I watched the England vs Ireland rugby yesterday. After the delights of scintillating wins over New Zealand and Scotland expectations were high. Unfortunately the weather had other ideas. It was cold and wet, wet, wet. The error rate of dropped passes and missed catches was testament to how difficult conditions were.
An interesting statistic is that the Irish bench (their reserves) had more caps that the entire England starting XV. Another interesting statistic is that on average a team will lose seven points while one of their number is in the sin bin (ten minutes off the field for a serious playing offence). When that happened to England yesterday they gained a net three points (ie England 6 vs Ireland 3), so a net 10 point better performance that might have been expected.
In the end the score was 12 - 6 to England, all penalty goals. While Ireland fought back at the start of the second half they were never in front for the whole game, in anything but some of the match statistics that indicate that Ireland should have won, had England not played as ferociously and effectively as they did. The young guys did what they needed to. The quiet guys worked tirelessly doing the heavy lifting. Nothing fancy, just the right things at the right time.
One thing I did not think about until I read a comment in the paper this morning was that at no time did the England team make me nervous. They seemed to be calmness and hard work personified. My wife will tell you what a ball of nervous energy I usually am watching England especially when in the past you felt they could implode at any time and grab defeat from the jaws of victory.
This was not the case yesterday and is probably the sign of some great foundations in the team. The coaches, Stuart Lancaster and Andy Farrell were quite effusive in how "big" a game it had been; this coming from men who are usually quite restrained and had just watched a soggy slog, that was won with goal kicking.
Maybe this vintage of England players has what it takes and can grow to the next World Cup - to be played in Britain!! Maybe we can dream of victory on home soil this time.
First we have this year's Six Nations to complete and possibly two more good tests ahead with France and Wales to come. We will then see the Lions in Australia with, I expect, a good complement of Englishman building their experience and reputations.
As a spectator I hope that I will see more of the attacking English play, but I am comforted that England appear to have a great heart and that my viewing may not be the nervous roller coaster it has been so often in the past.
They still have plenty to work on and I am sure we have not seen the best yet, but well one so far!!!
Fair commentary, and hats off to a strong performance in abominable conditions. Still I say, how regrettable that both sides lost their rag more than once. England ended up in the bin for impeding play while on the ground, this was justifiable and a good call on the part of the ref. However, the Irish loose-head prop got away with repeated and extreme aggression in the first half. This was as inexcusable as it was inexplicable. He should have been banned for the rest of this tournament. Not a good example for young players...
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