Changes afoot?
Player ratings.
That is for this live blog, but can you continue to follow the Six Nations action with Lee over on the France v Wales minute-by-minute now.
Tom Curry has been sent out to do media, which seems little cruel
Very disappointed, we thought we did OK in the first twenty minutes but couldn’t back it up. Fair play to them, they are a great team, but we had a few too many errors and couldn’t do it today
Updated
@bloodandmud Ireland have chopped the chariot to bits. Great performance from the men in green. Great send off for CJ
— John McEnerney (@MackerOnTheMed) March 20, 2021
Johnny Sexton, victorious captain, is here.
We clicked and that was the performance we wanted against a top quality side. We’ve set the standards and to stand up to England physically we did that well. Even down to 13 players we felt we should’ve stopped that final try. There’s been small margins in our performances throughout and we weren’t as poor as people thought we were.
Updated
There are some shots of a tearful CJ Stander as he takes in the enormity of his final match in green. There will be tears for other reasons in the England camp - rage, despair, disappointment - as they debrief what has been a tonking in Dublin.
Ireland were huge up front and England were frankly bullied.
Updated
FULL TIME! Ireland 32 - 18 England
80 mins. PEEP PEEEEP! A huge and convincing win for Ireland is sealed.
Updated
TRY! Ireland 32 - 18 England (Johnny May)
79 mins. England take a scrum from the penalty, the ball comes to Robson at fly-half who throws a massive looping pass to May on the left touchline who breaks a tackle to score.
Daly hits a magnificent drop-goal conversion from the left touchline!
Fabulous stuff all round.
Updated
YELLOW CARD! Conor Murray (Ireland)
78 mins. Ireland have given away five penalties in this England attack, deliberately in many cases and the final one - Murray offside on the line - finally cracks the ref’s patience and the scrum half is off to reduce the home side to 13 men.
Updated
76 mins. Ireland give away a couple of penalties of their own that give England an lineout in the Irish 22. George Martin has a solid carry up to the Ireland line before Ireland infringe again, but England will simply tap it quickly and go again. The indefatigable Tadhg Beirne stops Itoje short, but still the visitors come.
PENALTY! Ireland 32 - 11 England (Johnny Sexton)
73 mins. England are still playing with Robson at 10 and they also have to deal with another penalty given away at the breakdown. That’s 13 penalties Eddie Jones’s side have given away and one more is added after Jonny Hill creeps up the side of a rolling Ireland maul. It’s within kicking range once more and Sexton takes the obvious option with his side a man down of kicking sticks.
That’s 22 points for Sexton.
Farrell won’t be coming back on, either.
PENALTY! Ireland 29 - 11 England (Johnny Sexton)
69 mins. Ireland, orchestrated by Murray, have some solid and controlled phases to take the emotion out of England’s mini-recovery and once near the England 22 Ben Earl is off his feet. Sexton takes all his alloted time before putting the kick over off the left-hand post.
George Martin is on for his debut, replacing Billy Vunipola.
Updated
TRY! Ireland 26 - 11 England (Ben Youngs)
65 mins. from the resulting penalty lineout, Jamie George peels off the maul on the short side and feeds a short pass to Youngs to score.
Elliot Daly misses the conversion from wide left.
Updated
RED CARD! Bundee Aki (Ireland)
64 mins. England have some more rare possession in the Ireland 22 but it comes to a halt after Aki puts a rattling tackle in on Vunipola that looks like head contact with the shoulder. Aki was very upright and threw his shoulder in with force and it contacted the England man’s head, therefore the protocol is clear: a red card for Bundee Aki.
Updated
PENALTY! Ireland 26 - 6 England (Johnny Sexton)
62 mins. Sexton bisects the post again and this is turning into a hammering.
Updated
60 mins. We’ve had four minutes of an England scrum not completing, which is likely to eat up some Farrell HIA time.
When it finally completes, Ireland absotutely powder the England eight with a second shove and win a penalty. Sexton gleefully points at the posts.
56 mins. Owen Farrell took an accidental bang to the head in a tackle with Henderson and he’s forced off for an HIA under protest. This will bring Robson on to play stand-off! Oh dear...
Elsewhere, Jonny Hill replaces Charlie Ewels in the second row.
I’m struggling to remember the last time England played without Farrell or Ford in the backline.
54 mins. Elliot Daly does a wonderful job of carrying the ball out of his 22, beating Ireland chasers and putting his side in position to win a penalty that gives the possession in the Ireland have for the first time in a very long while. However, four competent phases later Josh van der Flier nicks the ball to clear the pressure.
52 mins. More England subs:
Joe Marchant is on for Ford and Ben Earl replaces Mark Wilson.
PENALTY! Ireland 23 - 6 England (Johnny Sexton)
51 mins. Ireland were playing on an advantage in any case; Sexton tees it up and piles the pain onto England.
49 mins. Ireland feed Henderson in the loose on the second phase and the lock has a proper rumble forward into the England 22. The ball is worked on the left a few times before Sexton spots the England defence is narrow and sprays a cross-kick to Earls who finishes in a few feet of space.
