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England player ratings vs Ireland | Six Nations 2022

Jack Nowell of England is challenged by Andrew Conway of Ireland. (Photo by Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images)

Despite a heroic performance, 14-man England slipped to a 15-32 home defeat at the hands of title-chasing Ireland following the second-minute dismissal of lock forward Charlie Ewels for a dangerous tackle.

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However, the men in white deserve plenty of plaudits for their never-say-die approach to a contest in which they pushed Ireland all the way before finally being sunk by late scores from replacements Finlay Bealham and Jack Conan.

England’s title hopes are now over, while Ireland retain genuine hopes of lifting the Six Nations crown if they can repeat this bonus point win when Scotland visit the Aviva Stadium in seven days’ time.

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With Max unavailable this week, Freddie Burns steps into the breach to join Ryan and special guest Ollie Lawrence. Freddie gives us his take on Leicester’s strong start to the season and what makes him the ultimate stand-in superstar. Ollie talks us through his relationship with Eddie Jones and how his career could easily have taken a different turn. We get the guys’ best MLR impressions and Freddie asks the question every rugby player poses when watching football.

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Freddie Burns and Ollie Lawrence join the podcast! | RugbyPass Offload | Episode 24

With Max unavailable this week, Freddie Burns steps into the breach to join Ryan and special guest Ollie Lawrence. Freddie gives us his take on Leicester’s strong start to the season and what makes him the ultimate stand-in superstar. Ollie talks us through his relationship with Eddie Jones and how his career could easily have taken a different turn. We get the guys’ best MLR impressions and Freddie asks the question every rugby player poses when watching football.

Marcus Smith kicked three first-half penalties as Ireland struggled to get to grips with French referee Mathieu Raynal’s scrum interpretations.

However, despite shipping nine penalties before the break it was the visitors who held a 9-15 interval advantage thanks to tries from James Lowe and Hugo Keenan plus Johnny Sexton’s penalty and conversion.

Following the restart, Smith added two further penalties to one from Sexton before replacements Conan and Bealham barged over for a late match-clinching converted scores.

England made three changes to the side that beat Wales with Jamie George replacing the injured Luke Cowan-Dickie at hooker. Elsewhere no.8 Sam Simmonds and centre Joe Marchant swapped starting and bench roles with COVID victim Alex Dombrandt and Elliot Daly.

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Ireland captain Sexton started for the first time in this tournament. Five further changes saw prop Cian Healy replace injured Andrew Porter, while full-back Hugo Keenan, wing Andrew Conway, centre Bundee Aki and prop James Ryan, who sat out the big win over Italy, all returned to the starting line-up.

15. Freddie Steward – 6
Less prominent with ball in hand than of late, Steward was solid as ever at the back. Thought he’d pulled off a 95-metre interception try only to be recalled by the referee’s whistle.

14. Max Malins – 6
Found James Ryan a real handful but played a key role in disrupting Ireland’s rhythm with his energy and kick chase.

13. Joe Marchant – 8
Made an important early interception to halt the visitors’ flowing start and later won two penalties on the ground with good power over the ball. Despite having few opportunities to attack Marchant put in a brilliant defensive shift.

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12. Henry Slade – 6
Used a lot at first receiver in attack where he made a useful contribution. Struggled to stop Bundee Aki on the gainline.

11. Jack Nowell – 7
Probably wasn’t expecting to be packing down on the flank inside the opening ten minutes but still found time to make some useful breaks in his more natural habitat. Nowell’s amazing appetite for work saw him steal a Smith restart from Andrew Conway’s grasp.

10. Marcus Smith – 6.5
After missing with an early long-range penalty he found his range from 40 metres and went on to kick 15 points as Ireland conceded 15 penalties. Given little space in which to launch England’s attacking game.

9. Harry Randall – 6.5
Showed intent by tapping their first penalty and making 30 metres from inside his own half. Always a danger round the fringes, Randall also kicked more consistently than in recent weeks.

1. Ellis Genge – 9.5
Got the better of Tadgh Furlong in the scrum where England dominated and as a result found plenty of favour with the referee. The Leicester skipper’s 13 tackles featured a huge hit on Furlong which forced a turnover deep inside England’s 22. His best England display.

2. Jamie George – 8.5
Underthrew an early lineout but otherwise was part of an England pack whose lineout functioned smoothly despite being a jumper down. In addition to joining his front row mates in bossing the scrum contest, the Sarries hooker also made 14 tackles, one of which forced a vital turnover under his own posts early in the second half.

https://twitter.com/RTErugby/status/1502713576712286209

3. Kyle Sinckler – 6
Less prominent than usual with ball in hand as part of a seven-man pack but distinguished himself with a thumping defensive hit on his own line which caused the concussion that forced him from the field.

