England v Ireland, 5 September

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ENGLAND v IRELAND
5 September 2015
14:30 BST
Twickenham, London

Live on Sky Sports 1

Referee: Nigel Owens (Wales)
Touch judges: Romain Poite (France) Leighton Hodges (Wales)
Television match official: Shaun Veldsman (South Africa)

A. Head to Head

129 Played 129
74 Won 47
8 Drawn 8
47 Lost 74
1,484 Points 1,056

B. Recent Form

1 March 2015
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
19 – 9 to Ireland

22 February 2014
Twickenham, London
13 – 10 to England

10 February 2013
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
6 – 12 to England

17 March 2012
Twickenham, London
30 – 9 to England

27 August 2011
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
9 – 20 to England

19 March 2011
Aviva Stadium, Dublin
24 – 8 to Ireland

27 February 2010
Twickenham, London
16 – 20 to Ireland

C. Teams

ENGLAND

15. Mike Brown (Harlequins, 38 caps)
14. Anthony Watson (Bath Rugby, 10 caps)
13. Jonathan Joseph (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
12. Brad Barritt (Saracens, 22 caps)
11. Jonny May (Gloucester Rugby, 15 caps)
10. George Ford (Bath Rugby, 12 caps)
09. Ben Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 48 caps)

01. Joe Marler (Harlequins, 32 caps)
02. Tom Youngs (Leicester Tigers, 23 caps)
03. Dan Cole (Leicester Tigers, 51 caps)
04. Geoff Parling (Exeter Chiefs, 24 caps)
05. Courtney Lawes (Northampton Saints, 39 caps)
06. Tom Wood (Northampton Saints, 37 caps)
07. Chris Robshaw (captain, Harlequins, 38 caps)
08. Ben Morgan (Gloucester Rugby, 28 caps)

16. Jamie George (Saracens, 1 cap)
17. Mako Vunipola (Saracens, 22 caps)
18. Kieran Brookes (Northampton Saints, 11 caps)
19. Joe Launchbury (Wasps, 23 caps)
20. Billy Vunipola (Saracens, 18 caps)
21. Richard Wigglesworth (Saracens, 22 caps)
22. Owen Farrell (Saracens, 30 caps)
23. Sam Burgess (Bath Rugby, 1 cap)


IRELAND

01. Jack McGrath (St. Marys College/Leinster)
02. Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
03. Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
04. Devin Toner (Lansdowne/Leinster)
05. Paul O'Connell (Young Munster) (capt)
06. Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)
07. Sean O'Brien (UCD/Leinster)
08. Jamie Heaslip (Dublin University/Leinster)

09. Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster)
10. Johnny Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
11. Dave Kearney (Lansdowne/Leinster)
12. Robbie Henshaw (Buccaneers/Connacht)
13. Jared Payne (Ulster)
14. Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)
15. Simon Zebo (Cork Constitution/Munster)

16. Richardt Strauss (Old Wesley/Leinster)
17. Tadhg Furlong (Clontarf/Leinster)
18. Nathan White (Connacht)
19. Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
20. Chris Henry (Malone/Ulster)
21. Eoin Reddan (Old Crescent/Leinster)
22. Ian Madigan (Blackrock College/Leinster)
23. Darren Cave (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster)

Nice comments coming up for us

We're already on another break-down cheating 'downward curve' are we, Ruby?  Deh End of yet another 'Golden Generation'?   Least our curves are less stomach churning than the violently up/down roller coaster ones Wales are used to though. Now those curves need ten Panadol and a glass of whiskey to recover from.

The Friendlies aren't the WC.  People would be best remember that.  So the swash'n'buckle sides can do their Entertaining running lines, and feints and offloads and grovelling oh-so-honest ground work in the close   but everyone knows this Ireland team are the paragons of laziness.  They do enough to do enough and they practically sleep walked through the last two Six nations campaigns as others were cutting and thrusting and jinking and speeding, and doing the selfie moments of utter genius on the try scoring levels.

The Downward curve might turn out to be true but then it could just be the Irish being themselves - lazy bastereauds until something real to fight for.

Hostile home crowd? You've obviously never been to an international in Dublin ruby, at least in recent years. More like 'painfully middle-class, out for a day out treating it like a social occasion home crowd'. Especially for a pre-season friendly which is priced as if it was a real test match. You don't get hostile home crowds so much at test level in Ireland, only on special occasions. Provincial level is very different to that; probably a function of lower ticket prices.

