Ireland Vs England

This past Saturday Ireland played England in a nail biting Six Nations match and to say I was on the edge of my seat the whole 80 minutes would have been an understatement. This match had me worried that they’d have started their six nations campaign at the back foot and would have that defeat haunting them for the rest of the tournament. Especially with how they played in the autumn nationals they played well winning most of their matches, but most games were down to the wire against teams they had no issues with before, so I was sceptical coming into this, but this match has restored my faith in the team.

England easily dominated the first half anyone who watched the match could agree to that statement with Caden Murley scoring a try on his debut game for England coming from a line break from Ollie Lawrence. During this half Ireland had made a lot of handling mistakes mostly by taking too many risky passes during crucial points of the match when good simple hands could have at least let them keep possession of the ball although with a team like England maybe sometimes high-risk high reward scenarios may be the deciding factor. The first half wasn’t a total disaster for the team with Gibson-Park scoring a beauty of a try at the 35^th minute to bring the score at the end to 10-5 as Marcus Smith scored a penalty during the half.  Sam Prendergast who made his six nations debut for Ireland was the kicker for a majority of the game which I find was an odd decision from Irelands coaching staff seeing as England is a difficult opponent. Although I would have preferred Crowley for starting kicker as he is the more experienced player Prendergast did show more capabilities in normal play but I guess I’m still used to Johnny Sexton who was able to kick and be intricate in set plays.

Ireland took back control in the second half with Beirne, Aki and Sheehan all scoring tries during this half and Crowley scoring conversions to take the lead away from England. Ireland must have had some talk in the changing room as they came back on to the field with an entirely different attitude and they finally were capitalising on their strengths as a team such as Bundee Aki’s sheer physicality that helped him drive over the try line or James Lowe sprinting through the England line committing the England defenders before quickly passing over to Beirne for an amazing try that secured Ireland the victory in the end.

Ireland's experience and depth were evident, with players like Aki and Sheehan making significant contributions. England's early promise faded as Ireland's tactical adjustments and individual performances turned the game in their favour.