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The message Ireland have given to missed kicks Sam Prendergast

Sam Prendergast (right) finished the game in Paarl with just two successes from six off the kicking tee (Photo by World Rugby)

The Junior World Championship hasn’t hung around in quickly heaping the pressure on Ireland, the back-to-back Six Nations Grand Slam champions of 2022 and 2023. Richie Murphy’s charges have a canny knack for confidently negotiating the five-games-across-seven-weekends format in February and March. The more compressed June tournaments, though, have historically stretched them just a bit too much.

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Two years ago, when the pandemic delayed Six Nations was compressed into five behind-closed-doors games in 24 days in Cardiff, they lost twice to finish third. Then last year, in the summer series staged in Italy that included South Africa at the expense of Wales, the four games in 18 days schedule saw them defeated twice to finish fifth best.

Now comes another intriguing June week that will test their capacity to the hilt in a tournament where the schedule demands them to play five games in a 20-day period through to July 14. This Ireland certainly isn’t in South Africa just to make up the numbers.

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Reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2016 in Manchester is very much their target, but Saturday’s compelling high-scoring draw against England in Paarl has very much made next Thursday’s pool clash with Australia a cup final in its own right.

Sharing the spoils with the English just 14 weeks after they had defeated them by 12 points in Cork to clinch the Grand Slam was an eye-catching outcome. Usually, if Ireland scored six tries and a total of 34 points, they would be home and hosed and the post-game smiles would be gleeful.

Not on this occasion, however. Instead, the strange sight of normally deadly Sam Prendergast missing four of his six conversion kicks enabled England to secure their rivetting 34-all draw. Head coach Murphy, though, a goal-kicker in his long-ago playing days, defiantly refused to allow his star No10 to be blamed for Ireland only managing a D and not a W.

“Sam will be disappointed with the couple of kicks that he missed but as a team, we have got to make sure we are not relying on our kicker to win games for us,” explained Murphy to RugbyPass. “Sam missed a couple of goal kicks but there are other areas of the game that we could have done a little bit better which would have taken the pressure off Sam and we wouldn’t have needed him.

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“Look, he will brush himself off. He will be disappointed, but we will move on very quickly. He is a top-class goal-kicker; he will be fine.”

So too will Ireland, he optimistically figured. “Definitely, we are a little bit disappointed, but we are also in a really good position. We got three points out of the game and have two more games to come. If we can win those two games, we should be really in a good place in relation to going forward into that semi-final slot.

“Our message will be very clear – we need to look, and we need to learn very quickly, and we need to move on. In this competition, we don’t get time to wallow, and we are in a really good place getting three points out of the game. We have just got to move on straightaway.”

Murphy’s hot takes will feed into that process, the coach explaining why he felt England were able to force a draw on this occasion compared to succumbing to Irish pressure three months ago. “Look, their forwards got to us a little bit at the breakdown. The referee’s interpretation of what was happening there was interesting, we definitely didn’t get the rub of the green in that area.

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“A little bit disappointed around that because it is one of the strengths of our game. Like, we don’t normally turn over that amount of ball, so we need to have a look at that and be better and I suppose the other area is we didn’t get out of our end very well. Our kicking game or our decision-making in relation to when to play the space or when to get ourselves out needs to probably be a little bit better.”

The heavy ground in Paarl had an effect, a factor that Murphy alluded to after praising the vocal level of support that Ireland attracted. “A lot of families travelled over, which is brilliant. I suppose they are having a great time in Cape Town.

“Unfortunately, the weather hasn’t been amazing for them and while Saturday was a good day for rugby, the pitch was very heavy and that probably sucks the legs out of our lads a little bit. We have got some big forwards in our back five. We don’t actually have big props, but that weight on those players and the heavy ground can make it very tough.

“I’m incredibly proud of the guys. This team is an incredible team to be around, they work really hard, they are massively motivated to be the best they can be. That is all we can ask. They are disappointed now which is great, I know that we have to move on very quickly and start preparing for Australia.”

Ireland finished their opening match with 14 players as midfielder Hugh Cooney was red-carded for a tackle in the closing minutes. Murphy didn’t reference that decision post-game, but his final word went on the smart ball that was trialled on Saturday with a view to helping the referee to make decisions in five areas of the game.