We all know the Irish pack isn't going to be at 100% for these warm-ups and Saturday should be no exception. Thats not a bad thing at all in my book; we want to be peaking a month from now, not this weekend. Hopefully its another step-up in intensity from us at the weekend but really the only reason people are drawing conclusions about these games is we're bored waiting for the real thing. Oh, and teams in the group of death might be worried winning these games is going to be as good as it gets!  

Joking aside, at the time we give these games real importance and talk them up like they are proper test matches but in a few weeks the World Cup will be underway and then they don't matter. The first time each of these teams meets a real opponent they will be completely forgotten about.

Judge the Irish pack- and the rest of the team- after the France match. What I'm hoping for is an improvement in our ball carrying and the speed of our recycling, if we do that we should be able to create a couple of opportunities out wide by sucking in defenders. I don't want to see any strike moves or elaborate plays at this point; no sense in giving a potential semi-final opponent a free look at them. All I want to see is the basics done very well, more aggression in attack and defence and a step-up in terms of our physicality. If we do that, we have a very good chance of getting the win without showing our full hand. But it's more important we don't show our full hand or hit our full stride too soon than we get the win, so I'll be pretty comfortable if we lose while achieving those things.

Notch wrote:Hostile home crowd? You've obviously never been to an international in Dublin ruby, at least in recent years. More like 'painfully middle-class, out for a day out treating it like a social occasion home crowd'. Especially for a pre-season friendly which is priced as if it was a real test match. You don't get hostile home crowds so much at test level in Ireland, only on special occasions. Provincial level is very different to that; probably a function of lower ticket prices.

We all know the Irish pack isn't going to be at 100% for these warm-ups and Saturday should be no exception. Thats not a bad thing at all in my book; we want to be peaking a month from now, not this weekend. Hopefully its another step-up in intensity from us at the weekend but really the only reason people are drawing conclusions about these games is we're bored waiting for the real thing. Oh, and teams in the group of death might be worried winning these games is going to be as good as it gets!  

Joking aside, at the time we give these games real importance and talk them up like they are proper test matches but in a few weeks the World Cup will be underway and then they don't matter. The first time each of these teams meets a real opponent they will be completely forgotten about.

Judge the Irish pack- and the rest of the team- after the France match. What I'm hoping for is an improvement in our ball carrying and the speed of our recycling, if we do that we should be able to create a couple of opportunities out wide by sucking in defenders. I don't want to see any strike moves or elaborate plays at this point; no sense in giving a potential semi-final opponent a free look at them. All I want to see is the basics done very well, more aggression in attack and defence and a step-up in terms of our physicality. If we do that, we have a very good chance of getting the win without showing our full hand. But it's more important we don't show our full hand or hit our full stride too soon than we get the win, so I'll be pretty comfortable if we lose while achieving those things.

Good idea...old Joe is being fairly cautious though. Its been two years since we have seen any. I suppose another couple of weeks wont make a difference.

It's always triple layered with Joe.  It's not good enough to put out the idea that Irish players and team don't want to play open attack orientated play.  He's actually double layered it over the last two season.  He's firmly put it in the minds of most observers that his players simply couldn't play such a game even if they tried.  So he creates games where it seems the Irish boys are trying to spread it and speed it up and of course the script says to make it obvious that the attempts are laughable mostly Just look at the season gone that the Provinces have had. Practically the most clueless the lot of them have looked since the Celtic Competition began back in the day....


Two years in the making.   Will Joe release his Epic of Epic bluffs in a few weeks time?  Not a f**king hope, say the masses.  Joe sneers in his darkened office as the neon lights bathe his eyes in stabs of red, blue and green

Cmon Ireland smash them to pieces! Put as many dents in them as you can!

I don't think thats its true at all that we haven't seen elaborate pre-planned moves under Schmidt. I think we've seen more under him than we have from any Irish team since before 2007.

You're thinking I mean some kind of free-flowing length of the pitch backs move and we're suddenly going to see that once we let the handbrake off. No. I mean any cleverly constructed pre-determined play that is designed to catch the opponent off guard. We've scored tries off moves at the lineout, off pre-planned moves involving kicks ahead and we've seen more ambitious backs moves at times, albeit they've resulted in scores less often than the previous examples.

