Ireland Hold out 14-Man England After Early Red Card.

Well, second weirdest match of the tournament is awarded to the winner of first weirdest match: Ireland. After shrugging off a 13 man, then eventually 12-man Italy due to blowing the dust off the law book and breaking out some obscure, but rightly enforced, laws, Ireland have now played against a team that had a player sent off within about a minutes and a half of the game starting and looked like they could have lost at some points. Yes, that’s a long sentence. Yes, the syntax and structuring are horrible. No, I don’t have a better way to write it.

82 seconds into the game, Charlie Ewels (Maro Itoje’s second row partner) collided head-on-head with the 6”7 James Ryan. Ewels was subsequently red carded and Ryan, struggling to get up and stay steady on his feet, was rightly given and HIA and thankfully kept off the pitch for the rest of the game. Ryan will also miss this weekends clash with Scotland, which is in every sense the right call. I don’t see how there’s any debate about this red card. To collide head-on-head with a completely upright 6”7 human there cannot be any mitigation. Ryan was not falling, not bent over. Ewels did not make an attempt to move to an appropriate tackle height. This resulted in, more than likely, a concussion and the end to a player’s tournament. Red card.

The match that followed this moment was fittingly odd and scattered although some fantastic rugby was played in that time. Quickly after the debacle, James Lowe was set up for a try where he only needed a bit of pace, and he was over the line. Kelleher drew in a defender; Van Der Flier drew Smith in ever so slightly from the wing and popped it to Lowe who had a run in. I’m no winger (I played second row poorly when I played) but I imagine that’s the kind of try winger’s dreams are made of. Put the foot down and score, lovely stuff. Not long after, Caelan Doris did his best James Lowe impression on the wing and scored a try but with a little back-row flair: he battered his way over someone first. England’s number 9, Randall, was the poor sole defender trying to take Doris down who looked like he didn’t even know Randall was there. However, this try was ruled out as a sneaky hand from England caused a knock-on from Ringrose. From there it was penalties and stalemate until just before halftime when Keenan managed to batter over after a quick tap from Player of the Match, Gibson-Park. The first half finished 15-9 thanks to Smith’s boot and Ireland’s poor discipline.

In the second half England fought back through penalties once again, bringing the score to a dizzying 15-15 for Ireland. Having played essentially the whole match with an extra player, to be tied up with 20 minutes left must have made a few of the Ireland camp a little queasy. Whilst Ireland quickly took a penalty to restore a slim lead, it would take them until the 72nd minute to put a slightly more comfortable barrier between them and their 14 manned foe. From the resulting ruck of Conway’s fantastic run (where it looked like he may have been on for five points) JPG managed to sling the ball away relatively quickly, despite counter rucking, to Conan who did what he knows best and charged his way over the line. At this point England just looked tired. Most of the defence looked to be struggling to get back to the try line to defend, and at one point 4 English defenders are more of less huddled around the ruck. With 14 players it’s not if they start to slow down, it’s when. Their line was stretched too thin and Conan took advantage.

Finally, from a maul and a couple of strong runs, Finlay Bealham went over to seal the deal with 4 minutes left on the clock. The conversion is good, and Ireland find themselves 17 points ahead with only minutes to fight through. An impossibility for a 14-man England, most would agree.

On first viewing I thought it was a bit of a poor match, albeit the angry, elderly football watcher grumbling beside me didn’t help the experience. However, watching it back, Ireland weren’t as poor as I had initially though. Don’t get me wrong, they shouldn’t have let them back in it with penalties but that isn’t a slight on Ireland’s defence or anything, it was just some discipline issues and a few interesting scrummaging calls. Once Ireland gave themselves a shake and got things together they strung together two tries in pretty quick succession to close out the game.

Now, I’ve been thinking about whether Ireland would have beaten a 15-man England but it’s a really tough one. I would imagine that number of defenders is a direct correlation to points scored, but it doesn’t always seem to go this way. Time and time again, I’ve seen teams have their opposition go down to 14 men and immediately start to over play, force things, and basically get themselves a bit frazzled. However, on the opposite side of that, teams that receive a red card seem to settle down, focus and just play what’s in front of them. It’s hard to say for me. I’m sure England fans would be positive that a 15-man England would’ve won and I’m sure most Ireland fans feel they still would have beaten a 15-man side but sure, it didn’t go that way.

After the last two outings I’m tired of ‘interesting’ matches, I just want a good competitive game of rugby. Scotland, you’re up.