The IRISH RUGBY thread

[Walter Cronc]

If kidney gets the road it'll be a blessing in disguise. How in earth did Redden not start?? Everyone knows to beat Scotland you have to play with pace!

[CiKe]

WTF was that? Kidney has just lost his job and O'Gara will never play again...

Jackson may not play again either until he substantially improves his kicking or they have someone else kicking...

Fair play to Scotland, unbelievable they won that, we just weren't clinical. Marshall made great breaks but should have had a try off the second one. Great break by Earls as well but obviously wrong selfish decision. Fact we went for tries from kickable penalties in first half just shows lack of faith in Jackson from the guys around him - that couldn't be good for his confidence as just builds the pressure on him....

[muppet]

Court, Jackson and especially O'Gara were the coaches call and he got it wrong.

I also think the Heaslip captaincy was a bad call.

I don't know what was wrong with Rory Best, never seen him play like that. He is normally a contender for MOM.

[Dinny Breen]

Apart from Jackson's goal-kicking his all round game was pretty good, his goal-kicking will improve. Ireland lost today because of Kidney and failure to execute in the red zone and the senior players need to take responsibility for that.

[muppet]

Scotland used to do this to us all of the time. I can't think of any line breaks they made & I can think of a few Irish ones, but they still beat us.

[CiKe]

Apart from Jackson's goal-kicking his all round game was pretty good, his goal-kicking will improve. Ireland lost today because of Kidney and failure to execute in the red zone and the senior players need to take responsibility for that.

He was ok Dinny, no better.  He dropped first ball and missed kick to touch - was not just his goal-kicking. An international team should not be playing with a kicker who the team (or at least the captain) have no faith in. Will he get better? No doubt, kind of a chicken and egg situation but I'd be tempted to have Madigan involved.

Did O'Driscoll want to go for the penalty at the end? He seemed to be taking control of things nd then suddenly remembered he wasn't the captain any more.

[Dinny Breen]

Apart from Jackson's goal-kicking his all round game was pretty good, his goal-kicking will improve. Ireland lost today because of Kidney and failure to execute in the red zone and the senior players need to take responsibility for that.

He was ok Dinny, no better.  He dropped first ball and missed kick to touch - was not just his goal-kicking. An international team should not be playing with a kicker who the team (or at least the captain) have no faith in. Will he get better? No doubt, kind of a chicken and egg situation but I'd be tempted to have Madigan involved.

Did O'Driscoll want to go for the penalty at the end? He seemed to be taking control of things nd then suddenly remembered he wasn't the captain any more.

It's easy to isolate a coupe of errors, they weren't a reflection of his whole game - how about his defence, how many line-breaks did we have today. 77% possession and territory who do who think controls that. We lost because of poor performances from the senior players Best, Ryan, O'Callaghan, BOD and Kearney and the worst cameo of all time from ROG - horrendous.

Madigan is not the answer yet, needs a full season as Leinster number 1 out-half and has never kicked in a pressure situation.

[muppet]

Apart from Jackson's goal-kicking his all round game was pretty good, his goal-kicking will improve. Ireland lost today because of Kidney and failure to execute in the red zone and the senior players need to take responsibility for that.

He was ok Dinny, no better.  He dropped first ball and missed kick to touch - was not just his goal-kicking. An international team should not be playing with a kicker who the team (or at least the captain) have no faith in. Will he get better? No doubt, kind of a chicken and egg situation but I'd be tempted to have Madigan involved.

Did O'Driscoll want to go for the penalty at the end? He seemed to be taking control of things nd then suddenly remembered he wasn't the captain any more.

It's easy to isolate a coupe of errors, they weren't a reflection of his whole game - how about his defence, how many line-breaks did we have today. 77% possession and territory who do who think controls that. We lost because of poor performances from the senior players Best, Ryan, O'Callaghan, BOD and Kearney and the worst cameo of all time from ROG - horrendous.

Madigan is not the answer yet, needs a full season as Leinster number 1 out-half and has never kicked in a pressure situation.

It is not as if he was demanding inclusion after his last cameo.

Kidney has left us without a proper understudy to Sexton and when Johnny's hamstring went, so did Kidney's job.

[Donnellys Hollow]

He should have gone with McFadden on the wing to take the pressure off Jackson's goal kicking but Kidney cannot take all the blame. The experienced campaigners let Ireland down. Best had his worst game ever at international level, Heaslip is a poor captain and both Earls and Kearney butchered some good attacking opportunities. Too many of these players have been built up by the rugby media and are immune from criticism. That was a very limited Scottish side albeit an organised one. Any decent international team should be beating them comfortably. Ireland look like they are entering a period of transition for the next few years.

[seafoid]

It was a bit like watching Waterford hurlers or Galway footballers. Longish period of change ahead.
But you would expect a bit more from professionals all the same. Those Leinster players should have the skill and execution to be capable of beating Scotland. 

[Dinny Breen]

It was a bit like watching Waterford hurlers or Galway footballers. Longish period of change ahead.
But you would expect a bit more from professionals all the same. Those Leinster players should have the skill and execution to be capable of beating Scotland.

Yea those damn Leinster players.

[GalwayBayBoy]

One of the stranger decisions I've seen on a sporting field.

[Celt_Man]

oh my sweet jaysus... what a utter mess...

And O'Gara almost looked like he was trying to kick pass the ball to one of his team mates a lá GAA style

[muppet]

One of the stranger decisions I've seen on a sporting field.

I think that counts as Scotland's only line break.

[Aaron Boone]

Could've would've should've kind of day.

Scotland the Brave.