Going into Ireland’s second World Cup warm-up game at Twickenham, most of their supporters would have been hoping for a good performance and no serious injuries.
Tadhg Furlong, Jean Kleyn, CJ Stander & Co. were out-gunned in London.
By the time the World Cup pool games get underway, the slate of warm-up games will be mostly forgotten. Call these games friendlies rather than full–fledged Tests, and ones that go in the permanent record books, and you would not find many disagreeing.
However, with the Novembers Tests not happening this year, the unions need to cash in during the summer. Hence four ‘Tests’ instead of two and a maximum of three and the coffers filling up again.
Ireland fans never like losing to England, but most would have been content if their side should some fight and promise and were edged out in a close one. Losing by anything over 10 points would be unpalatable but eased somewhat if all the top players got some hard yakka in and left in one piece.
Instead, Ireland were barrelled out 57-15 and there are new injury concerns over Conor Murray and Cian Healy.
Our own player ratings for the Ireland XV, and subs, make for hard but necessary reading. There have been similarly tough ratings in a number of Irish outlets, while English reporters have not been quite so harsh.
That being said, not a single member of the Ireland XV, in three separate player ratings from English outlets, rated above 6/10. Generally, Rob Kearney, Bundee Aki, Ross Byrne and Iain Henderson fared the best (average rating of 5.66 out of 10).
According to these ratings, Garry Ringrose, Jacob Stockdale, Rory Best and CJ Stander all had bad outings (4.33 out of 10) with Jean Kleyn faring the worst (3.66 out of 10). Tadhg Furlong and Peter O’Mahony did not escape without criticism.
Here are a selection of some of the most scathing comments:
JEAN KLEYN
‘Outmuscled and outgunned in an afternoon that surely put paid to his World Cup chances.’ (Sky Sports)
GARRY RINGROSE
‘Ireland’s midfield defence was porous all afternoon and Ringrose has to cop plenty of flak for that. Quiet in attack.’ (Daily Mail)
TADHG FURLONG
Credit: Rugby Pass (via YouTube)‘One of his worst performances in an Ireland shirt. Made little impression against Marler in the scrum and lost control of the ball when tackled by Tuilagi and Underhill.’ (UK Independent)
CJ STANDER
‘Not the ball-carrying phenomenon of a few seasons ago. When he’s stopped on the gain-line, there is no Plan B.’ (Daily Mail)
As tough days at the office go, this one may take some getting over.
World number one, Wales are up next… in a sold-out Principality Stadium in Cardiff.
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