IRELAND WERE BEATEN 21-13 by England at Twickenham in their final World Cup warm-up clash. Read our match report here.
England rule in the air
It was clear from early in the game that Ireland were keen to gain territory through their usually effective kicking game, but England ruled under the high ball at Twickenham this afternoon.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
Though the likes of Dave Kearney had impressive one-off catches, the Mike Brown-led English dealt with Ireland’s kicking game superbly. The ever-improving Jonny May was excellent in covering the backfield too whenever Ireland looked for distance on kicks.
The chase from Joe Schmidt’s side was uncharacteristically poor, as they failed to hit the exacting standards the Kiwi places on them to get off the ground and disrupt. Brown consistently dismantled the danger.
Another concern was when Ireland kicked the ball, particularly on exits. England seemed to dictate the terms and when Schmidt’s side might have used an extra phase to get chasers on their feet, they instead kicked from weak positions and put themselves under pressure as England bounced back.
First-half failings
The loss of the aerial battle was only one element of a desperately poor first half from Ireland in which the error count was off the charts. Dropped passes constantly stunted attempts to regain momentum, while ball carriers had little impact on the gainline.
Source: Billy Stickland/INPHO
Defensively, the same disjointedness we saw in the earlier warm-up games against Wales and Scotland was evident again. This may still be pre-season but with two weeks until the tournament begins, that was a concern.
Making the system errors even more telling were missed one-on-one tackles, though England deserve credit for giving their carriers chances to win those battles with good ruck speed and their clever rugby league-style diamond shape in phase attack.
To go into the break just 12-3 down was, in truth, a good return for Ireland based on their first-half display.
Ireland lose the breakdown
Perhaps the key issue again today, following on from last weekend’s defeat to Justin Tipuric and Wales in this area. England were ferocious at the breakdown in defence for the first 40 minute in particular, consistently slowing the Irish ball.
Source: Dan Sheridan/INPHO
That fed into the aforementioned lack of gainline impact from Ireland and Schmidt will have been hugely disappointed with some of the rucking from his players.
It’s a fine art, and even when Ireland vastly improved in this department after the break, there were moments when they had too many players in the ruck. Finding the balance is essential, but we can rest assured that Ireland have done so on numerous occasions in the past.
The likes of Jamie Heaslip got a better handle on England’s rucks in the second 40, managing to slow their possession and force George Ford to kick the ball slightly more. That was certainly a positive sign.