Ireland and Wolfhounds

That game was a lot of what I feared a Farrell team would look like - England lite imo. Demented mole have gone in hard on the 'heads up rugby' meme that has pushed by the coaching ticket - its not enough at this level. Ironically the set piece was improved on previous weeks, almost certainly due to Toner being back in the pack. One thing in Farrell's favour for me is that this feels a lot like the Matt O'Connor season (seasons?) at leinster, when the narrative was all about Joe's shackles were off but the players obviously had a massive hangover as a result. However, it took a change of coaching ticket and a couple of years to right that ship.

If you like at the game and not the result Ireland did ok

We gave them 14 points through un forced errors.
Take that out of it and plus the 2 missed kicks.
We did ok and the stats back it up.

www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=295500&league=180659

England were off side all day, off their feet when they got a scrum for an uncontesteable ball.
Bundee got penalised for doing the correct thing.
We got one or 2 decision as well. Ref and linesmen was very poor.

If you like at the game and not the result Ireland did ok

We gave them 14 points through un forced errors.
Take that out of it and plus the 2 missed kicks.
We did ok and the stats back it up.

www.espn.co.uk/rugby/matchstats?gameId=295500&league=180659

England were off side all day, off their feet when they got a scrum for an uncontesteable ball.
Bundee got penalised for doing the correct thing.
We got one or 2 decision as well. Ref and linesmen was very poor.

Surprised no discussion at all about the squad announcement?

Roux is very lucky to be in, no idea how he got picked ahead of Dillane.

Am I the only one that is very confused by the sudden elevation of Will Connors? He tackles a lot but you need a hell of a lot more than that to be a top level player. For me he sort of seems like a van Der flier-lite to be honest and unfortunately I also think van der flier hasn't quite stepped up to international level.

Not sure what Connors brings that for instance Boyle or Butler don't (and others at Munster and Ulster too) but none seem to be in the conversation somehow.

Have to agree with you on Connors Bazzo. He's just Leinster-flavour-of-the-month, whose star is already on the wane after Leinster's non-scrum performance vs Saracens. For a pure 7 Butler is a better option, but can you imagine the opprobrium that Franno and Lukey Fitzgerald would visit on Farrell's head if he was to pick a project player in the back row.
Roux was never in competition with Dillane for a position in the second row. He was competing with Kleyn for the TH Lock place.

struggling to build enthuasiasm for these international games due to covid, the fact that its a weird second six nations, the fact that there's probably too many international games to prepare for next season effectively... most of all the fact that this is just the England 2015 coaching ticket minus the best part of that coaching team just kills any hope for me.