I was feeling pretty morose at this point.

It's a hell of a finish from Lowe on the replays - Ford very, very nearly got to him when he had no right to get close.

[Puja]

Minute 46: England kick long to Aki and IFW tackles well. Ireland snipe from the base like they did in the first minute, but Itoje reacts well to bring them down and Ireland complete their exit with a kick from Lowe to touch 35m out.

Minute 47: England get quick ball at the front of the lineout and it's spun wide to Ford. He's got Lawrence, Underhill, and Earl all running lines off him and he picks the right one to let Earl go through a half-gap and make ground. It's once again very quick ball and this time it's fast passes along the line, with Slade putting in a lovely flat miss-pass that's perfect for Freeman to run onto. He beats Keenan for pace down the wing and tries to beat Frawley as well, but has to throw a wild pass back inside to avoid going into touch - possibly should've looked to step back in there. The ball is regathered by Ireland and they reset through another phase before setting up the caterpillar and box. It's a long kick, but it doesn't quite make touch and Ford teeters on the edge of the touchline before regaining his balance and throwing it inside to Slade.

Minute 48: Slade arcs infield and times his pass well to get it away before the tackle comes in. Feyi-Waboso is free down the right if we can get the ball to him, but Ireland's last defender comes up hard on Lawrence and he's not got the skills to get the ball in and out of his hands quickly enough. What he can do though, is ride the tackle and offload from the floor to Earl coming around, who can draw one of the cover and feed Manny. The cover has flooded across now, so he darts back inside to make ground and set up the ruck.

The Irish panic about Feyi-Waboso being free down the right has cost them though - too many of them shot over that way and, when Feyi-Waboso steps back inside and drives through contact, that leaves too many of them marooned on an empty blind side and, with Cole, Chessum, and Lawrence all thundering over the ruck the minute he hits grass, it's once again very quick ball.

George is the first receiver and Genge offers an option off his shoulder, fixing two defenders while the ball goes out the back to Ford. Ford feeds the next wave and Underhill is running at the wide gap between Furlong and Gibson-Park in the open spaces. JGP needs to step in, leaving Itoje free down the wing - Underhill should have passed before contact, but he chooses to pass out of contact and it does work (Itoje controls his feet very well not to overrun it). Lowe comes charging up on Itoje, but he gets the ball through his hands quickly to feed Furbank who can outpace the cover to score.

I think we (and I include me in this) possibly owe Wigglesworth a mild apology. That was *fantastic* attacking play that identified the opportunity and used patterns honed on the training field to develop and convert it. Comparing that to the French game the day after, where France had individual talent, but looked like they'd never met before, and it's night-and-day.

Minute 49: Overhead replay shows just how good Ford's pass was in that move - Ireland attempt to shut the overlap down by rushing up on Ford, but he gets the ball in and out of his hands so well, picking the absolute perfect pass to send Underhill away. Probably a good time to notice that, as his conversion once again fades to the right of the posts and the television director finally finds Farrell in the crowd.

Minute 50: Ireland kick short and Itoje summons his lifting pod to go meet it, but once again the lift is very iffy and he doesn't get any near as high as he should, allowing an Irish hand in to knock the ball loose from his hands. Ireland recover it and then spin it wide, but the blitz defence is up and Slade catches Crowley behind the gainline on the pull-back ball - he can't quite scrag him for a massive turnaround, but he does force him back inside where he is then summarily dealt with by Lawrence. The ref comes back for the knock-on from Itoje.

[Puja]

Minute 51: Ireland lose Frawley to an HIA and every hater of 6:2 bench splits is now incredibly smug as Gibson-Park has to go to the wing. The scrum has been set a good 5m ahead of where Itoje dropped the ball, but it doesn't matter much because...

Minute 52: There's a reset and then an England free-kick as Ireland can't keep their balance at the scrum. Ford puts in a steepling kick which is exquisitely placed - 2m from touch and making Gibson-Park run in from a distance to get it. He does very well to leap and take, but I will also take a moment to praise Freeman here, as Gibson-Park is leaping high and forwards with abandon and it would be incredibly easy for him to end up underneath him and give away a penalty or a card for tipping him over in the air. Instead he measures his approach and would be there to smash JGP into touch if he'd landed on his feet. As it is, Gibson-Park flips over his own teammate and crashes to the ground, so we play on with an Irish ruck.

