Ireland v England 18&19 March - Grand Slam opportunities

First topic message reminder :

Ireland are going for Grand Slam wins on Saturday and Sunday this weekend with the seniors and U20s lining out in Dublin and Cork to face England.

After the slew of injuries in the Scotland, Ireland were looking at being down a good few players for their final match.

Bealham, Beirne, Henderson, McCarthy and Ringrose are all definitely out of the reckoning.  Rónan Kelleher may join them.   Sheehan and Doris might recover sufficiently from their knocks to be named in the squad.

Team named at 3.30pm Irish time.  

Porter, Sheehan, Furlong, Ryan, Baird, O'Mahony, Van der Flier, Doris
Gibson-Park, Sexton, Lowe, Aki, Henshaw, Hansen, Keenan
R: Herring, Healy, O'Toole, Treadwell, Conan, Murray, Byrne, O'Brien

England looking to change up things from their 23 last Saturday with Owen Farrell starting at 10, alongside Manu Tuilagi in midfield.  

Genge, George, Kyle Sinckler, Itoje, Ribbans, Ludlam, Willis, Dombrandt
Steward, Watson, Slade, Tuilagi. Arundell, Farrell, van Poortvliet
R: Walker, Vunipola, Cole, Isiekwe, Curry, Mitchell, Smith, Marchant.

formerly known as Sam wrote:

TJ wrote:Thats an opinion not a fact.

https://twitter.com/neilfissler/status/1637440378319122434?s=19

No there it is in the laws

the possibility is in the laws. that this applies is your opinion.

Yeah. So the ref was wrong.

Might be wrong but I think this is the first time a country has done the senior and under 20s grand slam double. Also first time a winning team has won with 4 four try bonus points and first team to get 27 points. Incredible year for Irish rugby. So close to getting the full 5 four try bonuses.

An average of 4 tries per game and only conceded 6 in total is incredible. The next best defence was Scotland with 12 tries conceded. No team came within a score of Ireland with France’s 11 point loss the closest. Total domination!

Tha nature of the 6 nations. Shame about the incorrect red as it would have been interesting to see what England could have done with 15 though.

The Bradbury red looked bad as the Irish player went flying over him but I think it was speed he went into tackle and momentum caused him to flip. Awkward one for ref maybe but he didn't want to know about any mitigation and he and TMO were intent on red from off.

The Steward one though was ridiculous, I'll be very interested to see if he gets a ban or will card be rescinded.

Recwatcher16 wrote:Thought the Aki hit on Ludlum at  a ruck was worse than this one but this one looks pretty clear cut in front of the ref.

https://www.ruck.co.uk/100-ireland-star-could-be-in-trouble-for-horror-hit-on-lewis-ludlam/

England generally are in and around the top 4/5 teams in the world, despite their record with SH refs, which isn't a conspiracy despite the attempted weak ridicule by some on here - the trend is there and whilst I wouldn't expect England to win every game in this scenario, it is a fact that they don't win pretty much any outside Twickenham and sometimes there too.

Maybe England just don't travel well.

carpet baboon wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:Thought the Aki hit on Ludlum at  a ruck was worse than this one but this one looks pretty clear cut in front of the ref.

https://www.ruck.co.uk/100-ireland-star-could-be-in-trouble-for-horror-hit-on-lewis-ludlam/

England generally are in and around the top 4/5 teams in the world, despite their record with SH refs, which isn't a conspiracy despite the attempted weak ridicule by some on here - the trend is there and whilst I wouldn't expect England to win every game in this scenario, it is a fact that they don't win pretty much any outside Twickenham and sometimes there too.

Maybe England just don't travel well.

No I think you'll find it's SH refs and TMOs that don't.

carpet baboon wrote:

Recwatcher16 wrote:Thought the Aki hit on Ludlum at  a ruck was worse than this one but this one looks pretty clear cut in front of the ref.

https://www.ruck.co.uk/100-ireland-star-could-be-in-trouble-for-horror-hit-on-lewis-ludlam/

England generally are in and around the top 4/5 teams in the world, despite their record with SH refs, which isn't a conspiracy despite the attempted weak ridicule by some on here - the trend is there and whilst I wouldn't expect England to win every game in this scenario, it is a fact that they don't win pretty much any outside Twickenham and sometimes there too.

