England player ratings live from Aviva Stadium: Same old England. Plenty of vim and vigour as usual to carve out a promising situation and then they lost… as usual.
The fade out here in Dublin was especially wounding. Their ‘stifle Ireland’ plan had initially worked, seeing them 10-5 up at the break, but they caved in a second period where their attack became non-existent and their defence lost its connection when the pressure became unbearable.
Ireland pulled level on 52, went ahead three minutes later and proceeded to move into a deserved 10-27 bonus-point lead with eight minutes remaining.
The visitors hit back with two late tries to grab a losing bonus point, but the closeness of the 22-27 end result flattered them as they were well beaten. Here are the England player ratings:
15. Freddie Steward – 5.5/10Dragged from pillar to post in his last outing, the autumn loss to South Africa, George Furbank’s injury got him back in the team and he was a safe pair of hands until left grasping at shadows when brilliantly stepped by the try-scoring Jamison Gibson-Park. Hit back with a try-saving intervention seven minutes into the second half but his team were 10 points down when he exited on 65.
14. Tommy Freeman – 6Kept direct opponent James Lowe honest in the aerial duel and his speed closed down first-half space. Can’t be happy, though, with not being able to prevent Bundee Aki’s second-half finish in the corner. Ditto the way Lowe got by him to set up sub Dan Sheehan. Ended with a consolation score.
13. Ollie Lawrence – 6.5The glue in the English backline until it was swamped by the Irish wave. Was a nuisance in the tackle and his break was crucial in creating the opening English. Slick hands also evident, such as his pop to Freeman on 20 minutes.
12. Henry Slade – 5.5After taking an amount of flak in the autumn, he was more on-song here until things went south in the second period with some missed tackles. Before that there was his excellent awareness when threading a left footer through the Irish cover for Cadan Murley’s score and then his deft aerial palm-off to a teammate knowing Aki was arriving to smash him if he landed with the ball.
11. Cadan Murley – 6.5We’ve had a line of anonymous, ball-starved wingers in the Borthwick era but this confident operator needed just nine minutes on his debut to produce a composed, polish finish to put his side ahead on mine minutes and reward an encouraging start. Had two Irish ‘welcomes’ in the in-goal area in the second half, but kept going and provided a lovely assist to Tom Curry late on.
10. Marcus Smith – 6Given the green light to continue on from November’s attacking promise, he was top notch in the first half from as early as his second minute break from halfway. Conducted everything good on the front foot from England and was defensively defiant, as seen in a tackle near the posts on Aki. Yellow carded on 25 minutes for taking this energy to an extreme. Became roadkill in the Aki score on 52 minutes and it petered out from there.
9. Alex Mitchell – 5.5Badly missed in the Autumn Nations Series as regards the tempo he brings. Thought he had scored on 18 minutes but a knock-on elsewhere had already been signalled. Won’t want to see a replay of the way Lowe shrugged him off in the tackle in lead-up to first Irish try. Another of many who struggled in the second period when it most mattered. Played 65 minutes.
1. Ellis Genge – 6.5Emptied his tank in playing 71 minutes, producing a decent all-round effort without a highlights reel. Was annoyed with an early second-half scrum collapse which, on reflection, marked the beginning of the end for England.
2. Luke Cowan-Dickie – 5.5First start since the November 2022 draw with New Zealand, he didn’t disappoint with the level of his physicality. Only one missed lineout in the opening half, he got stuck in was stayed around until the moment when Ireland went 13-10 up.
3. Will Stuart – 6Came through two in-game HIA before finally finishing on 71 having given his all. Didn’t get a proper chance to scrummage in the first half as there were just three scrums… all to Ireland.
4. Maro Itoje – 6.5His British and Lions captaincy audition was looking good at the interval but he then suffered. His claim for a TMO review of a foul tackle on him led to a cancelled first-half Irish try, he was the ball often and led the maul defence. His second period difficulty was encapsulated by the lineout penalty that gave the Irish the successfully taken shot for the lead.
5. George Martin – 6.6His impact helped to put manners on the first-half Irish breakdown and he fought valiantly for a part of the second before heading off with England only 10-134 down.
6. Tom Curry – 7.5Was excellent in getting his team into its first-half lead, constantly frustrating the Iris, and he continued that way in the second even though his pack were eventually over-run. Ended with a consolation try.
7. Ben Curry – 7Part two of Borthwick’s double Curry portion, he lasted an hour and you could tell how well he did with how some Irish players wanted to rough him up after a whistle had gone on 32 minutes. Finished as his team’s top tackler.
8. Ben Earl – 5The third openside in the England back row, he was eclipsed by what the Curry twins achieved and gone by the 56th minute. While a show of wheels helped lead to the penalty that got England 10-5 up just before the break, some rearguard work wasn’t up to scratch. For instance, his soft knock-on at the 7-0 restart. There were also too many missed tackles.
Ratings index: 10/10 – Perfect, 9. Exceptional, 8. Very good, 7. Good, 6. Satisfying, 5. Average, 4. Insufficient, 3. Bad, 2. Very bad, 1. Terrible, 0. Unacceptable.
