I have never seen the master race look less masterful and I have been watching them since the 80’s. Did you give Borthwick a long contract?
Well at least now I know, it's a scrum when you exceed the shot clock...
England so ponderous. Just so off the necessary pace, huffing and puffing up front and no creativity in the backs.
I'm not sure brace got the spider cam hit correct. It should have gone back to where the kick was struck surely?
Otherwise Samoa, who caught it, were disadvantaged even though they were equally affected by the camera hit
I enjoyed that. Result in doubt the whole way thru. Talk about grinding out a win tho. Samoa one knock on from history at the end.
Care has had worse days in an England shirt
Well that was terrible. We all knew Borthwick's favourite 15 would be bad, but holy cow they exceeded expectations.
Will an awful england make it to the final by playing dull rugby .
That was just painful.
I have never seen the master race look less masterful
The what? Some pretty sinister undertones to that phrase.
Ignoring the national slur, England were dire. As an Englishman I was almost sorry to see Samoa lose after that incredible effort.
I've never been able to put my finger on it, but the England rugby team is plagued with poor technique and atrociously poor discipline, and has been for a long time. Is it the professional club game? Possibly. It's possibly endemic from the junior level where the 'big lads' always get preference (viewpoint gained from my 2 boys both playing but actually one of them being one of the big lads).
Anyway. A win. That will do for now. If we make the semis, France (if they make it) will embarrass us. Cmon Wales and Ireland and Scotland 😁 (currently checking to see if there is any South African or Kiwi in my heritage 😂😂😂)
Will an awful england make it to the final
No. I agree with Woodward, its Ford OR Farrel (we know what that means for Ford) and we need Lawrence and & Marchant in the centres. Earl is a weapon but needs to stop the whooping.
As an Englishman I was almost sorry to see Samoa lose after that incredible effort.
+1, I would have loved Samoa to make history today.
Just seen the Faletou news, thats bad for him and one of Wales best players too. Damn.
Well on to the main course after an unexpectedly spicy starter!
In any other circumstances I would be wanting Scotland to win for the style of all-out win or bust rugby. Should be fun and we know Scotland will give it everything
Ireland do need a victory irrespective of qualification to carry momentum into the quarters
My favourite moment was when the big useless lump of a lock tried to do the tackle release get up and pick the ball up again that the Samoans kept doing and just fell over and threw the ball into touch!
The following makes me feel dirty and I'm going to have to go wash my mouth out with soap and carbolic acid in a minute... but ..
C'MON SCOTLAND.
Oh yeah..and weren't Ingurlund dire. It's pretty evident the intelligence gene skipped a generation in the Farrell lineage after Andy.
Whoops!
Great Irish defence
Beautiful rugby
This is a level or two above the previous tier 2 game.
Ah well.
if only we’d been in England’s group.
But que sera
Scotland being as dumb as England
BP
We should have kicked those penalties early on.
There was probably 6 points or so and a dent in Ireland’s confidence there.
Actually the smart move at this point from Ireland’s point in view would be to let Scotland run up a cricket score and eliminate RSA (‘cos Scotland ain’t a threat to the final)
Actually feel sorry for Scotland, nothing worked for them. Can’t understand why they didn’t take points early. Line out is awful so we can just kick the ball out and know we will get it back
Ireland living up to their status as No.1 team in the world.
Line out is awful
It's a mystery to me how the ref cannot see Ireland closing the gap at every lineout.
FFS Ireland don't get riled. If some idiot gets suspended with ABs waiting
The comeback is on 😃🤪
Why can't they play like this for a full game!!
Try of the tournament?
The ref isn’t good round the breakdown.
There’s been quite a few penalties given the wrong way. Reaching over, hands on the deck, then preventing release.
Congratulations Ireland.
Can't argue with who was the better team.
Well beaten, not even the architects of our own downfall as Ireland just pressure teams all the time. Hard to split them and France as the best at the WC.
Well played Ireland, Scotland were never in it. If Ireland have a weakness it probably is in "broken play".
For Scotland Graham was a weak link Steyn would have provided better defensive cover, but I can't blame Townsend for selecting him. The loss of Kinghorn and Ritchie for HIA did'nt helps us . However I can't say they would have changed the outcome.
We can go home as the first team to put two tries past Ireland this World Cup at least.
I wonder if NZ are going to be looking at those Scotland tries, because they looked so easy when they came - really opened up the (probably fairly relaxed) Irish defence.
I actually thought that we (Scotland) didn't play too badly, which is a massive compliment to Ireland. You guys blew us away. Good luck for the rest of the tournament and I'll be drinking Guinness the next few weeks. Well played.
Yeah, fine display from Ireland.... Really controlled and clinical.. Well done, win the damn thing now !!
Scotland were never going to blast them away but the vast chance was to use scoreboard pressure and then try and nick it in last quarter. Dumb trying to play expansive rugby against one of the best defences.
Agreed.
Should have kicked for 6-5
Should have done the one pass, crunch and offload once thing - tried to keep rolling the Irish back.
The one time we did that was the first Scots try. It wouldn’t have been a try every time but it would have kept the Irish less comfortable
Ref was pretty bad around the break down. Ireland and the big nations are really good at hitting the ruck on the fringe, lifting defenders leg then swinging round the ruck. So the attacking player is now on the wrong side, slows ball and interferes with 9. Two knock ons against Ali Price when they did this.
I have no issue with Scotland going for the corner. We are not going to beat Ireland in 3s. Scotland have to be true to themselves and play an attacking fast game and over the years our return on the kicks to the corner is good.
Irelands defense was stonewall. We threw the kitchen sink at them and it never broke. 600+ m run by Scotland. We only made 3 clean breaks all game. 27 defenders beaten but we never broke the Irish defense down. Ireland had to make 195 tackles (out of 222)
Ringrose deserves special mention. The key difference in attack
Hope the ruddy Irish go on and win the thing now. If they don't I'm going to be very cross :-)<br />*walks off grumbling*
That’s the thing you aren’t breaking the Irish defence through the middle or going side to side, need to pressure them in a different way.
game plan is fine against lesser sides, the top 3 sides are just different altogether.
I don't think you are breaking the Irish defense no matter what you do. SA couldn't do it - they tried the power game. We put them under pressure alright. No team is going to find scoring 4 tries easy. We got two.
Where is the weakness? Where do you attack the Irish?