An example of a very simple move that worked was Sean O'Briens try against Scotland in the Six Nations. Just a little bit of deception and variation at the lineout and the defence was caught out for an easy try. Wales scored a try against us in the first test this summer through Richard Hibbard that was similar in it's simplicity and in how it caught us off guard. I remember thinking; why on earth have they wasted that on their first warm-up game.

Ha ha love it, knew I'd get a nice response from the faithful - Downward curve I think did it for notso secretFLY - You guys need a performance at Twickenham and cut the shenanigans that we're saving it for the RWC - If you lose 9 or 10 its a big ask and for me Cian is as important for you as AWJ is for us and I think he's fecked. See you on the Curve

Lots of love Ruby

RubyGuby wrote:Ha ha love it, knew I'd get a nice response from the faithful - Downward curve I think did it for notso secretFLY - You guys need a performance at Twickenham and cut the shenanigans that we're saving it for the RWC - If you lose 9 or 10 its a big ask and for me Cian is as important for you as AWJ is for us and I think he's fecked. See you on the Curve

Lots of love Ruby

I'd like to say see you in the quarter-finals but I think only one of us is going to make it that far and it ain't the boys in red

Notch wrote:

RubyGuby wrote:Ha ha love it, knew I'd get a nice response from the faithful - Downward curve I think did it for notso secretFLY - You guys need a performance at Twickenham and cut the shenanigans that we're saving it for the RWC - If you lose 9 or 10 its a big ask and for me Cian is as important for you as AWJ is for us and I think he's fecked. See you on the Curve

Lots of love Ruby

I'd like to say see you in the quarter-finals but I think only one of us is going to make it that far and it ain't the boys in red

C'mon Notch you just cut and pasted that quote from 2011

Yeah does anyone have any info in Cian Healy? Is he properly crocked?

I think the latest news on Healy is he's been passed fit to play in this game. Almost certainly off the bench if he is selected.

RubyGuby wrote:Ha ha love it, knew I'd get a nice response from the faithful - Downward curve I think did it for notso secretFLY - You guys need a performance at Twickenham and cut the shenanigans that we're saving it for the RWC - If you lose 9 or 10 its a big ask and for me Cian is as important for you as AWJ is for us and I think he's fecked. See you on the Curve

Lots of love Ruby

Just keep drooling over those selfie-stick moments of genius from your guys, Ruby. We's a comin with our wellies on. Ain't nobody gonna stop us from boring the WC illuminati to death with third grade rugby and some slow, methodical huff'n'puff from FrankenPOC.....

Schmidt is now more adept at WarrenBall than Warren is Fly. I se eSexton lobbing a few up and unders for the wingers and I see England doing the same. It's kick chase for the leading NH teams and dynamic rugby from the SH . Interesting contrast

Wasn't too much kick-chase from England, France or Wales on that Glorious Goodwoo.... I mean glorious Super Saturday!!!!
GatlandBall will perhaps win you a WC - whereas the SH firefly stuff might make the Pool rounds colourful for the casual audiences who don't even know what sport they've just tuned in to:

"Mom, it's the Rugby League World Cup and the Romanians are already all out for Game Set and Match!  Boring Fackin' game.  Don't bother bringin' me tea down to me - I'll take it in the kitchen.  The Iceland team in Green are pure shyte"

I still think you'll make the last 8

yappysnap wrote:Still it was telling that our best backs performance by far came with three fly halves on the pitch abd Wigglesworth at 10.

I wonder if that style of backline is being saved for the tournament now.

No, SL wants a lump at 12 now, not a distributor. I think that's in part because he expects many of the crunch games to be played in the rain. The risk is our talented outside backs won't get much ball and Ford's game will come under severe pressure.

DaveM wrote:

yappysnap wrote:Still it was telling that our best backs performance by far came with three fly halves on the pitch abd Wigglesworth at 10.

I wonder if that style of backline is being saved for the tournament now.

No, SL wants a lump at 12 now, not a distributor. I think that's in part because he expects many of the crunch games to be played in the rain. The risk is our talented outside backs won't get much ball and Ford's game will come under severe pressure.

Games played in the rain? In England? Never..............

Our talented backs won't get much ball? In England? Never..........

Our Fly Half will be under pressure? In England.............

