The IRISH RUGBY thread

[michaelg]

Are there any stats for how often players are concussed ? Would Ollie Campbell have been knocked out much ?

Was wondering recently if there was a stat for the current proportion of time that professional rugby players are injured in a season.  Was at Ravenhill last night and there was no Jackson, Olding, Trimble etc who were all out injured.  I would be surprised if the majority players are playing more than 2/3 of matches in a season due to missing games through injury.

[muppet]

Are there any stats for how often players are concussed ? Would Ollie Campbell have been knocked out much ?

Watch what Winterbottom does to Campbell here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LsRF047xur4

The 10 is always nailed when possible. That is why Sexton gets concussed, he is always targeted and like Campbell never backs down.

[AZOffaly]

Are there any stats for how often players are concussed ? Would Ollie Campbell have been knocked out much ?

Was wondering recently if there was a stat for the current proportion of time that professional rugby players are injured in a season.  Was at Ravenhill last night and there was no Jackson, Olding, Trimble etc who were all out injured.  I would be surprised if the majority players are playing more than 2/3 of matches in a season due to missing games through injury.

Likewise. And I always stand near the dugout in Thomond Park, and I am always struck by how battered the players are when they come off, either when replaced or at the end of the game. It's sometimes like a war of attrition.

[Tony Baloney]

Are there any stats for how often players are concussed ? Would Ollie Campbell have been knocked out much ?

Was wondering recently if there was a stat for the current proportion of time that professional rugby players are injured in a season.  Was at Ravenhill last night and there was no Jackson, Olding, Trimble etc who were all out injured.  I would be surprised if the majority players are playing more than 2/3 of matches in a season due to missing games through injury.

Likewise. And I always stand near the dugout in Thomond Park, and I am always struck by how battered the players are when they come off, either when replaced or at the end of the game. It's sometimes like a war of attrition.

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2015/feb/13/bigger-fitter-faster-rugby-union-too-strong

Reported instances of concussion English Premiership up 59% in 2013-14.

[yellowcard]

Sexton makes some difference, stand out flair player on the field.

[seafoid]

Sexton got a bad high tackle there

[Sidney]

The modern game of rugby union football is almost unwatchable. This is as bad a sporting spectacle as I've seen. Awful, awful muck.

[seafoid]

Rugby morphed from something based around passing into a fairly dull gym bunny orgy of kicking while gaelic football has the gym element but is going in the opposite direction.

[Captain Obvious]

Wasn't pretty however another famous win against a good team.

[Hardy]

Injurious Bastereaud.

[seafoid]

@MattRNCM has matt williams' tweets.
They are going to have to do something about rugby . He suggests the ruck and the scrum. But the high tackles are dangerous too.

[Main Street]

I suppose it's a sign of the times when a reasonably comfortable win over France in the 6 nations is treated with a gallic shrug.
Despite the best efforts of the rte commentary team to warn us about the danger of immediate catastrophe, I thought ireland did very  well to keep the french around the half way line, well out of danger in the final minutes.
I don't like rugby that much but I found this game satisfying despite the negative impact of  heavy  human chunks, too thick in body to bend and make a proper rugby tackle but instead stand their ground and  just collide head on with brutal effect.

[AZOffaly]

The modern game of rugby union football is almost unwatchable. This is as bad a sporting spectacle as I've seen. Awful, awful muck.

I agree. I like rugby, and the physical nature of it, but this sterile bash bash bash is probably unsafe and is definitely hard to watch. Nothing wrong with good physical stuff up to a point, but these lads remind me of the cannon fodder used in ww1. Bash the defensive line, recycle, rinse and repeat. It's sad when Ireland's box kicking game is one of the more inventive tactical components these days.

One thing I would say, fair play to the irish defensive line and especially the new centres. That must have been incredibly hard work all night.

[Syferus]

Strange days when we can out-play France comprehensively without really playing all that great. Made things more hairy than they deserved to be at the end but all that matters now is what looking like a title decider in two weeks. Nothing quite like England in Landsdowne with the Six Nations title on the line, the other matches are rivalries, this one is something more.

[trileacman]

First Ireland 6 nations game I stopped watching in about 10 years. Rugby has become awful muck. The decline of the French flair and Toulouse is a sad indictment of their game. The 2007 WC was the beginning of the end and the rules enacted after were counter-productive to protect rugby. This has lead to the rise of the "Gatland" tactics, fill the pitch with big men and smash early and often. He's only getting beaten now because everyone is at it. Face it lads, rugby is a sport going backwards.