Ireland’s attack failed to flow but they still got themselves into a winning position before letting it slip
There seemed to be an inevitability about England scoring against Ireland even before Marcus Smith won the match with a drop goal. Photograph: Andrew Fosker/Inpho. Even though this performance didn’t scale those heights of Marseilles, Ireland had seemingly, like all great sides, found a way to win, only for them to let it slip from their grasp. And not just once, but twice.
A rejuvenated England conjured a superbly worked try sparked by the counter-attacking of George Furbank and the slick reloading and passing of George Ford, Furbank and Henry Slade for Ollie Lawrence to finish. They mounted sieges inside the Irish 22, yet with the outstanding Josh van der Flier, Bundee Aki, Tadhg Beirne and Dan Sheehan producing huge defensive moments, somehow Ireland led 12-8 at the end of the first period.
“I thought we became a little bit too desperate to try and solve things on our own, whether it be decision-making at the breakdown or look at your surroundings at the breakdown. ‘Are you offside or not?’ ‘What have you got on the outside of you defensively?’ ‘What’s the system we need to communicate to each other?’And when Ireland struck for the first of James Lowe’s tries, they looked set fair at 17-8 ahead.
As a result, passes by Jamie George and Ford took out all of them, and with Joe McCarthy coming off his line, there was only Furlong and Gibson-Park defending a wave of England attackers. Sure enough, accurate passes by Sam Undwerhill and Maro Itoje beat the covering Lowe and gave Furbank a clear run to the line.
One of the consequences of O’Mahony’s yellow card was that Ryan Baird was restricted to a dozen minutes. But his tackle on Furbank enabled Rónan Kelleher to win another jackal penalty and doff an attacking lineout, then there was another effective launch play when Aki topped the ball on to Henshaw. Two phases later, Iain Henderson pivoted and Crowley linked with Gibson-Park’s super quick hands to give Lowe his second run to the corner.
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