Over on the Irish thread, Notch reckons the Irish side will be named at 1.45 today

Notch wrote:Probably about 1.45 today. Thats when the teams for all the previous warm-ups have been announced. This is what the Irish Times think it will be;

Ireland possible team v England: R Kearney; Bowe, Payne, Henshaw, Zebo; Sexton, Murray; McGrath, Best, Ross, Toner, O’Connell, O’Mahony, O’Brien, Heaslip.
Replacements: Cronin, Furlong, White, Henderson, Henry, Reddan, Madigan, D Kearney.

First choice side by the looks of it, this is going to be a real test for England

If that's the side Schmidt is wanting a reaction from last weekend as that's a very strong Irish team which will test England's mettle which after all is what they want - No hiding or excuses for anyone if that's the team

Not long to wait for the announcement, but I'd be surprised if Schmidt played POC and Sexton. Given the relative importance of these players to the team and the fact that France is 5 or 6 weeks away (so plenty of time to get to peak), I wouldn't risk them in what will be a brutal game.

spaynter wrote:Not long to wait for the announcement, but I'd be surprised if Schmidt played POC and Sexton. Given the relative importance of these players to the team and the fact that France is 5 or 6 weeks away (so plenty of time to get to peak), I wouldn't risk them in what will be a brutal game.

Both start. Only Rob Kearney and Cian Healy missing out of the really clear first choices.

Ireland;

1. Jack McGrath
2. Rory Best
3. Mike Ross
4. Devin Toner
5. Paul O'Connell
6. Peter O'Mahony
7. Sean O'Brien
8. Jamie Heaslip
9. Conor Murray
10. Johnny Sexton
11. Dave Kearney
12. Robbie Henshaw
13. Jared Payne
14. Tommy Bowe
15. Simon Zebo

16. Richardt Strauss 17. Tadhg Furlong 18. Nathan White 19. Donnacha Ryan 20. Chris Henry 21. Eoin Reddan 22. Ian Madigan 23. Darren Cave

Great Ireland side and clearly looking for a real test. Ireland have the benefit of then having some time to learn from this game before they take on France. And if they win, which I think I would make them slight favourties, then they will have achieved a significant psychological blow against England. I guess neither side wants 2 defeats on the bounce.

The plus side for England is that it defintely gets them ready for battle.

Slightly surprised Ireland going in with strongest team available to them.

Will be interesting to see if our first choice locks make a difference as I'd expect them to from the 6Ns; big test for both teams. Owens should mean an open game, hopefully the breakdown work improves from England and we adapt quickly to him as we were awful in this respect against France (that and some awful mistakes).

*forgot Parling was in.

hugehandoff wrote:Great Ireland side and clearly looking for a real test. Ireland have the benefit of then having some time to learn from this game before they take on France. And if they win, which I think I would make them slight favourties, then they will have achieved a significant psychological blow against England. I guess neither side wants 2 defeats on the bounce.

The plus side for England is that it defintely gets them ready for battle.

Let's face it, a narrow defeat against our strongest side is a better result for England than a win against a second string side. People are reading far too much into the results of these games

This should be a cracker jack of a game - Discipline will be even more paramount than Normal which makes for a fascinating battle or an absolute stand off

Looking forward to seeing how Zebo plays it - Any kicks to Watson and Brown will be returned with interest if the kick chase is not 100% and that is one of Rob Kearney's strengths.

LondonTiger wrote:Slightly surprised Ireland going in with strongest team available to them.

If you look at the teams this weekend, everyone seems to be really going for it with as close to full strength as they can manage.

LondonTiger wrote:Slightly surprised Ireland going in with strongest team available to them.

I'm not at all surprised. Despite what some seem to think on here, a win is vital for Ireland for them to gain momentum after a loss to Wales at home. They're after proving their WC credentials. England have got their work cut out here and no mistake.

Neither side can afford to lose.

Problem for England is that a loss will just increase the weight of pressure from the meeja many times over, especially as this is at home, but a 1 point win would be a huge boost. Nobody will treat this one as a warm up.

There is probably very little between these teams, although recent match ups have varied between comprehensive wins and narrowest of margins.

Jimpy wrote:Neither side can afford to lose.

Bollards. Tell me, how many points is this game worth in our respective pools? What trophy does this count towards?

The entire point of these games is that you can afford to lose, even while you are getting prepared for the real thing with high-quality rugby. Nobody wants to lose of course, but will the result affect our World Cup campaign? No. The only thing that will do that is any injuries we pick up.