4. Maro Itoje – 9
Made a critical intervention when his slap of Jamison Gibson-Park’s wrist caused a knock-on which ruled out a Lowe try. Once Ewels departed he became England’s main lineout option in addition to being typically disruptive in the maul. Another outstanding effort from England’s Mr Consistent.

5. Charlie Ewels – n/a
Received the earliest red card in international rugby history after only 82 seconds for his dangerous tackle on James Ryan who was left concussed. Ewels failed to bend into the tackle and as a result made forceful and direct contact with his opposite number’s head.

6. Courtney Lawes – 9
In addition to doing well at the front of the lineout and making a best-of-the-day 16 tackles, England’s skipper who played much of the game in the second row marshalled his troops and referee Raynal superbly.

7. Tom Curry – n/a
Limped off injured in the 14th minute.

8. Sam Simmonds – 7
Bounced off Ireland’s tacklers in the wide channels to create England’s best attacking position but was mostly restricted to defensive work where he made an impressive 15 tackles.

REPLACEMENTS

16. Jamie Blamire – n/a
Saw a few minutes of action when George finally gave way.

17. Joe Marler – n/a
Replaced the outstanding Genge with 15 minutes remaining.

18. Will Stuart – 6
Replaced Sinckler just ahead of half-time and put in an impressive nine tackles.

19. Joe Launchbury – n/a
Made a long-awaited return from injury when he replaced Dombrandt in the 65th minute.

20. Alex Dombrandt – 6
Arrived as a 14th minute replacement for Curry and put in a hard-working shift before 50 minutes later becoming a replacement who was himself replaced.

21. Ben Youngs – 6
Pitched into the fray with 30 minutes remaining and other than one over-cooked box kick put in a typically solid performance.

22. George Ford – n/a
Replaced Steward in the dying seconds.

23. Elliot Daly – n/a
Replaced Marchant with ten minutes remaining.

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Comments

2 Comments
l
lot 984 days ago

9 for lawes, 9.5 for genges , 9 for itoje utter rubbish. itoje was probably the 8, lawes 6.5 and genges 8. ref was obviously over compensating and penalties allowed england to stay in the game. itoje got away with few certain penalties on any other game, maul and in rucks. england tight burrowed in and loose pulled out few times causing collapses. y

R
Roy 985 days ago

For 75 minutes England had parity / controlled many parts of the game. Ireland struggled for vast parts of the game, with a 1 man advantage, and England dominated until they started to tire late.

Yet you've graded the Irish team highly and been a little

I've really tried you guys for a few months, but you're terrible.

You've obviously got investment from somewhere but honestly, your journalism is garbage and I'm just not going to bother

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JW 1 hour ago
'Passionate reunion of France and New Zealand shows Fabien Galthie is wrong to rest his stars'

Where? I remember saying "unders"? The LNR was formed by the FFR, if I said that in a way that meant the 'pro' side of the game didn't have an equal representation/say as the 'amateur' side (FFR remit) that was not my intent.


But also, as it is the governing body, it also has more responsibility. As long as WR looks at FFR as the running body for rugby in France, that 'power' will remain. If the LNR refuses to govern their clubs use of players to enable a request by FFR (from WR) to ensure it's players are able to compete in International rugby takes place they will simply remove their participation. If the players complain to the France's body, either of their health and safety concerns (through playing too many 'minutes' etc) or that they are not allowed to be part in matches of national interest, my understanding is action can be taken against the LNR like it could be any other body/business. I see where you're coming from now re EPCR and the shake up they gave it, yes, that wasn't meant to be a separate statement to say that FFR can threaten them with EPCR expulsion by itself, simply that it would be a strong repercussion for those teams to be removed (no one would want them after the above).


You keep bringing up these other things I cannot understand why. Again, do you think if the LNR were not acting responsibly they would be able to get away with whatever they want (the attitude of these posters saying "they pay the players")? You may deem what theyre doing currently as being irresponsible but most do not. Countries like New Zealand have not even complained about it because they've never had it different, never got things like windfall TV contracts from France, so they can't complain because theyre not missing out on anything. Sure, if the French kept doing things like withholding million dollar game payments, or causing millions of dollars of devaluation in rights, they these things I'm outlining would be taking place. That's not the case currently however, no one here really cares what the French do. It's upto them to sort themselves out if they're not happy. Now, that said, if they did make it obvious to World Rugby that they were never going to send the French side away (like they possibly did stating their intent to exclude 20 targeted players) in July, well then they would simply be given XV fixtures against tier 2 sides during that window and the FFR would need to do things like the 50/50 revenue split to get big teams visiting in Nov.

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