Minute 53: Ireland run a phase to set a caterpillar, but Murray goes for a little dink over the top rather than a traditional box-kick. It's no more effective - Ford gathers well and we can recycle and set up our own box-kick. It's a belter from Mitchell and Freeman gets hands to it through the traffic, but can't quite turn it back to our side.

Ireland attempt to go wide, but the blitz is up and, while they manage to work the ball out of contact, there's a good example of what I was talking about should have happened at the Ireland try - Feyi-Waboso comes in and smashes Aki when he looks like he's got behind the defence. Unfortunately, he then ruins that good work with a jackal where his hands started on the floor and then not hearing/listening to the ref when he gives him one chance to release it. Ireland waste the advantage, or possibly take the opportunity it provides to be really amusing, as Murray kicks the ball straight into Dan Cole's nads, and we come back for the penalty.

Minute 54: Replays of IFW's indiscretion - it's absolutely a fair cop. We also see Genge ticking him off after the penalty, Underhill offering a reassuring shoulder pat, and Slade coming over to give him praise and a "Well done mate" for his defensive work. Looks like good on-field management of the young guy.

It is the last thing that Genge does however, as we replace our entire front row. They've all been very good so far, but they look knackered as they come off. Good to see - we want them emptying the tank.

Minute 55: Ireland attempt to be clever and act like they're lifting while actually throwing to the man at the front, but Mitchell is paying attention and tackles him as soon as he gets the ball. Ireland keep the ball and go through a couple of forward phases to get to midfield, before dropping it back to Crowley in the pocket who puts up the Garryowen. Old school!

It's a good kick and we come perilously close to fucking it up as Feyi-Waboso and Furbank both fail to communicate and end up competing with each other for the ball. It is Manny's ball, by the strict rules of etiquette, as he is the one standing at 15 (why though?) and he is the one coming forwards onto the ball, however Furbank jumps across him and they end up coming down with it together before Furbank rips it free and puts it back on England's side. England protest that they'd called the mark, but Amashukeli won't give it and I can't blame him considering we probably can't name which of our players we're claiming took the clean catch.

We go through a couple of phases, trying to crab away from the centre of the pitch and eke out some metres, but Ireland's defence is determined not to let us off our 5m line.

[Puja]

Jonker in de Bonker is making me giggle far more than it should. Top work.

I'm glad it's not just me that was childishly tickled by that. I heard the commentators say "And we've got Marius Jonker as our man in the TMO bunker," and then spent the first few minutes of the game giggling and repeating "Jonker in de bonker" to myself in a cod-Swedish accent.

As per previous vaguely expressed preferences by people, I've collated the non m-b-m-related discussion and moved it to the Ireland thread to keep this neat for future readers. Anyone who doesn't want that to happen in the future, protest now and I'll try and keep it in mind.

Puja

[Banquo]

It's a hell of a finish from Lowe on the replays - Ford very, very nearly got to him when he had no right to get close.

Lowe was being a dick, showing off by grinning at the inside guys then realising he had some work to do. Self inflicted need to finish brilliantly

[Mellsblue]

Three things:
1) I went to a session at Sale at the back end of last season and they were very proud that they had the highest kick retention rate of any top flight team in world rugby. I wonder how much Coach Ford has helped Eng in that regard.
2) Theres lots of stuff about how Coach Ford and, to a lesser extent, Coach M. Smith are inputting heavily into the new attack.
3) Cutting to Farrell after every missed Ford kick really pissed me off. And not just because of the awful gilet he was wearing

[Puja]

Three things:
1) I went to a session at Sale at the back end of last season and they were very proud that they had the highest kick retention rate of any top flight team in world rugby. I wonder how much Coach Ford has helped Eng in that regard.
2) Theres lots of stuff about how Coach Ford and, to a lesser extent, Coach M. Smith are inputting heavily into the new attack.
3) Cutting to Farrell after every missed Ford kick really pissed me off. And not just because of the awful gilet he was wearing

Definitely agreed on 3) - it was cheap and unnecessary, especially since Farrell could just as easily have been on 1 from 4 in the same situation given his kicking woes (and two of them being very wide out).

