We’ve already looked back at the French and English contests from the 2018 Slam so it’s only right and proper that we keep that going ahead of the visit of the Welsh to Dublin too. A couple of starters from 8 years ago are wearing the exact same numbers on Friday…can you spot them?
Wales : 15. Leigh Halfpenny 14 Liam Williams 13 Scott Williams 12 Hadleigh Parkes 11 Steff Evans 10 Dan Biggar 9 Gareth Davies
1 Rob Evans 2 Ken Owens 3 Samson Lee 4 Cory Hill 5 Alun Wyn Jones > CAPT 6 Aaron Shingler 7 Josh Navidi 8 Ross Moriarty
Replacements: 16 Elliot Dee 17 Wyn Jones 18 Tomas Francis 19 Bradley Davies 20 Justin Tipuric 21 Aled Davies 22 Gareth Anscombe 23 George North.
Natwest Six Nations 2018 – Round 3
Saturday, February 24, 2018
KO 2:15pm
Aviva Stadium
Referee – Glen Jackson (New Zealand)
Assistant 1 – Pascal Gauzere (France)
Assistant 2 – Matthew Carley (England)
TMO – Rowan Kitt (England)
Click here if you’d like to read my preview, but for the record my prediction was for an Ireland win by 1 to 3 pts…
Since we cut from two guests on the wrap pods to one, having the same guest two out of three weeks has been a rarity but that’s how things turned out for the Cardiff pod and since Conor Cronin also chipped in to the 500th episode it means he earned three caps in as many weeks which I doubt has ever happened.
Unfortunately that one dull fact is more interesting than anything that actually happened in the URC match at Cardiff Arms Park but still Conor did a great job analysing what went wrong; I reckon it’s worth a listen if you missed it, click here to do so.
RUGBY’S ASHES
An “identical exhibition trophy” is set to be used for the remainder of the championship
Not really a crazy story I suppose, fires happen, but I have to say I’m intrigued by the article simply saying “The fire, reported to have taken place in Ireland, led to no injuries…”.
Eh, maybe since you’re the Irish national broadcaster you might want to follow up on that? Where in Ireland? How did the fire start? To be fair if those details WERE in the article I probably wouldn’t pay them much mind, but they are still conspicuous by their absence and it leaves me an itch that needs scratching.
Plus all the talk of a new trophy being “forged” gave our WhatsApp group the perfect opportunity to run a host of Tolkien themed memes…
Hi there, welcome to Broken Play, aka my Saturday morning Substack scribbling, and since you’re here, if you haven’t already, please hit the subscribe button if you don’t mind.
Needless to say I’m not in a very good mood this morning, mostly because Leinster got beaten last night of course, but also because it was a really, really, truly awful game of rugby. You’ll just have to take my word for it that I’m not saying that due to sour grapes, it really was a long, arduous 80m watch although since Leinster got beaten, I’d say it did provide sufficient Friday evening viewing for the majority of those watching!
But that’s what wrap pods are for so I’ll try to put the frustration aside for the moment and leave it until Sunday to do the tortuous rewatch. No point in sharing a link to the preview this week, but to get a sense of how I was feeling before this match here is my latest spot on Dublin South FM…
Anyway, enough about all that. This time last week instead of doing this article I was sitting in the car recording my part of our 500th episode special. It was eventually an enjoyable experience, but not before I got through the process of downloading/editing/re-uploading which took literally hours longer than it should have. Do check it out if you missed it, you’ll find the YouTube version here.
Speaking of this Broken Play article, I see I missed the 1 year anniversary of it – the first edition was scribbled on February 9, 2025. That’s unusual for me as in general I’m good at keeping track of such things, but anyway I have to say I enjoy doing them and as long as I can drag myself out of bed at this ungodly hour on Saturdays I’ll keep it up for the foreseeable.
I just remembered there’s Super Rugby on, so it is now accompanying me and Chiefs v Crusaders isn’t a bad contest to have on in the background. Chiefs have just taken a 14-0 lead but we all know that means nothing in this comp, defences were shaky anyway but with a gagillion Law “trials” meant to “speed up the game” anything is possible.
