The IRISH RUGBY thread

[Dinny Breen]

The dynamic of the game changes yes but you can't determine the swing. You can only deal with facts and the fact is Ireland deserved to be well beaten.

To be really critical why did D'Arcy kick the ball, he had a 1 v 1 and should have stepped of his left, plus where was the support? Wallace, Heaslip , Ferris? We didn't score that try because D'arcy made a poor decision and we don't have a natural 7 who should have been up his hole. Luck had no bearing at all.

[Captain Scarlet]

To be fair to Darcy there ha had made a fair burst and he does not have the big sidestep in the open spaces. Wouldn't be overly critical.
On one hand it's hard to start ripping into a team who have been so good for a sustained period but we were destroyed in Paris.
Healy's yellow may have stopped a try, and he is very inexperienced. Flannery has no excuse. That pen would have made it 3-3, instead France went down to cross the line. Tails up and then no stopping them, they were class. We killed ourselves at times too with some terrible knock ons.
O'Leary's ball was too slow, when Reddan arrived he sped it up.
As for physicality Earls, Wallace and O'Gara were milled afew times. Kidney got the bench wrong. Horgan coming on would at least bulked us up. Also there is a lad called Bob Casey who is captain of London Irish and he's 6'10". Guess what he is from Maynooth! We are allowed include him in a squad ahead of Munsters third choice second row.
Lads I'm very worried about the English match now. It's France's Grand Slam at this stage, serious bench as well.

[Rudi]

Casey should be on the team, never mind the bench. P. Wallace  and R O Gara have no physicality. We have no options at scrum half. Trimble to start at 11, Earls at fullback, Wallace off the squad with Horgan to come in as cover.

[bcarrier]

Strange game ..until harry made his burst upfield we were on top. no wholesale changes for me. SJ of sunday times article pinned on back of dressing room door and same team if available ( possibly Jon Sexton if fully fit - please no reddan) .

I was there and it was unbelievably cold - i know these guys are professional but it was scrape snow of seats/ numb fingers kinda day - a factor in number of handling errors. Why do rugby players not wear gloves ? Do gloves make it look like gouging when you arent ?

[Master Yoda]

i have to say we were very unlucky today.



So over all a few key mistakes and bits of bad luck and indiscipline cost us a lot. We also need to get bigger and really can't afford to have so many of these amateur type physiques like O'Gara, Cullen and Wallace on the park at any one time.

Ireland were most certainly not unlucky and were well beaten. The score-line is reflective of the match. France were much superior.

The only Irish players emerging with any credit from that game were Darcy, O'Connell and possibly Ferris.

Thought O'Connell was poor myself, knocked the ball on at least 3 times maybe 4.

[Olaf]

I still have to say if Darcy scores, the whole game changes, no irish scrum under pressure down to 7 men and resulting try, no need to not kick a penalty just before half time. No need for Jerry Flannery to be frustrated and lash out at the French man. Cian Healy yellow card, no Jauzin try. The French have to find their own way into the game which really they were not able to do until the last quarter.

Luck, timing, mistakes, and indiscipline all conspired against Ireland yesterday. It was not simply a case of france were great, Ireland were rubbish.

Save for one scrum the Irish front row were mullered.

Yes there were plenty of mistakes and ill discilpline but Ireland were beaten by a much superior team in all facets of the game (save for the line-out). To say that luck conspired against Ireland in this game is pure fantasy.

Should be about 4/5 changes fro England game.

[trileacman]

Alot of over-reaction here. You'd think we got beat at home to Italy by 50 points. Re-watch the game before calling for 20 heads to roll. Watched the match yesterday as I was working during the live showing. First 15/20 minutes were great from an irish perspective and we were applying all the pressure. Kidney had called the game right and O'Gara's/BOD's kicks were pinning back the French into their half were they couldn't do any damage and where Irish pressure could produce mistakes. Admitedly as the game progressed and we were chasing the game the kicking strategy from Ireland was not productive.

As for Darcy, If you were to be critical you could say he kicked too early and a later kick would have facilitated a easier catch. However that's nit-picking and he was unlucky, lack of support didn't help, he shouldn't have been expected to finish it having made the initial break. I don't think he could have stepped as it would have slowed him down to much, meaning another french man would have caught him and also the defender was positioned well meaning it would have been harder.

The games turning point was the yellow card and the should have been red card. Flannery's actions have no justification and should have been red. In his defence he almost certainly didn't mean it as such a rash and unthinkable action only comes from a complete header. I think he decided to hack the ball when it was bouncing on the ground and at the point the frenchman collected the ball he somehow (and I don't know how) forgot to readjust and followed through. Actually trying to reason with that incident is pointless, scratch all that, could have been one of a thousands things.

I disagree with the wholesale changes argument as well. It would only cause to damage confidence, fracture the team and lead to a defeat. Their will be changes amongst those not fit to continue though. The front-row is the elephant in the room and everyone knows it. It should be shored up somehow until season's end. Easier said than done though. I don't like Reddan's play but I now realise I dislike O'Leary's more, he's a liabilty at scrum half and is blunting alot of our attacks. Ponderous at the ruck, poor box kicks and high/low passing out the outhalf is stifling our attacking game. A nice 4th back-rower he may be but he's not up for this. Having studied under KIdney however he will not be called ashore. We also need a Dempsey-esque fullback in the kicking era that is prevailing. Who is our choices at FB?? Any chance of Hurley to tide us over a few games?? Apart from that I don't think we played that bad on Sat. The yellow card was the kliller. Until that point we had conceeded no try to the French and we looked the most likely to score. It destroyed the game plan and after that point the game was effectively up.