One thing which has come up so far in the m-b-m is how good Ford has been - there's been a lot of newspapers and pundits proclaiming "this is the end for Ford" and "MSmith **must** surely start against France", but he was excellent for the majority of the game (that I've seen so far). People seem to be over-remembering the inaccuracy off the tee and the two weird attempts at drop goals in the first half, and ignoring all of the rest. That's not to say I *wouldn't* swap Smith and Ford for France, but I think it will be more because Smith could be excellent than because of a need to "drop Ford"

Puja

[Banquo]

Three things:
1) I went to a session at Sale at the back end of last season and they were very proud that they had the highest kick retention rate of any top flight team in world rugby. I wonder how much Coach Ford has helped Eng in that regard.
2) Theres lots of stuff about how Coach Ford and, to a lesser extent, Coach M. Smith are inputting heavily into the new attack.
3) Cutting to Farrell after every missed Ford kick really pissed me off. And not just because of the awful gilet he was wearing

Definitely agreed on 3) - it was cheap and unnecessary, especially since Farrell could just as easily have been on 1 from 4 in the same situation given his kicking woes (and two of them being very wide out).

One thing which has come up so far in the m-b-m is how good Ford has been - there's been a lot of newspapers and pundits proclaiming "this is the end for Ford" and "MSmith **must** surely start against France", but he was excellent for the majority of the game (that I've seen so far). People seem to be over-remembering the inaccuracy off the tee and the two weird attempts at drop goals in the first half, and ignoring all of the rest. That's not to say I *wouldn't* swap Smith and Ford for France, but I think it will be more because Smith could be excellent than because of a need to "drop Ford"

Puja

Ford looked good in real time ball in hand, so reassuring

[FKAS]

Three things:
1) I went to a session at Sale at the back end of last season and they were very proud that they had the highest kick retention rate of any top flight team in world rugby. I wonder how much Coach Ford has helped Eng in that regard.
2) Theres lots of stuff about how Coach Ford and, to a lesser extent, Coach M. Smith are inputting heavily into the new attack.
3) Cutting to Farrell after every missed Ford kick really pissed me off. And not just because of the awful gilet he was wearing

Definitely agreed on 3) - it was cheap and unnecessary, especially since Farrell could just as easily have been on 1 from 4 in the same situation given his kicking woes (and two of them being very wide out).

One thing which has come up so far in the m-b-m is how good Ford has been - there's been a lot of newspapers and pundits proclaiming "this is the end for Ford" and "MSmith **must** surely start against France", but he was excellent for the majority of the game (that I've seen so far). People seem to be over-remembering the inaccuracy off the tee and the two weird attempts at drop goals in the first half, and ignoring all of the rest. That's not to say I *wouldn't* swap Smith and Ford for France, but I think it will be more because Smith could be excellent than because of a need to "drop Ford"

Puja

Ford looked good in real time ball in hand, so reassuring

Exactly. If Ford was 25 and not 30 then I don't think he'd be getting the same stick. He's not young and exciting to there does seem to be a media led thing to see him ousted.

He played very well Vs Ireland and I'd be happy with either he or Marcus Smith starting at 10 for France. Ford's injuries have effected his mobility but his tactical vision and passing are still class.

[Banquo]

Definitely agreed on 3) - it was cheap and unnecessary, especially since Farrell could just as easily have been on 1 from 4 in the same situation given his kicking woes (and two of them being very wide out).

One thing which has come up so far in the m-b-m is how good Ford has been - there's been a lot of newspapers and pundits proclaiming "this is the end for Ford" and "MSmith **must** surely start against France", but he was excellent for the majority of the game (that I've seen so far). People seem to be over-remembering the inaccuracy off the tee and the two weird attempts at drop goals in the first half, and ignoring all of the rest. That's not to say I *wouldn't* swap Smith and Ford for France, but I think it will be more because Smith could be excellent than because of a need to "drop Ford"

Puja

Ford looked good in real time ball in hand, so reassuring

Exactly. If Ford was 25 and not 30 then I don't think he'd be getting the same stick. He's not young and exciting to there does seem to be a media led thing to see him ousted.