But the ref has spotted and knock-on in the build up and the try is chalked off. That’s a killer for Earls as he finished beautifully again.
Updated
46 mins. This time it’s Ireland’s turn to lose a lineout in a decent position and on the turnover ball England drive a couple of carries before Youngs box kicks again. This is clearly an instruction but the kicks are not accurate enough and therefore the chase cannot make an impact. Ford does something similar when the visitors next get the ball back.
There’s a long way to go in the game, but England must get more accuracy going whether with kick or in hand.
43 mins. England have their first chance to get a foothold back in the game with a lineout in the Irish 22, but Beirne forces Curry into a position that means the ref gives a crossing penalty. Oustanding work again by the Ireland lock and on the next possession Billy Vunipola is penalised and simple as that Ireland are back in the England half.
Updated
SECOND HALF!
40 mins. PEEEEP! Game back on.
Half time subs for England
Ellis Genge for Mako Vunipola and Jamie George for Luke Cowan-Dickie.
Eddie Jones wasting no time in trying to sort the scrum, or convince the ref he is sorting the scrum. Often both are the same thing, after all.
Half-time thoughts..
We're back to muddled, clunky England. Ireland's accuracy and power has been impressive @bloodandmud. England have looked disjointed. Slade does so much unsung work and I'm sure Malins' injury is a factor, but Daly just doesn't look a Test 15 any more. Fair scoreline. Very poor.
— Guy Hornsby (@GuyHornsby) March 20, 2021
Not much to add to this. England have a big forty minutes coming because bookending the tournament with the performances against Scotland and this one - if it continues, of course - would not be great at all.
HALF_TIME! Ireland 20 - 6 England
40 mins. England’s response is for their Captain to unnecessarily roll after the tackle is completed and give Ireland an easy possession from the penalty to end the half comfortably.
TRY! Ireland 20 - 6 England (Jack Conan)
38 mins. A solid and fluid period of possession from Ireland sees the ball working left and right. Sexton eventually puts an accurate bomb up that Keenan does a magnificent job of outjumping Daly to win it in the England 22. In the next phases England are penalised but on the advantage the ball comes left for a decent Stockdale dart before Conan carries strong from a few metres to score.
23 phases of the best rugby Ireland have played all tournament, there.
Sexton converts with metronomic accuracy again.
Updated
33 mins. England are trying to do a bit more with their backs as they attempt an intricate wrap-around play that puts the ball back in Ford’s hand, but his final pass misses Watson entirely and flies into touch.
In a scrum a couple of plays later, Mako engages early and because it’s the second one from the white pack after Sinckler’s earlier incident Ref Raynal converts it to a penalty.
It’s starting to feel like Ireland are settling into a containment pattern and it’s working to frustrate England.
Updated
PENALTY! Ireland 13 - 6 England (Johnny Sexton)
29 mins. Another penalty against Mako Vunipola, this time for collapsing the scrum, allows Sexton to line up another kick and he makes no mistake.
PENALTY! Ireland 10 - 6 England (Owen Farrell)
27 mins. England are back on the attack from a lineout just inside the Ireland half and an Ireland forward is penalised for lifting an England leg in the maul.
Owen Farrell steps up to add three to his team’s score and also take his individual all-time Six Nations haul over 500pts.
Updated
TRY! Ireland 10 - 3 England (Keith Earls)
24 mins. England have a promising attack with Johnny May off his wing and taking the ball in the 13 channel looping around on the opposite wing. The ball is recycled but a penalty is given away when Mako Vunipola rolls Murray’s neck.
From the lineout it’s a long over the top throw and the inside pop to Earls off his wing puts him in behind the England defence. He steps around May to finish consummately in the right corner.
Sexton converts from out wide.
Updated
20 mins. Conor Murray makes an absolute horror show of catching a George Ford spiral bomb, completely misreading it as it bounces 3 metres in front of him, and it’s only the retreating Aki that saves his nine’s blushes by grabbing the ball.
In the midst of that Dave Kilcoyne took a head-knock and Cian Healy will replace him while he has an assessment.
Updated
PENALTY! Ireland 3 - 3 England (Johnny Sexton)
18 mins. It’s bang in front and it’s banged through the posts by the Ireland captain.
15 mins. Kyle Sinckler is a little toey at the scrum and engages early losing his side the decent attacking position, but the visitors come back from lineout possession before Henshaw holds Ford up to win the ball back via a choke tackle.
That’s a few wasted possessions one after the other for England in promising positions, they’ll be hoping they don’t regret that come the end. And this is compounded after Ireland win a kickable penalty on their next foray with the ball.
12 mins. A kick from Ford is a beauty, putting Stockdale under pressure from the England chasers deep in the 22 and Ireland are off their feet attempting to clear out the ruck. Farrell goes to the corner and their catch and drive sees them over the line but held up!
They will have another go at the Irish line from a scrum-five.
Updated
PENALTY! Ireland 0 - 3 England (Owen Farrell)
9 mins. Ireland are penalised for Furlong’s early drive at the England lineout in the Irish 22. Farrell asks for the kicking tee and calmly puts his side on the scoreboard.