Maybe England just don't travel well.

I take great offence to that carpet.....we're equally bad at home as we are away.

TJ wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

TJ wrote:Thats an opinion not a fact.

https://twitter.com/neilfissler/status/1637440378319122434?s=19

No there it is in the laws

the possibility is in the laws.  that this applies is your opinion.

Keenan runs into Steward. Pretty sure that wasn't what Keenan was looking to do. Steward pulls up and then braces for impact. Hence involuntary collision and therefore the law says play on, scrum England for the knock on.

As an aside I hope Keenan is ok, anyone heard anything on that?

formerly known as Sam wrote:

TJ wrote:

formerly known as Sam wrote:

TJ wrote:Thats an opinion not a fact.

https://twitter.com/neilfissler/status/1637440378319122434?s=19

No there it is in the laws

the possibility is in the laws.  that this applies is your opinion.

Keenan runs into Steward. Pretty sure that wasn't what Keenan was looking to do. Steward pulls up and then braces for impact. Hence involuntary collision and therefore the law says play on, scrum England for the knock on.

As an aside I hope Keenan is ok, anyone heard anything on that?

Keenan runs towards the England line, not Steward. Steward did not pull up, he jumped into the contact area hips first and made contact, accidentally, with his elbow. Reckless and clumsy, sanction is correct by the letter of the law (in the words of Woodward) and therefore correct.

Agreed Pete, in defense of Steward I don't think anyone would say he wanted to hurt Keenan but he did and it was head contact with enough force to rattle the head off him. I didn't want a red as it takes away from the win somewhat but it was a red these days. Clumsy is a good way to describe it, as for England's yellow card that was just dumb and what do expect if you tackle someone like that.

England definitely has the makings of a good side but they will definitely need a bit of a rethink to their approach and their discipline along the way.

I think some people are missing the fact that the whistle hadn't been blown.
Play was still live, and Steward did not attempt to tackle or play the ball, but he did through his actions make contact with his elbow to the head of a player who was in fact playing to the whistle.
Was that his intention? No it wasn't.
Was it a conspiracy between the SH ref and TMO? Again no it wasn't.
Should it have been a yellow? Possibly
Should it have been waved off as a Rugby Incident? No

Ireland didnt get a single card in the six nations, Id say Borthwick might do well to replicate in some ways Irelands approach to defending. Ireland have also only conceded on average 1 try per game in the last two championships 10 in total which is two tries less than Scotlands tally this year, the team who have conceded the 2nd least tries this year. Take a bow Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby.

Ireland were so close to getting a try bonus point in every single game!

Haven't seen the game but I saw the Steward incident. Seems like a rugby incident rather than a red card. Seen worse in this tournament that didn't get a red, such inconsistency.

Collapse2005 wrote:Ireland didnt get a single card in the six nations, Id say Borthwick might do well to replicate in some ways Irelands approach to defending. Ireland have also only conceded on average 1 try per game in the last two championships 10 in total which is two tries less than Scotlands tally this year, the team who have conceded the 2nd least tries this year. Take a bow Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby.

Yes but should have. Take Ryan smashing into Ludlam face at ruck on Saturday, right in front of Peyper and not even reviewed.

Collapse2005 wrote: Take a bow Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby.

You didn't know he was returning to Wales with his beloved?

mountain man wrote:

Collapse2005 wrote:Ireland didnt get a single card in the six nations, Id say Borthwick might do well to replicate in some ways Irelands approach to defending. Ireland have also only conceded on average 1 try per game in the last two championships 10 in total which is two tries less than Scotlands tally this year, the team who have conceded the 2nd least tries this year. Take a bow Ireland defence coach Simon Easterby.

Yes but should have. Take Ryan smashing into Ludlam face at ruck on Saturday, right in front of Peyper and not even reviewed.

Didn't you hear, we paid off all the refs and TMOs

That can be only explanation for this not even being looked at :

https://twitter.com/theofficialcox/status/1637158650451050497?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1637158650451050497%7Ctwgr%5Eff3d9ca8ce1eb6422df046bb100f9cbe4af20032%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Frugbyonslaught.com%2Fclear-cut-ireland-red-card-inexplicably-missed-immediately-in-front-of-referee%2F

You know a match day thread is done when the snipes come out and we go around in circles for hours......