The coach wasn’t fully satisfied. “I thought there were a couple of crooked throws from England in the second half that weren’t picked up. The one thing is if you are going to use the technology it has to be telling the right information and it definitely seemed like there were a couple of crooked throws in the second half that were missed.”

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O
Oh no, not him again? 2 hours ago
England internationals disagree on final play execution vs All Blacks

Okay, so we blew it big time on Saturday. So rather than repeating what most people have all ready said, what do I want to see from Borthwick going forward?


Let's keep Marcus Smith on the pitch if he's fit and playing well. I was really pleased with his goal kicking. It used to be his weakness. I feel sympathy for George Ford who hadn't kicked all match and then had a kick to win the game. You hear pundits and commentators commend kickers who have come off the bench and pulled that off. Its not easy. If Steve B continues to substitute players with no clear reason then he is going to get criticised.


On paper I thought England would beat NZ if they played to their potential and didn't show NZ too much respect. Okay, the off the ball tackles certainly stopped England scoring tries, but I would have liked to see more smashing over gainlines and less kicking for position. Yes, I also know it's the Springbok endorsed world cup double winning formula but the Kiwi defence isn't the Bok defence, is it. If you have the power to put Smith on the front foot then why muzzle him? I guess what I'm saying is back, yourself. Why give the momentum to a team like NZ? Why feed the beast? Don't give the ball to NZ. Well d'uh.


Our scrum is a long term weakness. If you are going to play Itoje then he needs an ogre next door and a decent front row. Where is our third world class lock? Where are are realible front row bench replacements? The England scrum has been flakey for a while now. It blows hot and cold. Our front five bench is not world class.


On the positive side I love our starting backrow right now. I'd like to see them stick together through to the next world cup.


Anyway, there is always another Saturday.

7 Go to comments
C
CO 2 hours ago
Scott Robertson responds to criticism over All Blacks' handling errors

Robertson is more a manager of coaches than a coach so it comes down to intent of outcomes at a high level. I like his intent, I like the fact his Allblacks are really driving the outcomes however as he's pointed out the high error rates are not test level and their control of the game is driving both wins and losses. England didn't have to play a lot of rugby, they made far fewer mistakes and were extremely unlucky not to win.


In fact the English team were very early in their season and should've been comfortably beaten by an Allblacks team that had played multiple tests together.


Razor has himself recognised that to be the best they'll have to sort out the crisis levels of mistakes that have really increased since the first two tests against England.


Early tackles were a classic example of hyper enthusiasm to not give an inch, that passion that Razor has achieved is going to be formidable once the unforced errors are eliminated.


That's his secret, he's already rebuilt the passion and that's the most important aspect, its inevitable that he'll now eradicate the unforced errors. When that happens a fellow tier one nation is going to get thrashed. I don't think it will be until 2025 though.


The Allblacks will lose both tests against Ireland and France if they play high error rates rugby like they did against England.


To get the unforced errors under control he's going to be needing to handover the number eight role to Sititi and reset expectations of what loose forwards do. Establish a clear distinction with a large, swarthy lineout jumper at six that is a feared runner and dominant tackler and a turnover specialist at seven that is abrasive in contact. He'll then need to build depth behind the three starters and ruthlessly select for that group to be peaking in 2027 in hit Australian conditions on firm, dry grounds.


It's going to help him that Savea is shifting to the worst super rugby franchise where he's going to struggle behind a beaten pack every week.


The under performing loose forward trio is the key driver of the high error rates and unacceptable turn overs due to awol link work. Sititi is looking like he's superman compared to his openside and eight.


At this late stage in the season they shouldn't be operating with just the one outstanding loose forward out of four selected for the English test. That's an abject failure but I think Robertson's sacrificing link quality on purpose to build passion amongst the junior Allblacks as they see the reverential treatment the old warhorses are receiving for their long term hard graft.


It's unfortunately losing test matches and making what should be comfortable wins into nail biters but it's early in the world cup cycle so perhaps it's a sacrifice worth making.


However if this was F1 then Sam Cane would be Riccardo and Ardie would be heading into Perez territory so the loose forwards desperately need revitalisation through a rebuild over the next season to complement the formidable tight five.

28 Go to comments
LONG READ
LONG READ England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit England need to face a few home truths if they are to relearn that winning habit
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