I would trade you a win for clean bill of health. We'll prove our World Cup credentials in the World Cup. This is an exercise in blowing off the rust and preparing for the start of the actual rugby season.

Very true, imagine the press on Sunday if one of Robshaw, Brown, Joseph, Sexton, Murray etc were to get injured

With the physicality of both sides, it seems odds on there will be some sort of injury

Notch wrote:

Jimpy wrote:Neither side can afford to lose.

Bollards. Tell me, how many points is this game worth in our respective pools? What trophy does this count towards?

The entire point of these games is that you can afford to lose, even while you are getting prepared for the real thing with high-quality rugby. Nobody wants to lose of course, but will the result affect our World Cup campaign? No. The only thing that will do that is any injuries we pick up.

I would trade you a win for clean bill of health.

Although perhaps this isn't a win at all costs fixture, a loss for either team will not help in terms of confidence. After all, we're told that momentum is everything going into these big tournaments - or were they talking bollards too?

Bollards.

Amazing. I haven't seen that for years.

One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

When you have Canada, Romania and Italy in that order you have a lot of time to generate momentum once the tournament starts. England need it a bit more than us but beat Fiji and they are away. This momentum argument is an exaggeration designed to create hype for these pre-season games in the media. England got to a Final in 2007 and France got to a Final in 2011 after being crap and having no momentum in the group stages never mind the warm-ups. France lost to Tonga and still made the Final last time for goodness sake! And they could have sneaked the final too.

Momentum = historically less important in World Cups than peaking at the right time. Which is in four or five weeks.

No-one has more momentum coming into the tournament every season than New Zealand and they still have been caught out by unfancied teams at various points who have flown under the radar and been written off based on their form coming into the tournament.

I really don't care about momentum at this stage. I do care about beating England. Ireland could be playing England at tiddlywinks and I'd care about Ireland winning. I will not be happy if we lose, I really want us to win, but if we go further in the RWC than England you won't be happy because you beat us in a warm-up game. Still early days.

Seems it will have the makings of the England v France game of the Six Nations.  In that we all knew that England would go for France.  We got a bit of a shock that France went for England with equal resolve; and of course, we all laughed at the lack of interest in defending from both sides.

So.................. this might be the game that highlights what that game might have been like had there been a bit more defence thrown into the French mixing pot.  

I think England will attempt to shock and awe Ireland (and might just succeed if Ireland prepare themselves for a more attritional game of clogged up close-quarters punching and pushing.)  But we'll see if Ireland can defend themselves against an all-out attack plan that only intensifies as time wears on.

Could be a very long day at the office for the Irish lads and plenty of egg on face at the end of it.  But we'll have to wait for the detail and what they have in potential fight-back.  "Nothing much" seems to be the general reading about them so far.  I just hope they are ready for the pace I feel England are intending to bring to this game.

Cyril wrote:One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

Because one of them ain't English and is Irish..... now off with you through the townio..........................................

Cyril wrote:One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

Michael Gambon is Irish, born to Irish parents in Dublin before moving to England.

SecretFly wrote:Seems it will have the makings of the England v France game of the Six Nations.  In that we all knew that England would go for France.  We got a bit of a shock that France went for England with equal resolve; and of course, we all laughed at the lack of interest in defending from both sides.

So.................. this might be the game that highlights what that game might have been like had there been a bit more defence thrown into the French mixing pot.  

I think England will attempt to shock and awe Ireland (and might just succeed if Ireland prepare themselves for a more attritional game of clogged up close-quarters punching and pushing.)  But we'll see if Ireland can defend themselves against an all-out attack plan that only intensifies as time wears on.

Could be a very long day at the office for the Irish lads and plenty of egg on face at the end of it.  But we'll have to wait for the detail and what they have in potential fight-back.  "Nothing much" seems to be the general reading about them so far.  I just hope they are ready for the pace I feel England are intending to bring to this game.

Which may be interesting. From outside center out we have 3 very quick guys and one psycho. Two of those were missing last time we met. Give England any space and it might get very nasty very quickly, but then there are few teams as good as 'not giving space' as Ireland.

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Cyril wrote:One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

Michael Gambon is Irish, born to Irish parents in Dublin before moving to England.

JASPER REES: Do you think of yourself as English or Irish?
MICHAEL GAMBON: I suppose I can't get away from it, I'm English, aren't I? All my things are here. I love Dublin but it's too small as a place to live. It's a tiny city.