This week I want to touch on a subject that is, well touchy. Last night’s disappointment for Leinster in Cardiff brought to an end an extremely enjoyable week on social media for me. Any big win for my team has me in a good mood, but England? In Twickenham? When we thought our chances were slim at best? Magical.
This week we go back to yet another Ireland win over England, just because.
Technically our choice of Throwback Thursday match should be based on our NEXT featured match, but, well, Twickenham. Nuff said. Let’s harp on that some more, shall we.
So there I was, writing my weekly 80+ column (one back here on the Substack feed) and I brought up the time it got leaked that England had produced a load of Grand Slam winning t-shirts ahead of their visit to Dublin, only to forget to do the most important thing, namely actually winning said Slam.
All of which inspired me to hark back to my writeup of that match in the Aviva Stadium. It was a time when Declan Kidney’s good will from his own 2009 Slam was starting to wear off…in this 2011 Championship we had already struggled to beat Italy & Scotland and lost to France & Wales before the English rocked up to our shiny new D4 home for the first time.
We all know what happened, yet I assume we all enjoy remembering what happened same as any other time we beat them, so here are the starting lineups followed by the writeup…
IRELAND
15 Keith Earls 14 Tommy Bowe 13 Brian O’Driscoll (c) 12 Gordon D’Arcy 11 Andrew Trimble 10 Johnny Sexton 9 Eoin Reddan
1 Cian Healy 2 Rory Best 3 Mike Ross 4 Donncha O’Callaghan 5 Paul O’Connell 6 Seán O’Brien 7 David Wallace 8 Jamie Heaslip
16 Seán Cronin 17 Tom Court 18 Leo Cullen 19 Denis Leamy 20 Peter Stringer 21 Ronan O’Gara 22 Paddy Wallace
ENGLAND
15 Ben Foden 14 Chris Ashton 13 Matt Banahan 12 Shontayne Hape 11 Mark Cueto 10 Toby Flood 9 Ben Youngs
1 Alex Corbisiero 2 Dylan Hartley 3 Dan Cole 4 Louis Deacon 5 Tom Palmer 6 Tom Wood 7 James Haskell 8 Nick Easter (c)
16 Steve Thompson 17 Paul Doran-Jones 18 Simon Shaw 19 Tom Croft 20 Danny Care 21 Jonny Wilkinson 22 David Strettle
Professional rugby union has evolved into so much more than an 80-minute slosh in the mud at the weekend. It’s now a process that begins the previous Monday morning.
As well as all the general work to be done on the training pitch and in the weights room, there’s DVDs to be analysed, charts to be drawn and top-secret code sequences to be created.
But when all is said and done, the real work behind everything associated with a team begins in just one square foot of real estate…the noggin of the head coach.
And for me, the most satisfying aspect of Ireland’s slam-denying victory at the Aviva Stadium was that it was clearly the culmination of a superior week’s preparation from Declan Kidney, who totally outfoxed his opposite number.
21 February 2026; Jamison Gibson-Park of Ireland scores his side’s first try, despite a tackle of England’s Joe Heyes, during the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between England and Ireland at the Allianz Stadium in Twickenham, England. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
The type of performance that will put a lot of confidence gas back in the tank
Tom Clarke
Much better performance. Some of the bigger players really stepped up. Have to give Farrell credit. Thought McCloskey was incredible. Jaimo, Joe and Dorris were brilliant too. Don’t think there was a bad performance in fairness.
Greg Kelly
Irelands performance was beautifully summed up by McCloskey running Marcus Smith down like the terminator
Gerald Williamson
Well deserved win by a country mile. The hunger is back in the team and Andy Farrell has shut those “doubting Thomas “.
Richard Collumb
Would never have thought they could do that. Brilliant all round performance (scrum still needs work), but tactically got it spot on vs England and great execution
Christy O’Connor
That performance was long overdue, we can’t pretend there’s still a lot to work on but that’s a huge step in the right direction, hopefully we can build on this now
Gavin Hegarty
Were we that good or were England just that bad? I think we just dominated them into their mistakes. They were rattled from minute one and couldn’t react.
