Ireland v England: Five takeaways from the Rugby World Cup warm ...

Following a 29-10 victory for Ireland over England in their Rugby World Cup warm-up clash, here’s our five takeaways from the game in Dublin on Saturday.

Ireland barely managed to get out of third gear in their second warm-up game of three prior to the World Cup yet still comfortably outclassed a lacklustre and error-strewn England side, scoring five easy tries in the process.

More worryingly for England, the only specialist number eight in their squad, Billy Vunipola, received a 52nd minute red card for a shoulder to the head of Ireland prop Andrew Porter and will have an anxious wait to find out the length of any potential suspension.

Keith Earls, Munster’s favourite citizen, crowned an impressive day for the home team as he finished acrobatically in the left corner for Ireland’s fifth on the day of his 100th Irish cap, a moment that sent the home crowd into raptures.

But for the visitors it was a painful display of crabbing, unimaginative, mistake ridden rugby. They looked like a bored side on a training pitch rehearsing the same ineffective tactics time and time again. The fact that this was, by their high standards, a sub-par performance by Ireland, the world’s number one ranked side, will be of no consequence, England were truly that bad.

Errors come in a number of forms, but broadly they’re either a failure to execute tactics or to execute skills.

England’s so-called spiral bomb weapon, a high ball to contest, was used on 16 separate occasions, but a contest was created on only three of those kicks, twice by Elliot Daly and once by Freddie Steward. There’s an old adage in rugby that the chase defines the success of the kick and whilst you might wonder in the first instance about the wisdom of gifting possession to the quality of Ireland’s kick return backs, not to contest those kicks thereafter simply compounded the futility of the idea.

The errors continued; quite how Will Stuart found himself defending the 12/13 channel in open play is anyone’s guess, but predictably he was skinned by Peter O’Mahony for the first try by Bundee Aki. More mistakes followed – ruck penalties for entry, sealing off, losing the ball in contact either through avaricious carrying or poor support work, penalties to touch missed – we could go on and on but suffice to say that this England side’s skill and intelligence level is at an all-time low.

☘️ Bundee Aki scores the opening try as Ireland lead England. #IREvENGpic.twitter.com/ojLKKEcq0a

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) August 19, 2023

The final straw came with the Vunipola red; yet again he showed nothing like the form of any Test eight- conceding three dull penalties and making little carry impact before the moment that defined his match arrived. With France 2023 but 19 days away and a minimum of a three or four week ban incoming, Steve Borthwick must make a judgement call and replace the hapless Vunipola in his squad before it’s too late, as right now he offers England absolutely nothing in any aspect of his play.

One of the key differences between these two sides is depth in attack. England rely upon a one-out carry with nine and ten regrouping – the most basic and simple play in rugby and one probably written by William Webb Ellis himself. By contrast, Ireland have three-man pods with a spare back supporting, two of those men clearing at pace and the back picking and passing to ensure lightening continuity of ruck ball. The Irish skill execution is done on the edge, with confidence in their selves and their teammates, and above all, unlike England, they clear rucks from one to 15 with accuracy and vigour.

That ruck/breakdown clearing is killing England – this isn’t down to back-row balance or anything like that, it’s down to ignoring the simple premise that everyone is a key ruck clearer, at pace and without hesitation, and that is simply not happening. The amount of times that the ball is slowed, turned over or fumbled because of the lack of ruck support is endemic, whilst on the flip side, the work of players such as Mack Hansen, Aki and James Lowe in joining their pack to secure a ruck at pace defines the speed of ball Ireland enjoy.

You cannot break down Test sides off ruck one and two, and it’s absolutely imperative that those are contested accurately and swiftly to ensure that the subsequent carries and rucks are against a broken defence.

Attack needs retention, depth and fast ball. Ireland are masters of creating that, and also experts in retaining their deep shape to create waves of support carriers around the corner. England are so far off that measure it’s remarkable and one fears for their ability to break any defence down, let alone that of Ireland’s.

The one ray of hope for England and one frustration for Ireland will be the relative merits of the lineout. Borthwick is a lineout professor and it showed in this match as Courtney Lawes, Maro Itoje and David Ribbans picked off three Irish throws, with two others sailing well above all of the forwards into midfield. You may have a concern that the maul set-up was consistently too high but Ireland are world class defenders in this respect and England do have a platform of sorts to build on in this one area of the set-piece.

At scrum time, once Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler came on, England were fine and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Marler specifically must become the starting prop, despite the wonderful carrying work of Ellis Genge. Make sure you’ve got solidity in the first half simply has to be the message and it’s pretty obvious that Marler is a better starter and Genge a better finisher than the other way around. Stuart must drop down the pecking order and then it’s a toss up between Sinckler’s mobility or Dan Cole’s power.

The set-piece is the one fix England can make swiftly – creating a stable platform to work off, to stop the instability nonsense we saw in the first half and at least to give the backs some hope that their forwards are competing somewhere.

????️ "He adds so much to the Ireland attack as he pops up all in areas of the pitch and was rewarded with a try."

☘️ Our Ireland player ratings from the victory over England.

✍️ @jaredwright17 https://t.co/tgok1a57JY

— Planet Rugby (@PlanetRugby) August 19, 2023

Ireland will travel to Bayonne to face Samoa for their next warm-up knowing they’ve a few more gears to work through and that they’ve Johnny Sexton and Robbie Henshaw to return, two world class players. The lineout was rusty – we know how well and how imaginative Ireland can be in this area with Josh van der Flier running off the back creating havoc and Dan Sheehan offering a multitude of change up plays at the front.

Above all they’ll want greater pace and direct carry from their forwards to create momentum and the power of Samoa will prove the perfect platform to test that aspect of their game.

However, for England it’s hard to know where exactly to go. Monday and Tuesday next week might see some significant changes in their squad as the Owen Farrell retrial and the Vunipola hearing will inform the shape of their squad before the September 1 deadline, and it’s rumoured that any substantive bans will see both or either players replaced.

But the shape of their defence, attack and breakdown work is nowhere near Tier One Test rugby level and since Borthwick’s appointment we have seen very little measurable improvement in any aspect, bar the lineout. With the team moral in tatters, their plans in ruins this is one of the lowest moments in recent English rugby history and most concerningly, there is absolutely no sign of any fixes on the horizon.

READ MORE: England player ratings: Bad day for Billy Vunipola as Red Rose struggle once again