Reded says...

Absorbing? 12-6? Thank God for the Southern Hemisphere!

Posted 05:27 11th February 2013

bothhands says...

I got drunk at the beach, fell asleep and missed the game.

Posted 02:52 11th February 2013

JamieTheProp says...

I was worried about this game but looks like England did well! I couldn't watch the game due to flying back from Oz but this is a great result in Ireland and looks like England went with the right game plan executed very well.

The encouraging thing is that England now seem to have more than one game plan and a core group of players who can be picked and do an excellent job to deliver it - plus strength in depth in most positions.

England are surely now in pole position for the tournament and developing like this, who knows, maybe the slam!

Wales look ordinary (at best) and should be beaten by an organised team (which England certainly seem to be). Especially with the joker Howley in charge.

France - who knows! As ever depends on which French team turn up on the day!

Should be able to grind out a win against Italy at home as well.

Fingers crossed - well done boys! Makes a 4 hour wait at Abu Dhabi airport that bit more bearable!

Posted 02:25 11th February 2013

MunsterRedArmy says...

Really hard game to watch, when both Zebo and Sexton went off I had a mini heart attack! I am a great ROG fan but he's getting too old and the game itself is different than it was 6 years ago. I am positive we could of scored at least one try but every time we had an opportunity to do something we either made an error or kicked the ball away. We need to give those young fly halves more game time otherwise the same scenario as ROG and Sexton had will repeat (Deccie couldn't decide who is his no.1 fly half even though it was clear the game moved on beyond ROG's style of play). It wasn't that awful though, scrum was solid, Murray wasn't as bad as some people on PR claim, the back trio worked fine. Missed a spark of creativity in the center partnership, if they'd get any decent balls.

I wonder which fly half with Deccie call up if Sexton is injured. Also as Caramba13 said Ferris , O'Connell were missed. Heaslip is not a captain material yet, BOD should be ''reinstated''!

G'WAN IRELAND!

Posted 01:33 11th February 2013

rukrym says...

I can sleep soundly tonight in the knowledge that this will be Deccie's last 6 nations at the helm! A win would have almost certainly seen his contract extended to 2015 so at least there's that silver lining.

As an aside I thought Chris Ashton showed a level of maturity and good sportsmanship I've not seen from him before, on top of having a great game. I'll be more than happy to see him wear the Lions jersey come June.

Posted 23:23 10th February 2013

NHsaints says...

@papachinzo What game were you watching? There were only two things stopping England from pulling clear away today and that was losing more lineouts than we won before hartley came on, and the ref missing Healy's stamp and Murray's punch. What's clear is that Best has earned himself the lions 2 jersey with full certainty now. On a different note it's odd to see such contrasting weekends of rugby, the most enterprising team this week (weather permitted of course) was Scotland which is something we don't often get to say...

Posted 23:03 10th February 2013

waz4before says...

The game had real quality for the first 25 minutes and then lost it towards half-time and never really recovered, no doubt the enormity of the ensuing arm-wrestle starting to weight of players minds?

I have to strongly disagree with PR's assessment for "man of the match" - I think Irish TV commentators called it right, just look at his stats for the day PR - Robshaw was outstanding throughout particularly when down to 14 men and epitomized in the final play when he called for the ball at the line-out - a good call by the Irish TV commentators. In contrast, his opposite number was a giving england a regular penalty-fest in the first half and the other candidate on the field for the Lions captaincy, O'Driscoll, has again serious question marks over his fitness and was nondescript for the short time he was playing today, a seat on the Lions plane yes, captaincy definitely not!.

I thought the referee had a good game and allowed a difficult game to flow as best it could, particularly in the scrum area where he allowed play to continue on several occasions despite both front rows chewing grass ... I thought he rushed to the yellow card a bit early but that would be a minor criticism, in the end that 10 minutes changed the game, rather ironically in England's favor as so often happens these days where sides have well rehearsed strategies for playing with 14 men. had he have kept his card in his pocket might we have seen a different outcome?

So not a classic weekend of Rugby but what a fascinating contest building - is it possible France could lose their first three games??? 2 weeks ago I wouldn't even have bet Richard Anderson's money on that, and I still think its unlikely ...

Posted 22:49 10th February 2013

Heathy says...

Lots of pressure on a young side and a difficult place to go and win. Ireland are a good side. Weather dictated how this game was going to be played which was a shame. England came of age and did what they needed to do. It was a mature win with lots to be pleased about. What wasn't for England was James Haskell who was stupid - again!!! Put England in a difficult position which could have gone the other way. Cain Healey was also very stupid. Yes, Dan Cole was on the wrong side but not near the ball. That could have broken his leg and he will miss games. Stupid really from someone who should know better. This will hamper Ireland who are not blessed with props. @ Jhammer25 - ordinarily, I would agree with you but Adam Jones has not been good of late. He got stuffed against a poor French side and he's never offered anything around the park. He's in for his scrummaging and that's all. When that goes (which it has ATM), he's in trouble. He may be past his best. I hope not as when he's on form, there's no better scrummager. He just needs to do far more. Look at the work rate of Cole, Healey, Murray, Jenkins etc. They all do a hell of a lot more.

Posted 22:44 10th February 2013

Philly says...

alanatleeds says...

Lancaster must be credited with putting together a side that have the disclipline and maturity to win away matches in hostile conditions. There are excellent signs that England have a squad who can win ugly when required, but have sufficient flair to put other NH teams to the sword.

Next step, getting up to SH standards, but we are well on our way.

Philly. Really? Perhaps England should visit there more often and find out.... not that I'm discounting today's win, but only if you consistently beat the SH in the SH will you really be "on your way".....

Posted 22:26 10th February 2013

pierredelot1 says...

For people who search for running heads up rugby, one look at the conditions was enough to look forward to a real proper forward battle. Ireland just didn't have enough people willing to stand up to the plate, every England player was willing to run and take on his opposite number. First half they controlled the lot, second half first twenty I thought it may slip away from them, but Ireland just didn't control the ball, were sloppy and rarely threatened. For those wanting to defend Healey, just don't go there. Rucking was banned years ago (A great shame but there you are) but even when rucking was allowed you didn't go for the ankle and you didn't go in with the boot out in front of you. Hark back to England NZ some years ago and jamie Joseph. Thet sneeky punch that went in at the end of a defensive drive was also a bit iffy, it will be interesting to see what disciplinaries come out of this one. Garces seemed blind to so much and like so many modern referees just didn't control discipline or the scrum, he just opted out, running round saying discipline, discipline without taking action (Doesn't matter who it is). God knows how he got on the panel. Has to be said you can tell reading the comments that Ireland lost and England won, the number of, " If it had been a fine day" , "If Sexton hadn't been injured", To those of you who expected running rugby in rain like that and a pitch that looked like the local potato patch, "Dream On". As for the Television pundits, its about time that some of them went on a refereeing course and undertood the laws a bit better. How Woody could defend the actions of Healey is beyond me, why don't they say it like it is. I guess the communications officers are telling them that critisising referees is not good for the image of the game. So we continue with feeding the scrum at the set,throwing to our own man in the line out, etc etc.

Posted 22:15 10th February 2013