Underwhelming Irish bowed but not broken after defeat

Ireland retreated from Twickenham beaten, but not bowed and not too damaged either physically or mentally.

This wasn’t a good final dress rehearsal, but it could have been considerably worse, with England leaving a few tries behind and Ireland staying alive after conceding two tries inside the first 12 minutes.

The match stats suggested a closer game than it was to the naked eye, with even Joe Schmidt admitting the scoreline, if anything, flattered Ireland. The possession was supposedly shared 50-50, with England only having a 55-45 superiority in territory, which was even harder to believe.

In kicks from hand, passes and carries there wasn’t much difference, but England made nine line breaks to two, and 14 offloads to three (no surprise there), as well as missing 12 tackles whereas Ireland missed 26, in what has become something of a worrying porousness.

The statistic that probably pleased Schmidt most, especially in light of the 16-8 penalty count against Ireland a week previously was Saturday’s 6-5 in Ireland’s favour.

Conceivably, Ireland were so intent on keeping their discipline that it took a little edge off their game, although Schmidt himself disputed this theory, attributing the reduction to a different referee. “Nigel probably let more go at the breakdown in the context of guys clearing out beyond the ball.”

Vindicated

“Last week, we gave away four scrum penalties that we strongly disagreed with, and we feel a little bit vindicated by the way that we scrummaged against a really good pack, but a positive pack, a pack that tries to stay square as we do. That’s four penalties that disappear and we gave up one when they got the hit on us, but we turned them over twice and got a couple of penalties ourselves.”

The hope remains Ireland are keeping their powder dry.

Another worry is how England read and competed against Ireland’s aerial game very effectively by flooding the channels. Ireland over-kicked and were profligate in possession. Nor were they helped by a surfeit of errors.

Aside from the resilience after the early double-whammy, the scrum was good, and so too the lineout bar one hiccup five metres out. But you’d love to see more variety and threat in the attacking game, and the lack of numbers and soft defence on the outside, especially on the right flank and early on, was a tad alarming.

Tommy Bowe’s performance was a far cry from his match- winning performance here five years ago. Outflanked by a skip pass, he was then knocked out of the way by Johnny May for the first try inside five minutes.

There would have been another one on Bowe’s flank but for the intervention of the television match official, Shaun Veldsman of South Africa, after both Nigel Owens and touch judge Romain Poite somehow missed Tom Youngs’s blatant forward pass to May.

The problems weren’t all of Bowe’s making, but he missed four tackles and never looked right from the first minute. He looks short of confidence.

Zebo inclusion

As one suspected, the knee injury that probably ruled Rob Kearney out opened a door for his brother, and Simon Zebo’s inclusion in the squad as winger cum full-back has probably counted against his chances of starting on the left wing at the business end of things in the

World Cup

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Zebo posed a threat on the ball, kicked well and was composed, but missed May and was beaten in the air to George Ford's cross kick by Anthony Watson for England's second try. More to the point, Dave Kearney again underlined his wellbeing with another proactive, high octane effort, featuring big hits and hard running.

Jared Payne earned high praise from Schmidt. “It was great to have Jared back in there and I felt for me he was outstanding today; he did an incredible job defensively.” Aside from his dozen tackles, Payne was the one player who consistently made space for others.

Robbie Henshaw carried well and he will grow with each game, which is also true of Johnny Sexton. Others didn’t seem to be on his wavelength. Eoin Reddan is a more than adequate replacement for Conor Murray, but the latter’s early departure was a reminder of the risk in bringing only two scrumhalves to the World Cup.

The Monday review will be an equally mixed bag for the forwards. In addition to their scrummaging, Jack McGrath especially and Mike Ross had fine games, McGrath being credited with a scarcely credible 16 tackles. Rory Best missed a couple but will also grow into form after this first start.

Clever variation

Ditto Paul O’Connell, who took his try very well after a clever lineout variation saw Ireland feint to maul before sending Jamie Heaslip around the tail. His strong charge was augmented by Best’s clearout for O’Connell to pick and plunge over the line.

Following Iain Henderson’s barnstorming effort, Devin Toner’s performance was distinctly underwhelming, and featured three missed tackles. Peter O’Mahony came on from last week, and you’d presume there’s more in Jamie Heaslip than he’s shown these past two weeks. Sean O’Brien was the pick of the backrow and probably the team, not just in his stats (13 tackles and 15 carries) but in the sheer presence he brought to all his actions in the game.

That lineout variation was a rare example of Ireland dusting off one of their strike moves at a time of need, even in a warm-up game. You’d hope there’s more where that came from.