He played very well Vs Ireland and I'd be happy with either he or Marcus Smith starting at 10 for France. Ford's injuries have effected his mobility but his tactical vision and passing are still class.

aye. His place kicking was a blip, drop goals too.

[Puja]

Minute 56: We decide that it's best to let Ford clear, but it's a floaty pass from Mitchell and Ford has Beirne's charge in his eyeline, which ends up in a bad hook that doesn't even take us outside of our 22.

Ireland attempt to throw hard and swift for quick snap at the front of the lineout, but Martin has read it and does exceptionally well to track Ireland's jumper and get up to compete for the ball. Unfortunately, he can only get enough on the ball for it to bounce into touch for another Ireland lineout, this one 5 metres closer to our line.

Minute 57: Ireland throw to the middle and England come in to disrupt the maul, so Ireland attempt to play away, but England have been paying very close attention to the ref's signals about the maul having travelled outside of the lineout space and are charging up already. Aki fumbles the pass under pressure from George Ford and it lands in Lawrence's hands. We recycle and Ford kicks away. It doesn't find touch and Keenan has room in which to run, but our kick-chase is very good and Keenan ends up kicking it back to Ford who calls for the mark. He then kicks quickly, for some reason, but makes a decent touch, this time just inside our own half.

Minute 58: I think the conditions must've worsened, because teams have not been keen on throwing to the back for most of the game and England are now no longer allowing Ireland free front ball in exchange for attacking their maul. Itoje shadows O'Mahoney blocking the front, then following him to the middle, forcing Sheehan to attempt a big throw over the top, giving Chessum time to pop up 2ft in front of the Irish pod and tap it back on our side. Great defensive lineout work there.

Mitchell is over in the 5m channel playing hooker, so Dan takes the tap-down and passes to Underhill who was waiting for Aki's run in defence. Underhill tips it to Earl, who notices that Ireland have panicked at the turnover ball and are all flooding into midfield. He sidesteps inside McCarthy, sprints sideways and straightens into the gap they've left (helped a little by Mitchell putting a neat block in on Beirne, which I've only noticed on the fifth replay. Nice work Alex!). Earl bursts through the first tackle, puts the afterburners on, and then absolutely smokes Lowe with a sidestep. It slows him just enough that O'Mahoney can get there to drag him down, but then he dives over the ruck to kill the ball and gives away the most obvious penalty of the game. Thankfully, no-one notices the second most obvious penalty of the game, as Will Stuart shoves Beirne over for no reason whatsoever after the whistle has gone. Hopefully the England management have had stern words with him about that, cause it was utterly unnecessary and could've cost us a reversed penalty.

As it is, Amashukeli shows another good decision - no "final warning", no talking to, just cynical foul on a linebreak, here's your yellow card. He is *such* a good referee; even when there are decisions given against England that I'm screaming about live, I watch them back and he's generally right and I was wrong.

Maro Itoje loses a bit of cred here - he's captain now and the ref is leading O'Mahoney away for his decision and he's still trying to whinge in the ref's ear, even after being told to go away once. Nika turns and gives him a glower, at which point Itoje goes from complaining to "Sorry sir. Apologies sir". RWC final referee 2027 - you heard it here first. Actually, I might see what odds I can get on that...

We opt to go for touch - this one is very kickable, but we've decided to attack. Slade does the business and pops it right in the corner.

Minute 59: Marcus Smith is on and the crowd love it. The reaction's a bit unfair to Ford, as I think he's been good, but the crowd love a golden boy, and it's a good call by Skipped Bellyaching to actually give his game changer a proper 20 minutes to work with.

Dan's first throw is to the back and it's Sam Underhill who goes up, catching Ireland by surprise as they clearly weren't marking him as an option. It means we get a jump start on our drive, which makes initial ground, but unfortunately gets tangled as Earl slips and gets trampled. He gets up and comes round to join the back, and is there to break away when Ireland pull the maul down. We reset at a ruck as the ref gives us the advantage.

