World Cup: England v Ireland

[DIEHARD]

England v Ireland
SAT NOV 02, KO: 2:30pm,
THE JOHN SMITH'S STADIUM, HUDDERSFIELD

[DIEHARD]

Damn it, looks like England are persisting with Chase. Put him on the bench at least, throw Widdop in.

Sinfield to 13 PLEASE!!

[DIEHARD]

On at midnight guys! Queensland time.

[TITAN PETE]

England v Ireland preview
By Nigel Wall
NRL.com
7:00am Sat 02nd November, 2013

England v Ireland
The John Smith’s Stadium, Huddersfield
Saturday 2.30pm (UK time)
Sunday 1.30am (AEDT); 12.30am (AEST)

Minnows Ireland will draw on their own ‘Book of Feuds’ to lift for this battle with tournament heavyweights England – but it could be all one-way traffic in West Yorkshire if these teams’ World Cup opening clashes are any gauge.

England surged out of the blocks against the Kangaroos in Cardiff last Saturday, compiling a tidy 10-nil lead after 20 minutes and keeping the tourists off the scoreboard for near enough half an hour. But then the green and gold clicked into gear to score three snappy tries and take a surprise 18-10 halftime lead, with the teams matching point for point in the second stanza, leaving Australia ahead 28-20 at fulltime.

England coach Steve McNamara may have lamented a few lapses in concentration but he would have been impressed by his team’s skill and aggression – with the exception of Sam Burgess’s high shot that sees the Rabbitohs star suspended for this match.

Among the players to catch the eye was prop Chris Hill, who managed to grind out 110 metres in just 41 minutes on the park, along with a game-high three offloads and 22 tackles. His gain was superior to acknowledged star George Burgess, whose 106 metres from 15 hit-ups, plus a try, were loudly applauded.

Meanwhile the Irish are licking their wounds after being walloped 32-14 by Fiji last Tuesday, in a game where Akuila Uate’s three tries for the Bati exposed their vulnerability to speed and power out wide.

Fiji led 10-4 at halftime and ran away with proceedings in the second half, racking up a quartet of tries between the 52nd and 73rd minutes before they put their cues in the rack and allowed their opposition to save face with two late tries in the final three minutes.

Watch Out England: Manly forward James Hasson showed a willingness to roll up his sleeves and do the hard work with a spirited game for Ireland against Fiji. The fringe first-grader was a handful carting the ball up, making six tackle busts from his 13 runs off the bench. England would be advised to keep a lid on him.

While this game represents a massive opportunity for England fullback Sam Tomkins to further display why he’s rated one of the most exciting players in the game, the No.1 is sure to be targeted by Irish bombs after Greg Inglis stole a relatively simple take to set up a try for Australia last week. Tomkins’ positional play in defence will also be targeted – Billy Slater scored a runaway try on the stroke of halftime last week after Tomkins inexplicably joined the England defensive line for an Australian scrum feed near halfway. With no-one at home it proved a fatal error.

Watch Out Ireland: Go-forward will prove tough for Ireland, as it did when they locked horns with Fiji – they were pretty much stopped in their tracks all game, managing a meagre 742 metres from all runs throughout the 80 minutes. That was almost 400 metres less than Fiji made from roughly the same number of runs. With the England defence a much tougher machine, the portents are not good.

Key Match-Up: James Graham v Brett White. You can bet Graham will be out to make up for lost time after his omission last week, reportedly for disciplinary reasons. Graham has been the mainstay of the England and Great Britain packs since 2006 and has proven himself one of the toughest bookends in the NRL. Former NSW Blues and Kangaroos rep White was an extraordinary contributor for Ireland against Fiji, making a game-high 19 hit-ups for 119 metres with a colossal 36 tackles.

Where It Will Be Won: Class. England have a thick coating of it across the park, while Ireland have it in Spakfilla dollops in Pat Richards on the wing and Brett White in the pack.

Televised: 7mate – Live from 1am (NSW), 12 midnight (Qld).

The Way We See It: It’s hard to fathom anything other than a hiding England’s way. The host nation by 26 points.

