Beating the Scotch will condemn the England match to the bin of history and restore Ireland to its rightful number one pre-world cup ranking again. Too much has been invested by our sponsors for it to be rendered worthless by the start of February.
First Try Iād put on Earls and Murray well ahead of Henshaw. Murray didnāt get move up as quickly with the rest of the defensive line and then Earls came in off his wing and was beaten by the skip pass (note consistent theme of Eng targeting Ireland out wide). Henshaw was left facing a 2 v 1.
Second try there was no way Henshaw could get across in time. He didnāt sprint but even sprinting wouldnāt have got there. The reason he was on the other side is because that was the direction Eng were heading before they switched direction. Arguably England switched direction and then put the kick behind Stockdale because they knew that Ireland set up with the wingers up and only the FB behind and having manoeuvred Henshaw one way they could strike the other. Either way, a fairly fortunate bounce.
Third try is straight off a scrum. Henshaw is in the backfield covering the kick (correctly Iād say). Irelandās backs have pushed up and arguably Larmour gets too narrow - probably worried about the treat of Tuilagi. Superb skip pass from Youngs to Slade and then skip pass from Slade to Daly (Very flat but again with the theme of England targeting Ireland out wide) takes out the entire Irish defence. Henshaw again left with numbers flooding through and a very good kick from Daly allows Slade to score.
So in summary, while there were many issues with the Henshaw choice Iām not sure Iād lay any of the tries at his door. More that England targeted the whole Irish defensive system superbly, both in tactics and execution, and that left Henshaw exposed.
Well not if you want to lose. Reichs commandant Schmidt is playing the long game here bro. He needs the saffers to focus primarily on dealing with box kicks, before unleashing a rotating three pod system on the fields of ChÅfu
Is being beaten out wide not now a recurrent theme all the way back to Argentina knocking us out of the last world cup?
It is and there were probably times we got away with it last year vs Wales in particular. I would say that the reality of any defensive system is that it has weaknesses - you canāt cover everywhere. It would seem that Farrells system is for a very hard fast defensive line with not much gaps along it. He also asks the wingers to push up. This leaves space at the edges and space behind but his thinking is that if Ireland are aggressively off the line then it becomes very hard to exploit that space. Think of Ireland trying to go around England on Sat - even if they know there is space out wide if they were getting stopped at or behind the gain line then it gets harder and harder to get the ball wide. England on Saturday were able to expose Ireland because firstly they were going forward well which slows the Irish defence down and secondly the quality of their execution - the passing in the first three tries was superb.
The Irish game plan relies on them forcing errors from the other team and making none themselves. They failed on both counts Saturday.
fair play to you for actually engaging in the discussion bud.
Yeah - but isnāt that the strategy for most teams in most sports? How you achieve that tactically is usually the difference in approach.
I would imagine the shape of the defensive system has to fit with how the team wants to attack too.
Seems like the template to beat Ireland is there a long while now.
The thing that I donāt get is that Ireland seemed in no way to vary their approach when it wasnāt working. Ok the desperate hail Mary passes towards the end, but not subbing either of the half backs earlier was strange. Weāre goosed if we are chasing a game apparently.
Iād agree our weaknesses and how we set up in attack and defence is well understood. However, the template to beat most teams is there - doesnāt make it easy to achieve though.
Irelands game is built on discipline, with and without the ball. I donāt just mean discipline in terms of conceding penalties but also in terms of organisation, ball retention etc. When thatās working well it applies huge pressure to the opposition that usually results in mistakes, penalties, turnovers etc.
Iām not sure how easy it is to dramatically alter your approach on the hoof, in particular if youāre completely bought into it and it has previously worked. Donāt forget - until the Goode try Ireland were only 4 points down and Iām sure the team had absolute faith they could turn that around. They should have tried to vary their approach though within the context of their normal plan. Again, now immediate solutions come to mind though!
This is my one phone call
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Oooffttt
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They are in fact finishers.
Can you tweet him and ask gim was he substituted or replaced when he fucked off 15 minutes before the end of the england game.