Slow ball though, which makes it an interesting decision that it's Feyi-Waboso taking the first crash ball off Mitchell. He throws his weight around so effectively though and it takes three men and a very good lasso tackle to bring him down on the gainline. Martin is next up, carrying two men backwards and thinking about reaching out for the line before making the right decision to lay it back and recycle. The support is slow (Underhill screws up and takes out the wrong person instead of securing the ball), but Ireland have their hands on the floor to give us another advantage.

It's slowed the ball again though and half our pack are in that ruck to scrape it back to our side, so we go for the backs. It's never on though and Ireland blitz it, forcing a poor rushed pass out of Smith, which allows them to take Slade man-and-ball. He offloads off the floor to Furbank arcing around, who takes a tackle and resets possession a good 12-13m behind the gainline. We get forward momentum back with a decent carry by Marler and then an excellent one by Martin, and we're back on the front foot again.

Minute 60: Mitchell picks and starts going blind, only to realise that Ireland have just folded around to that side and it's a hospital pass to whoever called for it. He doubles back, dummies to a forward pod and then goes himself through a half-gap. He brought down, but we're back inside the 5m again. Underhill plays 9 and Chessum carries hard through contact, doing well to stop and flip himself so that he's not carried over the line and held up. The ruck is at the base of the post and Ireland are having to spread both ways - watching for the threat of Smith lurking on the left and the forwards on the right.

Mitchell passes right and Earl takes it and sidesteps away from the tackle of Aki, weakening it enough that he can leg drive out of it and use the "pump arm" to keep his torso off the ground for just long enough that he can push off one more step and stretch to ground the ball over the line. Really good technique and strength.

[FKAS]

"RWC final referee 2027 - you heard it here first. Actually, I might see what odds I can get on that..."

He was unlucky not to get involved at the last one considering how well he reffed in the tournament. He's quietly become a top referee and if his rate of improvement remains at current levels he'll be a very obvious choice by 2027.

Hopefully he gets the chance at the Lions next year as well.

[fivepointer]

"RWC final referee 2027 - you heard it here first. Actually, I might see what odds I can get on that..."

He was unlucky not to get involved at the last one considering how well he reffed in the tournament. He's quietly become a top referee and if his rate of improvement remains at current levels he'll be a very obvious choice by 2027.

Hopefully he gets the chance at the Lions next year as well.

Yep, hes outstanding.

His management is first rate. His manner is ideal. Not too chummy, but not overly officious.

[16th man]

Minute 44: the overhead replay of the try showed IFW basically running in a circle, never getting anywhere near being able to affect the game.

Initially I thought it was the system failing cataclysmically again but it's clearly player error.

[kspoon]

“I was watching the Wibble rugby video about our chase game the other night - yes, I know, sad git, but there's a lot of detail in how our kick-chase works and why it works so well. Apparently we recover 30% of our high kicks, the highest in the world. Looking at the first two chases of this half , I can absolutely believe that.”

I watched that video the other day and noticed, for the first time, how successful this has been in winning back the ball. Also the part about the blitz and the cover defence that’s required to make it work effectively…. Very interesting watch and I felt I learned more from that than in years of watching games

I also find these minute by minute posts very interesting as it tells me all the bits I’ve missed because I’m ball watching, so many thanks for the effort you put in. Much appreciated.

[Puja]

“I was watching the Wibble rugby video about our chase game the other night - yes, I know, sad git, but there's a lot of detail in how our kick-chase works and why it works so well. Apparently we recover 30% of our high kicks, the highest in the world. Looking at the first two chases of this half , I can absolutely believe that.”

I watched that video the other day and noticed, for the first time, how successful this has been in winning back the ball. Also the part about the blitz and the cover defence that’s required to make it work effectively…. Very interesting watch and I felt I learned more from that than in years of watching games

I also find these minute by minute posts very interesting as it tells me all the bits I’ve missed because I’m ball watching, so many thanks for the effort you put in. Much appreciated.

It was a belting video - I like to think I'm relatively well informed, but I learned an awful lot from watching that. Apart from anything else, I probably would've blamed Slade for the try, thinking him shooting up was a mistake, not a feature.

