England v Ireland Match Review

By Kath 7/3/04
March 7 2004

England v Ireland RBS Six nations Match Review. England were beaten by a magnificent Ireland team. Hail Glory St. Patrick, his day came early!

England v Ireland  - Match Review

 England 13 v Ireland 19  -  Well Done Ireland 

On a very cold damp day with squally showers descending on Twickenham the England Rugby World Cup Champions 2003  were beaten by a heroic Ireland and here is the rub - England deserved to lose! 

England had not lost at home in 22 games and Ireland had only one victory at Twickenham in the last 22 years - and what a wonderful second victory to deflower the Rugby World Cup Champions on their own turf.

Ireland were magnificent, they outplayed the champions and destroyed their line out and scrums, their defence was exceptional and overall they proved worthy winners.  Flyhalf Ronan O'Gara kicked four penalties and converted fullback Girvan Dempsey's try midway through the first half.  Ireland centre Brian O'Driscoll said: "We felt we had to do it at some stage so we said why not be ourselves, belief was the big thing this week."

Ireland had nothing to lose they came out and fronted up, England on the other hand were lack lustre, they looked slow and tired at times.  I am sure Will Greenwood will not look back on his 50th Cap with pleasure he will of course remember the crowd who were magnificent and could not have given England more support.

ALL England players and management need to learn from this game and I am sure they will, many fans no doubt will have let off steam on various message boards about certain individuals, myself included.  However, we must remember it is after all a Team Game and the team normally plays to a game plan and certain tactics.

Andy Robinson said   "All credit to Ireland, they totally dominated us. We had no momentum from the line-outs, I take full responsibility for that, and I am not going to pass the buck." 

England badly missed some key players today Tindall, Wilkinson, Grewcock, Shaw and  Martin Johnson now retired from International Rugby - in fact Martin's retirement reminds me of when John Eales retired from the Wallabies they also dipped badly.

Ronan O'Gara said "Maybe the leadership of Johnson played a part because he has the experience but Wilkinson was missed more because of how creative he can be."

So maybe it is the Wilkinson factor that is the real key?  Personally I think not!

I think the last comments should go to Sir Clive Woodward, the England head coach, said: "We are bitterly disappointed. We had to lose eventually. It was always going to happen. But it's not nice. In fact it is pretty painful. I hate losing. I hate sitting here talking about losing. But Ireland deserved to win. They played well, we played poorly."

Link to - Unofficial England Rugby - Message Board