[longrunsthefox]

I didn't read all that Trillick man but got the jist of it and totally agree. I thought Hook and the gang and the general reaction to the defeat is so over the top. That is typical in this country, either hyping a team as world beaters or hammering them.. no middle ground, same in GAA.
Can't be a rubbish team overnight and I think they'll bounce back and win the Triple Crown. England were typically overhyped after Wales game and at home should have enough for Wales (cud be tough tho) and Scotland. Keep the faith! 

[Maiden1]

Every time O'Gara gets the ball instead of passing it on he tries a sidestep to go through the other teams pack like he is Brian O'Driscoll.  He is neither fast enough or strong enough to do that.  He usually gets caught and lifted like a rag doll by a couple of 20 stone men and dumped on his ass about 10 meters back and the ball ripped out.  If he is to play he should stay out of the road and concentrate on kicking the ball into touch or between the posts.

[thewobbler]

There's no need for wholesale changes, but looking at form, then Hayes and O'Leary must be due to the big chop out of the 22, while Bowe, O'Gara and Flannery might drop out of the team if their natural replacements are up for it. Take out the injured Kearney and that's 6 possible/probable changes. Gavin Duffy would be worth looking at for full-back. Given that a 6N title is effectively gone, I don't see the point in returning to Murphy or Dempsey.

If Paddy Wallace must be the replacement three-quarters, then I'd suggest that Boss should be on the bench to cover no.9, as he can at least fill in across the three-quarters as well.

I'd also suggest that a proper groundhog openside should be on the bench for those games when Wallace's attacking instincts are kept on the back foot. Jennings would be the best option.

[orangeman]

No surprise here :


Ireland's Jerry Flannery has been cited for his lunge on Alexis Palisson in Saturday's RBS 6 Nations defeat by France.

Flannery could be facing a lengthy ban after appearing to kick at Palisson in the 23rd minute.
The Munster hooker escaped with a penalty but could have been sent off for a poor challenge on the France winger, who limped off with a dead leg shortly after.


The citing will be heard this week

[J OGorman]

Irish rugby came back down to earth with a bang last night. We're nowhere near the level some of the journalists were telling us we were.

going unbeaten in 2009, winning the grand slam, drawing with Australia and beating the world champions told us were we are as a rugby team, not journalists. Paris is a hooer of a place to get a result, just ask any of the top southern hemisphere teams

roll on Twickers!!

[screenexile]

Was disappointed in the match. Save the lineout we were pretty much destroyed in every facet.

For a team with such superiority in the lineout AND France using the blitz, why did Ireland not utilise O'Gara as one of the best tactical kickers in the game and kick for touch the whole game. It was the only way we could survive. Also the lack of chip kicks annoyed me as well when it was evident the Scottish got a bit of success from it last week.

Other than that we made too many mistakes i.e. a criminal amount of knock ons. . . I would expect to see some changes to keep lads on their toes namely Healy, Flannery, Cullen, O'Leary, O'Gara and Earls making way for Horan, Best, O'Callaghan, Reddan, Sexton and Trimble.

[Celt_Man]

Irish rugby came back down to earth with a bang last night. We're nowhere near the level some of the journalists were telling us we were.

going unbeaten in 2009, winning the grand slam, drawing with Australia and beating the world champions told us were we are as a rugby team, not journalists. Paris is a hooer of a place to get a result, just ask any of the top southern hemisphere teams

roll on Twickers!!

Yea I agree totally

[Celt_Man]

Ireland were unlucky on Saturday.  Unlucky in the sense that when they were on top and had chances to score (especially in the first half) they didn't take them and luck had a good bit to do with it.  D'arcy's chip was desperatley unlucky - how many times have you seen the bounce just come up into the attackers hands instead it hit the post and the Frogs got away with it.  Same with the end of the first half, O'Connell knocked on when the line was at Ireland's mercy (when did that ever happen before)

Healy had to go for a professional foul and only for him being off the field Flannery would have certainly got a yellow too.  That was a big changing point in the game.  Ireland had a penalty in the middle of the field which was then reversed.  Had that remained in Ireland's favour, ROG kicks for the corner and with a powerful lineout we could have wound the clock down a brave bit in the right end of the pitch till Healy came on but sure it wasn't to be....

I wonder given his performances for the A's would Duffy be an option for full back?  And again since the lad plays (and plays well too) would Johne Murphy get a look in for the match day 22?   Would it be harsh to say that Earls looked very light on Saturday but I suppose he plays well in Heineken Cup and isn't too light there.

I am a wee bit disappointed about the leadership on saturday too.  We started to force the game far too much from poor positions too early in the second half.  Would a game play of 10 - 15 mins of kicking the corners and putting pressure on the French line out been a better option?  We'll never know.

I believe England didn't set the world alight yesterday in Rome, hard to know what way to take that.