By Morgan Cerrone

“Both magnificent and rubbish” was Keith Wood’s very accurate description of a tit-for-tat game in Dublin. Horrendous conditions would prove to save England along with the boot of Farrell who scored all 12 of England’s points. Both teams had a torrid time in the rain but at full time it was Ireland who let the discipline slide most severely and cost them in defending their 10 year winning streak against England on home soil.

Ireland also had injuries to deal with too which saw Zebo and Sexton be forced off the field before half time, fortunately losing players in positions where the Irish bench has a little more depth. England got off to a good start with Farrell immediately settling the nerves of the men in white with a penalty 3 minutes in, to which Ireland responded with pressure punishing England for not being precise enough at the breakdown.

Very early in the game England showed they were out to buck the trend of the last 10 years with a solid defence that forced Irish errors and stopped the creation of any overlap, and once they had possession, England made good ground and played with depth. Farrell enforced this by using a variety of kicks, ensuring England wouldn’t get stuck going sideways like much of the time they spent playing against Scotland last week.


And what would the Six Nations be without some controversy? Should Cian Healy have been sin binned for 10 minutes or even sent off? With what looked like a sinister ankle stomp I would certainly say Ireland were very lucky to continue playing with the luxury of 15 men.

Yes we want a game where tensions run high but that incident could’ve ended Dan Cole’s game and even the rest of his Six Nations, and that moment of idiocy could well have earned Healy the attention of the citing commissioner.

England had moments well-directed play, like the read of the fringe defence by Youngs who avoided the pass and almost got through the gap, or the small chip over the Irish defence again by Youngs that on another day could’ve gifted Tuilagi a try, however conditions made it a difficult afternoon at the office for both teams.

By half time England had committed 2 handling errors to Ireland’s 7; forced or unforced it compromised Irish momentum and cheaply gave the ball back to the visitors. After working hard to turn over the ball at the scrum the ball was dropped again rewarding English pressure and handing the ball back over. Craig Gilroy began an Irish offensive but loose ball meant a knock on and resulted in the men in green failing to turn pressure into points.

@scrumfiverugby scrappy, messy to mainy penalties, but a wins a win, will be important @ end of series
— Penny Roberts (@PoplarsPenny) February 10, 2013

It seemed England were trying to get the basics right with Farrell securing 3 points at any opportunity, while Ireland were forcing play – poor technique by Heaslip under the high ball meant another knock on. After the last encounter at Twickenham the scrum was vital to both teams, if anything for the psychological edge, and Marler certainly went toe to toe with Ross making him come up first numerous times over the afternoon. England didn’t have it all their own way though with Healy working hard too, at one point forcing an England collapse.

England will have some work to do before welcoming the French to Twickenham, for example poor communication at the line out led to an overthrow compromising possession, and Haskell left England vulnerable all for a silly attempt to disrupt the ball whilst rolling away – thankfully a spirited England side managed to earn themselves 3 points with only 14 men though it’s fair to say Ireland failed to apply any significant pressure and take their chances with the advantage.

Both sides were guilty of ill-discipline although Ireland never really had any control either despite having 65% possession, which showed as they never really enjoyed much territory in England’s 22.

Both teams held a good defence but due to loose passing England found they had more time to drift their defence across and they never looked panicked – Man of the Match Robshaw led from the front while Farrell remained composed and kicked 4 from 5. Conditions were always going to make the fullback even more pivotal, but Goode responded to the pressure and played a very clever kicking game buying England time and making sure he was never isolated to cough up easy possession back to Ireland.

Ireland in contrast remained very flat and although both teams made many mistakes, Ireland hurt themselves the most – even O’Driscoll was feeling the pressure dropping the ball whilst looking up. Keith Wood once again summed up the Irish performance by saying, “A lot of the players didn’t put their hand up, and when they did they knocked it on.” In a relentless game it was easy to see how England have evolved in the last 12 months – it says a lot when in a tight game that could go either way you show faith in the youth of the squad, like sending Vunipola into battle on the front row.

Credit to Lancaster and his coaching team for having confidence in younger players that, on the day, took the game to an Irish team confident on the back of a victory against Wales in Cardiff. England also benefitted massively from having essentially 2 full backs in such horrendous conditions with Brown and Goode, strengthening the kicking game and applying further pressure on Ireland.

England still need to sharpen up, but winning in Dublin in such terrible conditions will only build on their confidence. Ireland did much of the work for England simply by surrendering so much ball, but it would unfair to say they didn’t make England work hard and at times and England were guilty of being too slow to adjust their defence.

Playing away at Murrayfield will be challenging for Declan Kidney’s side, especially with a growing injury list, while England will surely be licking their lips in anticipation for when France come to Twickenham. In the end the game was certainly no spectacle and yet after 80 minutes of gruelling hard-fought rugby, it proved to be nothing short of a Six Nations classic.

What did you think of Week Two? Tweet with hashtag #ScrumFive6N and include @ScrumFiveRugby to let us know.