Great first post, btw

Puja

[Banquo]

whats also interesting is that 30% is top of the tree, when box kicking say is often labelled as 50/50 giving away possession....and its way worse, with a lot of hard work and sometimes selection calls to get it up to 30. Obviously more to it than getting it back, but pause for thought..?

[Puja]

whats also interesting is that 30% is top of the tree, when box kicking say is often labelled as 50/50 giving away possession....and its way worse, with a lot of hard work and sometimes selection calls to get it up to 30. Obviously more to it than getting it back, but pause for thought..?

The argument the Wibble video uses is that, if you've got slow ball in your own half, that's significantly better odds than going through 5+ phases would be. Which is depressing, but probably accurate.

Puja

[Banquo]

whats also interesting is that 30% is top of the tree, when box kicking say is often labelled as 50/50 giving away possession....and its way worse, with a lot of hard work and sometimes selection calls to get it up to 30. Obviously more to it than getting it back, but pause for thought..?

The argument the Wibble video uses is that, if you've got slow ball in your own half, that's significantly better odds than going through 5+ phases would be. Which is depressing, but probably accurate.

Puja

who is sampled for that, and not all that kicked ball is intrisically slow, oft just 'the thing we do here'. Further....whats the analysis on what the oppos do when they get the ball back....and why do 5+ phases as a comparator?
I get the isolated logic, but seems like a flawed start point.

[Puja]

Minute 61: Smith slots the conversion and a thousand casual fans start opining about how Ford's terrible because he got 1/4 and Smith got 1/1. 20-17 to the good guys.

Minute 62: Ireland kick off deep, Earl takes and bounces through a tackle by Ireland 18 to set up a ruck just inside the 22. Mitchell does the business with that weird front-on box-kick, and finds touch just inside our half. Good, solid exit.

CCS is on for Underhill.

Minute 63: Itoje competes in the middle and gets his arm hooked inside of Henderson's, resulting in the ball bobbling free. It's subtle enough that he'd get away with it a lot of times, but annoyingly enough the referee is wise to it, and it's an Ireland penalty.

Crowley makes about 5m by shuffling forward while prepping for his kick, and then steals another 3 with his run-up, but the kick itself isn't great, only just making the 22m.

Minute 64: Ireland throw to the middle, beating Itoje's jump, but we set a really good maul defence, with Itoje having to come back around and join behind everyone else and still somehow managing to work his way to the middle and become a nuisance.

Ireland go through three phases of a one-out forward runner getting smashed on the gainline by double-tackles and getting slow ball because England are competing and unlucky not to get a couple of jackals. They then try an inside ball and spill it forwards.

Minute 65: England regather the loose ball and set up a ruck. This is the first time I've got a genuine complaint about the ref - the knock-on happened on the edge of our 22 and we regather the ball and reset to a ruck 8m from our tryline under Irish pressure, but when we ask to go back for the scrum, the ref says, "You've got the ball, you've got to try and play away with it." Technically, he's correct, as you don't have a right to ask to return to a scrum, but Mitchell's now tucked in the corner and can do nothing but kick it away, at which point the ref will call "Advantage over, kicked away." Feels like better game management to come back for the scrum.

As it is, Mitchell kicks away and it's length rather than quality, although our defensive line on the kick chase restricts Ireland to coming back up to our 10m line.

Ireland attack across several more phases and our line speed has definitely slowed. It's still very good tackling, but we're not blitzing up like we have been before.

[Puja]

Minute 66: Itoje notices Ireland doing a bit of casual ruck-inspecting and blasts through a ruck, causing Ireland to snatch the ball back and throw a panicked pass that loses them 10m. However, Ireland regather and Slade slips off a tackle on Gibson-Park. He accelerates through the gap and steps a couple of players and we're very lucky that a despairing flail of Itoje's arm knocks the ball free. Gibson-Park regathers and our entire defence stops, waiting for the knock-on decision, which is belatedly given, but I'm sweating until it is, because Keenan was in if that was play on. I'm having flashbacks to Australia 2016 where it looked like a knock-on but wasn't given and turned out not to be on replay and we stopped playing and let him score there too.