Do you still feel Irish?
No, been here too long. I always had the Dublin accent with my mum and dad. It was a real working-class part of Dublin.



http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-actor-michael-gambon

Gambon seems to think he's English (and I guess he would know). He's always described as an Irish-born English actor.

The England line-out is certainly going to be tested against POC and Toner.

There are good match-ups across the pitch actually.

For England what we need to see is fairly straight forward:

1.Better set pieces
2.Barritt and Joseph gelling as a centre partnership
3.A win

Losing away in Paris prior to a home RWC was bad due to the diabolical performance in the first 60 minutes but by no means as critical as many made out. Losing at Twickenham would be much worse regardless of the circumstances in which it happens.

That Irish team is very similar in its make-up and strength to the welsh side and hence this for me is a fascinating template of the Eng v Wales RWC game - For the first time in my life I'm looking more forward to this game than the welsh game - Madness is upon me

king_carlos wrote:The England line-out is certainly going to be tested against POC and Toner.

There are good match-ups across the pitch actually.

For England what we need to see is fairly straight forward:

1.Better set pieces
2.Barritt and Joseph gelling as a centre partnership
3.A win

Losing away in Paris prior to a home RWC was bad due to the diabolical performance in the first 60 minutes but by no means as critical as many made out. Losing at Twickenham would be much worse regardless of the circumstances in which it happens.

Toner isn't any use for much else.

Cyril wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Cyril wrote:One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

Michael Gambon is Irish, born to Irish parents in Dublin before moving to England.

JASPER REES: Do you think of yourself as English or Irish?
MICHAEL GAMBON: I suppose I can't get away from it, I'm English, aren't I? All my things are here. I love Dublin but it's too small as a place to live. It's a tiny city.

Do you still feel Irish?
No, been here too long. I always had the Dublin accent with my mum and dad. It was a real working-class part of Dublin.



http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-actor-michael-gambon

Gambon seems to think he's English (and I guess he would know). He's always described as an Irish-born English actor.

Fair enough we will take Daniel Day Lewis then. Born in England but considers himself Irish now having become a citizen in 93.

munkian wrote:

Toner isn't any use for much else.

He is often one of Ireland's top tacklers and does a lot of work around the ruck. He also has great hands. He is often under rated but rarely lets us down.

GunsGerms wrote:

Cyril wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:

Cyril wrote:One thing that is puzzling me is why are both the photos in the OP of English actors?

Michael Gambon is Irish, born to Irish parents in Dublin before moving to England.

JASPER REES: Do you think of yourself as English or Irish?
MICHAEL GAMBON: I suppose I can't get away from it, I'm English, aren't I? All my things are here. I love Dublin but it's too small as a place to live. It's a tiny city.

Do you still feel Irish?
No, been here too long. I always had the Dublin accent with my mum and dad. It was a real working-class part of Dublin.



http://www.theartsdesk.com/theatre/theartsdesk-qa-actor-michael-gambon

Gambon seems to think he's English (and I guess he would know). He's always described as an Irish-born English actor.

Fair enough we will take Daniel Day Lewis then. Born in England but considers himself Irish now having become a citizen in 93.

Aye, you can have him. Probably the most overrated actor of his generation (if not of all time). Should have stuck with being a shoemaker!

GunsGerms wrote:

munkian wrote:

Toner isn't any use for much else.

He is often one of Ireland's top tacklers and does a lot of work around the ruck. He also has great hands. He is often under rated but rarely lets us down.

Wow, that was easy

[quote="quote]

Toner isn't any use for much else. [/quote]


Try telling my printer that

The important aspects for Engalnd are:

- creaky lineout and great to have POC and his mates provide another true test. Better to find out now how bad the issues are. Tom Youngs cannot afford to throw badly again. Is Parling really a lineout specialist and will his perceived lack of strength be found out?
- scrums and after the France battering this will be easier, but again should be a good battle.
- the breakdown. Ireland will fancy bossing this aspect and England's back row have a lot to prove.
- Barritt and JJ. Against a top Irish midfield this is just what we need to see to get them ready.
- aerial and kick defence. We all know the Irish half backs are world class and we need to see if May, Watson and Brown can cope.

No point crushing a weak side as you learn nothing. Playing a strong Ireland will provide lots of learning and remove any shred of complacency.