Ireland v Italy Rugby

[A Quinn Martin Production]

How many does Ravenhill hold these days.??

Get rid of Ireland's Call, it's a tuneless dirge...what about "The Boys Are Back In Town" by Thin Lizzy

[Will Hunting]

Just noticing (not that i'd be able to comment on it, as i don't follow rugby) that only one response on this thread actually touches on the subject of the Ireland v Italy match!

[Gaoth Dobhair Abu]

Troll alert

Was thinking the same myself.

[Deal_Me_In]

Does anyone know of any tickets that are going? I am getting out of work earlier than expected and should be about for the game. If yes please l;et me know . Thanks

[ExiledGael]

Very unimpressive stuff here from the Irish, really lacking that spark O'Driscoll could provide. Credit must go to Italy though, at least the squad won't go to France overconfident I suppose

[ExiledGael]

late dropgoal from O'Gara looks like it'll spare any blushes of a defeat or a draw

ooops I spoke too soon, Italy just snook in for a late controversial try, but O'Gara has just broke through at the death, went to TV judge, he gave it, tight call, blushes spared!

[ExiledGael]

Lucky boys, tight game, hopefully that will stand to them

[magickingdom]

Not unreasonable Sammy G, but when there is a sizeable majority on one side, they tend to get what they want. That's life.

Is there any sort of majority (sizeable or otherwise)? Anybody that I've ever spoken to (north or south) is at the worst ambivalent and most actually accept the idea of ditching AnBf. I think if the IRFU were to run a poll on the issue the results wouldn't go with the status quo, which is why they have consistently refused to do it.

On a slightly different tack, what do you think of Belfast being declared as an away match and 'outside Ireland' by the IRFU?

belfast been declared an away match is a joke and i've no problem with AnBf been dumped in dublin.

[Donagh]

belfast been declared an away match is a joke and i've no problem with AnBf been dumped in dublin.

Belfast was not 'declared' an away venue, that's just Sammy speak to illustrate his objection to the lack of GSTQ.

Have to say the Italians were robbed tonight, though given that Ireland should have been given a penalty for the foul on Murphy before the Italian try, a draw would have been a fairer result. Italy will take a lot more away from this game, but sure we still have another two warm up games before the start of the World Cup.

Atmosphere was a bit flat during the game, but before and after in the beer tent was great altogether. The Ormeau Rd is bouncing at the minute with green geansai and accents from all parts of the country. Strangely enough I never heard anyone express the opinion that GSTQ should have been played – unlike the OWC crowd, the rugby people seem keen to keep politics out of their sport – and fair play to them...

[Turlough O Carolan]

belfast been declared an away match is a joke and i've no problem with AnBf been dumped in dublin.

Belfast was not 'declared' an away venue, that's just Sammy speak to illustrate his objection to the lack of GSTQ.

To be fair, I do recall an IRFU statement stating that since the game was being played outside Ireland, only "Ireland's Call" would be played at Ravenhill, in the process managing to insult both nationalists and unionists at the same time. According to the IRFU's constitution GSTQ should be played for games in Ravenhill. Indeed, that's what was played when Ireland won their only grand slam in 1948.

It wasn't until the first rugby world cup in 1987 that the IRFU starting to look for an anthem that pleased both traditions, going with the Rose of Tralee - causing one wag in the rugby team to call the Irish anthem, God Save the Rose of Tralee.

[ziggysego]

.... in the process managing to insult both nationalists and unionists at the same time.

Fair play to them 

[Donagh]

Personally I thought that statement was brilliant. By insulting both traditions as you suggest the IRFU clearly demonstrated they were following their own path and bypassing all of the tired, pedantic northern silliness. Many things were different 50 years ago and thankfully a lot has changed for the better – scrapping the English anthem GSTQ before Ireland games being one of them.

[Dinny Breen]

Back to the rugby....

Christ that was absymal last night, perhaps only D'Arcy, O'Gara and Dempsey can hold their heads high, the rest were rubbish. I will re-iterate for anyone who will listen Peter Stringer is now a liability at international level, his best years are a good 4 or 5 years ago. Marcus Horan was absolutely destroyed last night why haven't we developed any props in the last 5 years?

6 months ago I thought we had a great chance come the World Cup, not anymore...

1. Players are too protected, not enough games and will have no sharpness come the France game
2. No Scrum or an 8 that can cope with bad ball, Jamie Heaslip anyone?
3. No Scrum half
4. No natural 7, Keith Gleeson anyone?
5. Without BOD we are leaderless, POC is a good player but a terrible leader..

Bloody depressing..

P.S Italy were robbed last night, absolute disgrace
PPS Scrape all National Anthems...

[Chrisowc]

Should be there myself, but still sweating on a ticket just yet.

.....and you survived to tell the tale.  What with Ravenhill being in a loyalist ghetto and all.

[Ryano]

Well if nothing else at least this will bring us all back down to earth and stop all the sh1t talk about winning a world cup or even making a semi final. Hard to imagine that we managed to score 54 points against Italy 5 odd months ago.

Italy were robbed end of story. How the f*ck the TV ref could award ROG that try is beyond me and most sensible people. Definite home town decision. Nothing wrong with Italys injury time try either for me. Murphy was not fouled, he was just too old and slow to get there ahead of the two Italians despite a head start and when he made a balls of clearing the ball he threw his hands up and tried to make out he was fouled. Load of twaddle. The Italians played with passion, intensity and a will to win and deserved to win. Ireland were total and utter sh1te. The scrum was just pathetic and were pushed around and bullied by the Italians. We could not win loose ball on the ground, lost it in contact and were leaderless on the pitch. I was shocked by the apathy and lack of interest from most players. Do they think that once they are in the WC squad they don't have to bother making an effort?? I'd be dropping some of them just to send out a message to the other f*ckwits that this is not acceptable. This is allegedly the best prepared and financed team we have ever sent to a WC. God help us if this is the best we can do. POC was captain but he did not play like one. If ever we needed a man to take the game by the scruff of the neck and give some of his team mates a good kick up the hole then this was it. POC was nowhere to be seen and should have been taken off long before he was. The props were dominated and pushed around like school girls. Our passing was sloppy and usually to a static player who was swallowed up by blue shirts. There is not one good thing you can say about that. Argentina will eat us alive in the scrum or any mauls. France the same. Can you imagine what the All Blacks would do to this team? God help us.....