We don't appear to be very good at keeping defensive cohesion when the opposition screw up and go backwards to recover loose ball. Happened against Scotland and nearly happened here. A replay shows that it's actually a marginal call - a decent argument could be made that Itoje rips the ball out of Gibson-Park's arm and so therefore it's not a knock-on. Potential lucky esape.

Emptying the bench now - Daly on for Slade, Dombrandt for Chessum, and Care for Mitchell. Good call on the first two - that tackle from Slade looked very tired, and Chessum has definitely slowed his involvements. Plus Quins 8/9/10 has to be worth something.

Interesting side note that I kept failing to mention - Chessum packed down at number 8 on a lot of opposition ball, presumably a combo of Earl being faster off the flank and Chessum being a stronger scrummager as a third lock driving through from the back. Interesting switch there.

Minute 67: Scrum happens and Marler drives right through Bealham, but the ball is at the back and the ref's not interested in making a call there. We pass it out Care to Smith to Daly - we've actually got a decent attacking position here - if Daly passes it on, there's 2-on-2 with Freebank and Furman against Henshaw and Gibson-Park which I'd back our guys to at least make some ground through - but he's set for the kick and isn't changing his mind. However, he's also not kicking quickly - Aki is flying up on him and Daly takes at least two too many steps and, by the time he goes to kick, he's being tackled and the ball is scuffed. It bounces into the hands of Gibson-Park who runs at our disorganised line - we bring him down, but it's quick ball and we're retreating.

Ireland go wide to the other side, but Feyi-Waboso makes a decent tackle to bring them down without losing too much ground. When the ball comes back, we're back in shape again and up aggressively. Ireland run a couple of phases before Earl goes in for a jackal and finally gets rewarded. An Irish fan would probably note that Earl's an assist tackler and makes little to no effort to release before clamping down on the ball, but we'll not dwell on that for too long - we've been stuck in our half facing down Irish pressure pretty much since we scored and this is a very good opportunity to break out and start applying some pressure of our own.

Minute 68: Smith kicks to touch on the Irish 10m line, but there's lots of faffing and not much happening in this minute. Dan throws to CCS at the front and we form a functional maul whcih slows to a stop just at the end of the minute.

Minute 69: Care passes it away to Daly at first receiver who decides to try and step the single blitzer, rather than passing it out. He does not make it around him and England have to pile in to resecure very slow ball, so Care signals for the box-kick. It's not a bad call, but it is a terrible implementation, with the ball so badly overhit that Gibson-Park can catch and call the mark without a single English chaser being within 10 metres of him. To add insult to injury, that gives Ireland the chance to go back to 15 as the yellow card has now expired. So far, this minute has backed up my initial feelings about Care and Daly's performances off the bench.

Minute 70: England throw to the front again and choose to sink into a ruck as Ireland look to disrupt the maul. We go through one forward phase to set properly and then it's time for Caterpillar and Box, Attorneys At Law.

This is a much, much better kick from Care - Freeman waits for Gibson-Park to catch it and then carries him backwards several metres. Ireland attempt to see what can be done ball-in-hand, but Conan meets George Martin and after that, they decide to go for their own caterpillar and box.

[16th man]

Minute 67 Daly's determination to kick was dull decision making, sluggishly executed. He was just on so not being up to pace could be forgiven, but surely he's watched us make decent ground ball in hand for 65 minutes and should have been open to throwing the simple pass rather than dithering.

[Oakboy]

Minute 67 Daly's determination to kick was dull decision making, sluggishly executed. He was just on so not being up to pace could be forgiven, but surely he's watched us make decent ground ball in hand for 65 minutes and should have been open to throwing the simple pass rather than dithering.

Changing personnel may be easier than changing mind-set.

[Crash Hamster]

whats also interesting is that 30% is top of the tree, when box kicking say is often labelled as 50/50 giving away possession....and its way worse, with a lot of hard work and sometimes selection calls to get it up to 30. Obviously more to it than getting it back, but pause for thought..?

This was my reaction to this stat too. 70% of the time (maybe 75% if you're not good at it) you're actually giving the ball away. It seems to be a tactic which should be used sparingly and with consideration, rather than frequently and robotically.