Within the first four minutes of the 2nd half, compared to the first, Irish players started to tackle with their arms rather than their shoulders and bodies. Instinctively, I assumed it was a reaction to Murray's re-injury which they would have become totally aware of at half-time.Experimental wrote:The first half was acceptable considering its our first real game, but shocked at how off the pace we were in that second half, we gave up, and thats really not like us. There were some positives, but not many
My real concerns were two-fold: our terrible line-out display with three jumpers available against two and our mid-field passing and lines of running (10, 12, and 13).
Firstly our mid-field looked totally disjointed with first phase possesion other than going wide long from right to left. On this showing, the Leinster half-backs could well be available for all the Pro14 games.
However, much worse was the line-out shambles. With 13 years of international rugby under his belt, our captain must be able to do better than that. Equally, Henderson is a Lion and now captain of his Province, how could he have managed to find Itoje and Kruise in competition with his calls so often when he had JvDF, PO'M and himself available on every throw?
What I was happier with was our scrum and maul performance in the first half. Both were acceptable and stifled the English attack to some degree. I think our defence from their first try was sloppy but interfered with by Owen's block of Bundee.
Overall, our performance was like England's batsmen yesterday. Terrible, but more about attitude than technique or ability. By next week, the Irish players will have remembered, or been reminded, that you can't play serious international rugby with your head only. You need body and soul involved.