Updated
6 mins. The first scrum of the match, an Irish feed on their own 10m line, takes a Marvel Cinematic Universe movie running time to complete. The forwards eventually do their job and then it’s the Irish backs’ turn to stuggle with Aki’s lateral run shepherded into touch.
Updated
3 mins. England win their first lineout and after a couple of attempts to secure it at the back of the maul Ben Youngs sends his first box kick up which gives Ireland a chance to attack from their 22. The ball is worked left to Stockdale who carries over the halfway line, but it comes to little else.
Updated
Kick-Off!
1 min. George Ford has the ball and he sends it into the Dublin early-spring sky to get us underway
The teams are out and we’re having some piped-in anthems as we prepare for kick-off
Updated
Oldest story in the World here..
@bloodandmud I remember in 2013 during my first year of university, I was in a student bar surrounded by English students when Wales hammered them by a record margin. I was not popular, but I too drunk to care.
— Shogun (@ShogunNoire) March 20, 2021
A nod to CJ Stander, who shocked us all this week with his announcement of retirement from rugby at the end of the season. This will be his final game for Ireland and there will be no crowd to give him a much deserved rapturous send-off.
One fascinating aspect of Ireland’s forward domination for much of the game in Murrayfield last Sunday was the utter dismantling job new forwards’ coach Paul O’Connell did on the Scotland lineout. If something similar happens today, combined with England’s still iffy discipline, I may have to quickly revise my preamble predication.
Caveating already, for shame....
Pre-match reading.
George Ford watch the Ireland performance versus Scotland and thinks he know what England need to do to win.
When England convincingly hammered Ireland in this fixture in 2019, I was in a pub called The Happy Landing in Eglington, Northern Ireland a day after my Granny’s funeral, surrounded by grief-filled Irish family. That was quite a rugby watching experience, let me tell you.
Have you any uncomfortable rugby watching tales to tell, or anything else to share? Why not email me or tweet @bloodandmud.
Updated
Teams
Ireland make six changes, a few enforced and a the rest for tactical or form reasons. Bundee Aki is in at centre for the injured Gary Ringrose, while James Lowe’s convincing impression of a man ill-suited to this level of rugby has been given the shepherd’s crook by Farrell and former wunderkind Jacob Stockdale regains his place on the wing.
In the pack Will Connors, a revelation vs Scotland, is out injured and replaced by Leinster’s Josh van der Flier; while the absence of James Ryan with a head injury sees Tadhg Beirne move to second row and Jack Conan take his place in the back row.
England’s only change was Elliot Daly back into the side at outside-centre in place of the injured Henry Slade. But a very late injury to Max Malins sees Daly back at 15 and brings Ollie Lawrence into the centre berth. Leicester young back row George Martin appears on a 6-2 split bench with Joe Marchant and Dan Robson the two backs. This means that even with all these absences the exciting Wasps winger Paolo Odogwu is yet to make an appearance in any matchday squad after much fanfare at his call up at the beginning of the tournament.
Ireland: Hugo Keenan; Keith Earls, Robbie Henshaw, Bundee Aki, Jacob Stockdale; Jonathan Sexton (capt), Conor Murray; Dave Kilcoyne, Rob Herring, Tadhg Furlong, Iain Henderson, Tadhg Beirne, CJ Stander, Josh van der Flier, Jack Conan.
Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Cian Healy, 18 Andrew Porter, 19 Ryan Baird, 20 Peter O’Mahony, 21 Jamison Gibson Park, 22 Billy Burns, 23 Jordan Larmour.
England: Elliot Daly; Anthony Watson, Ollie Lawrence, Owen Farrell (capt), Jonny May; George Ford, Ben Youngs; Mako Vunipola, Luke Cowan-Dickie, Kyle Sinckler, Maro Itoje, Charlie Ewels, Mark Wilson, Tom Curry, Billy Vunipola.
Replacements: 16 Jamie George, 17 Ellis Genge, 18 Will Stuart, 19 Jonny Hill, 20 Ben Earl, 21 Dan Robson, 22 Ollie Lawrence, 23 TBC.
Updated
Preamble
Welcome to Dublin for Act II of Super Saturday - Ireland vs England.
On one level, this game could not be more of a dead rubber if it was the blue end of the Staedtler pencil & ink that lived in my pencil case from 1988 to 1991. But this is the Six Nations, it’s two old rivals and both teams will have something they want to leave as a marker at the end of the tournament. There’s also a chance the loser could finish fifth, a prospect neither nation will lick their lips at.
Eddie Jones needs to show that his team are more of that which troubled France in attack last week and less of the bullied and humbled outfit that lost on the opening weekend vs Scotland. While Andy Farrell will fancy putting on a display that puts some faith back into his leadership of the men in green after some middling (at best) performances; a victorious outing vs Scotland did nothing to assuage many doubters.
There is a long international layoff to come, with this being a Lions summer (hopefully) and there being little chance of other tours. Both teams will have over half a year to stew of today doesn’t go well for them.
England have won the previous two Six Nations encounters between the sides and are going for the triple today. If Ireland put out anything like their flaky second half performance last week then you would put your money on the visitors making it three in a row.
