The Sporting calendar

Once again, a series of needless penalties has cost England a game they should have won.
Just as in the defeat by Wales, England has players sin-binned for foul play. Had it not been for O’gara’s 2 out of 6 kicks record, Ireland would have won by a far greater margin.
The game itself was a stop/start affair, low scoring but more a battle for the serious rugby union fan, with forwards dominating.
England struggled to get into the Irish 22 in the first half, as the kicking game on both sides was sadly lacking any quality.

Oh how England miss Johnny Wilkinson!
It was all too clear where Wilkinson would have dealt with a rushing defence coming towards him by dropping a few kicks to touch behind the oncoming defenders, mixing it up a bit, turning them to face their own posts, making them think twice about rushing any England attacking move, it wasn’t until late in the first half (when Ellis dropped a kick in exactly this way) that England managed to get anywhere near exerting some pressure on the Irish.

Sadly for me, Ireland came back out and started doing exactly this!
Turning our backs to face their own posts and applying pressure which gave them opportunities to score, kicking behind our defence into the corners.
When England lost Sackey and Flood to injury, replacements goode and mathew taite looked lively and England started to mix it up a bit more.
Once again the referree gets a mention, again for his inconsistancy.
Not to the degree of Kaplan from the Wales defeat, but he still made some glaring mistakes.
More than 4 times the ball was knocked forward in the tackle and he missed it (twice when it happened right in front of him)
He missed several clear offsides by both teams, tackling the man in the air is dangerous play, which is causing confusion in this year’s tournament. He didn’t even give a put in at a scrum!
The ref saved the best for late on in the match. Ireland going forward, England stopped them with a tackle, but Ireland were slow to react and had no scrum half at the breakdown, the ref clearly called that “the ball is out” – England defence hesitated, he called again, “the ball is out!” so goode ran round and picked it up, he blew for a penalty and gave the irish the scrum for offside!

I repeat the call for the referees need to be advised and looked at, they cant see everything granted, but they need to apply the same rules consistantly for the sake of the game. A good ref is one that’s not noticed!

As for the tournament – on this performance, the welsh will have little to fear against the irish, but france could sneak it. As for Scotland, I predict that after this tournament they will be looking for a new coach!