[TITAN PETE]

SAT 02 NOVEMBER

England tame the Wolfhounds


Liam Williams

At the John Smith’s Stadium

England bounced back from their opening-day defeat to Australia with a convincing win over Ireland in front of a stadium-record crowd at the John Smith's Stadium in Huddersfield.

England controlled the game from the first minute to the last, and got off to a perfect start when Ryan Hall scored after two minutes. He completed a first half hat-trick and further tries from Tom Briscoe and Brett Ferres to give England a 30-0 lead at half-time.

Ireland restored some order to their defence in the second half, conceding just two more tries from Kallum Watkins and Rangi Chase, but they weren’t able to crack England’s impressive defence.

The hosts got off to a blistering start, and capitalised on an error by Tyrone McCarthy, Leroy Cudjoe sending in Hall to open the scoring. Sinfield’s conversion attempt rebounded off the post before another Irish handling allowed them to go further ahead. Rory Kostjasyn spilled the ball, allowing Brett Ferres to link up with his Giants team-mate Cudjoe, who again found Hall to score his and England's second, Sinfield converting this time.

Cudjoe was in the thick of the action once more when he held off several Irish defenders before finding Rangi Chase whose kick was well taken by Briscoe to notch up England’s third try of the game.

Briscoe scored his second when Sam Tomkins broke through the Irish line before passing to the Leeds-bound winger who ran on unchallenged to the try-line.

This was followed by the try of the game. A fantastic move involving Watkins, Ben Westwood, Sinfield ended with Cudjoe again finding Hall who collected his hat-trick with an impressive finish.

Soon after Tomkins again broke through the Irish line and found Ferres, who went over to score on his home ground to give England a 30-0 lead at the break.

Ireland started the second half with more resolute defending and some good attacking combinations but failed to break through. England then increased their lead when Watkins crossed after he took the palmed-down ball from Briscoe.

Chase was next to add his name to the score sheet when he latched onto Tomkins's grubber, following some smart play from the full-back.

Damien Blanch came close to registering points for Ireland when he looked to latch onto Liam Finn's kick out wide, but he failed to take the high ball and the chance went begging.


England

1 Sam Tomkins

2 Tom Briscoe

3 Kallum Watkins

4 Leroy Cudjoe

5 Ryan Hall

6 Rangi Chase

7 Kevin Sinfield

8 Chris Hill

9 James Roby

10 George Burgess

11 Brett Ferres

12 Ben Westwood

13 Sean O’Loughlin

Interchange

14 Gareth Widdop

15 Carl Ablett

16 Thomas Burgess

17 James Graham



Ireland

1 James Mendeika

2 Damien Blanch

3 Stuart Littler

4 Apirana Pewhairangi

5 Pat Richards

6 Ben Currie

7 Liam Finn

8 Brett White

9 Rory Kostjasyn

10 James Hasson

11 Simon Finnigan

12 Dave Allen

13 Tyrone McCarthy

Interchange

14 Bob Beswick

15 Luke Ambler

16 Danny Bridge

17 Anthony Mullally




Referee: Thierry Alibert (France)

England 42

Tries: Hall 3, Briscoe 2, Ferres, Watkins, Chase; Goals: Sinfield 4, Widdop

Ireland 0

Attendance: 24,375

[TITAN PETE]

Only watched the highlights of this match & looked a little too much Touch Footy going on

[Titanic]

Was a pathetic game ... Ireland just making-up numbers and Chase is not up to this standard at all.

[TITAN PETE]

Was a pathetic game ... Ireland just making-up numbers and Chase is not up to this standard at all.

Nor is Sinfield a halfback , the Kiwis will murder them in the semis

[DIEHARD]

Correct Correct Correst.

1. Ireland arent up to standard
2. Chase shouldnt be in the side
3. Sinfield is not a half, for the love of god put him at lock.

Really some hard work needs to be done in Ireland. Australia are gonna put 100 on em!

[DIEHARD]

Brett White post game...

[Titanic]

Two mouses makes a meece … I don't know how he could see when he came back on … oh yeah, he did nothing when he did.

[Tartmaster]

Brett White post game...

Woah, that's impressive.