Pollock was nonexistent for them, perhaps he should check his pulse now?
It’d be typical of England now to fire borthwick if they finish fourth. It’d cost them a lot to get rid of him and get someone else in but who would be the contenders?
Chris McDonnell
The difference passing the ball makes.
That’s 2 years in a row we have battered England
Craig Grehan
In farrell we trust.
The things we’ve been working on clicked and went our way.
Oh, and McCloskey is an animal.
Craig Boyd
Great to prove the doubters wrong (including myself). Particularly delighted as an Ulsterman that the Ulster boys have backed up their recent performances #mccloskeyrollingbacktheyears
Bert McLoughlin
The lads were hungry for the win and England didn’t have any answers for it
Eamon Saunders
That complete performance that we have been looking for and what a place to deliver 🇮🇪🇮🇪
John O Halloran
Handy run out for the lads. 😉.
Jokes aside, I had Ireland by 3 to 7 max and I was being very optimistic.
I didn’t see that level of performance coming. A superb response and result.
Barbara Gaffey
Always that extra niggle versus England and proving the naysayers wrong! The pressure worked to our advantage this time and it all finally clicked. Absolute class! 🙌🔥💪
14 February 2026; Robert Baloucoune of Ireland dives over to score his side’s third try despite the tackle of Lorenzo Cannone of Italy during the Guinness 6 Nations Rugby Championship match between Ireland and Italy at the Aviva Stadium in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
Quite frankly it was a wrestling match with Ireland just shading it.
Christy O’Connor
Lots of work needed to be done for next week. Sam is in a horrible position, Farrell is adamant about Sam starting, I’m not saying he’s a poor player, he’s just not ready. If any 10 can feel hard done by it’s Frawley. The championship is already over for us, so may as well test more players
John Kehoe
Ireland beat Italy by more points this year than last year
Greg McAuliffe
I thought once Crowley came on, we got a bit of an attacking shape back, which has been under Sam. Still not where we should be but the difference was obvious.
Michelle Tobin
Andy Farrell would do well to talk to Andrew Brown. Brown was so p*ssed off at the Irish performance last night despite the win. “A win is a win” is not the right mindset for the team that was formerly #1 in the world and should be aspiring to get back there, not barely beating Italy. We’re safe from 6th now but there are 3 big games left and I’m not confident
Ted Maher
I really really really hate to say it but Sam!
Chris McDonnell
3 of the 4 half backs are just not good enough. Doak for Casey and frawley and Murphy for Pendergast and Crowley.
Gavin Hegarty
Prendergast not good but then Crowley doesn’t take his chance and denies us a bonus point. Time to try Byrne.
Brian McKeon
Scotland did it last week, we did it this week, underestimated the Italians. Italy have lightening quick backs and a very strong pack.
I’ve never seen Tadhg Furlong get flying lessons in a scrum before today.
Ken Tancred PT
Ireland’s definitely in a rebuilding phase… It should have started last year except for the lions distraction. But Italy are starting to click so they so they have to take some credit
A worrying thing for me is how they team played under Casey and how they changed when JGP came on
Kevin Kelehan
Italy turned up and forced Ireland to work harder than they have for a long time against Italy. England will really target our scrum next week, what was the only blot on an otherwise really decent effort. I remain a huge Sam fan but not was clear that JGP and Crowley was a far better combination. Very decent debuts for Itzy, Balacoune and Edogbo with further enhancement of Timoney’s rep. 70% happy
Craig Boyd
Really poor, very one dimensional and Italy can feel really hard done by. V little to be positive about. Improved when Crowley and Gibson Park came on but missed out on the bonus point
Darragh Headen
2 yellows were harsh i taught, Italy were ferocious, will seriously test both England & France, good points were new debutants, and some great passing, we have concerns in the scrum. Crowley to start, Atmosphere looked desperate, too many there with no passion just in & out drinking & pissing like yo yo,s
