2009 Grand Slam Champions

[Maguire01]

Ireland could live to regret that late try. If we beat Scotland and lose to Wales it could all come down to scoring difference for the Championship.

I'm not a mad rugby fan so maybe I'm off the mark with this one but the championship is secondary, grand slam or bust. Championship teams come and go but Grand Slammers, well there's only six or seven Irish men alive who can boast that as Jackie Kyle was saying

Well yes, it's all about the grand slam, but at the end of the day, it's better to come first than second. A Championship would be the next best thing.

[balladmaker]

Well yes, it's all about the grand slam, but at the end of the day, it's better to come first than second. A Championship would be the next best thing.

If Ireland win the Six Nations, then it will be the first international tournament Ireland have won in a long time, who are we to turn our noses up at a Six Nations title!  It will all be about points, and Wales going head to head with Ireland for the Championship would be some game under the closed roof of the Millennium Stadium.

[Hound]

BOD was immense.
Crap Game
O'Gara will win us us the Grand Slam, trust him, he just had a bed game.

2 bad games out of 3 for O'Gara.
By "will win us the Grand Slam", are you saying he'll be man of the match v Wales? Hugely unlikely. But we will need him to do his job if we are to win the grand slam.

[Hardy]

I thought it was an outstanding performance by O'Driscoll - the essence of sporting greatness - doing it when it matters. On the other hand, what does O'Gara have to do to lose his place? Or even to get hauled off when he's having one of his nightmares?

(Disclaimer - no expert on rugby, etc.)

[turk]

A win is a win! After each match it's two points but there is a lot of work to do. In a way this is better than free scoring victories where no questions are asked or answered.

O'Gara was poor. There is an issue that he has had no competition for the jersey for a number of years, since Humphries retired. Having said that I still don't reckon the coach would haul off O'Gara after 60 minutes and put on an inexperienced out half (if one had been blooded over the last few year(s)), and was on the bench to start with).

I'd be concerned too with the lack of opportunities we have been creating by throwing the ball out to our backs. I'm not an expert so i can't tell if this is down to any factors with the half backs or it just isn't clicking. It looks to me like Kearney, Fitzgerald and Bowe are playing reasonably well but they could do with a bit of ball thrown out to them. O'Driscoll of course is savage, and makes a total mockery of the calls to have him replaced as captain.

PS - I enjoy Brian Moore's commentary - especially when he's getting thick!!

[AZOffaly]

Bit of a curates egg there yesterday again. O'Gara was shocking at his kicks for goal. I don't know what's up with him, but I do hold my hands up yesterday as a defender of him. That wasn't nearly good enough. Out of hand he wasn't as bad as it may have seemed, the ELV argument I put forth earlier still applies, and he did have some good positional kicks when Ireland needed it, especially when England pressed up flat on the outside with Sackey and Cueto.

O'Driscoll and O'Connell were absolutely immense. I've defended O'Driscoll in the past as well, and he'd make you proud with the effort he puts in defensively, never mind his good brain and attacking threat. O'Connell likewise. A giant of a man. He called nearly every lineout on himself, and then went up and won them.

I thought Ireland played a horses for courses approach yesterday. England came determined to smash them out of the way, but Ireland met them, matched them, and outdid them in that aspect. It wasn't a day for running rugby, and the amount of ball kicked by Kearney, Bowe, Fitzgerald, O'Gara and O'Driscoll indicated that space up on the line was at a premium. I think we've won 3 very different games in 3 very different ways, which is great.

Against France it was heart stopping run, run, run. Against Italy it was brutal and then outlasting them, against England it was mano a mano for 80 minutes, and we beat them too, and if O'Gara wasn't doing his best to hit the corner of Hill 16, we'd have won by more.

On a side note, nice to meet up with muppet and passedit for a pint before the game. I should have made a weekend out of it

[Bord na Mona man]

If O'Gara had nailed the penalties, there wouldn't have been much mention of him.
He did reasonably ok out of the hand. Found good touch a couple of times and didn't do as well with a couple of others. I've seen him had worse days in open play, but manage to nail the penalites. I still believe he is a limited player beyond his kicking.

The bigger is issue is the lack of replacements. Also, you have to question why many Irish players are one dimensional and it seems can only play in one positiion effectively.
Most other rugby nations have players who have the all round game to play.

The other night France threw Baby in at fly half and he seemed to cope in a position he never played in before. You look at Élissalde, Michalak who can play scrum half and fly half.
Ireland just doesn't do that sort of dynamic rugby. When you heaer it mentioned about about Tommy Bowe's has improved a lot by being played as a centre at Ospreys, you have to wonder why players aren't getting all round grounding in the Irish system.

We tend to produce scrum halves who throw, fly halves who kick etc. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Last night something different than just kicking away possession. England were standing up flat, bordering on the offside. I don't remember Ireland trying to dink the ball in behind them, make a quick break, or try and do something to get them turned the wrong way.

[Bord na Mona man]

Some laugh to hear Brian Moore trying to say the late hit after O'Driscoll had kicked was legit. Beating England is all the more sweeter when you get one over on creeps like Martin Johnson, Brian Moore and Jeremy Guscott.

That's neither here nor there, it has to be about more than those guys. You know what you get from Moore, and I think most of the time he calls it like it is. I also don't think Guscott is that bad at all either. We should be able to rise about the easy English bashing, there are greater targets.

C'mon now.
You have to enjoy moments like this! 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/7917118.stm

[turk]

Superb thickness from Johnson!

As an aside, didn't Bernard Jackman do something very similar to the English lad when Ireland needed points at the end against Wales last year in Croke Park?

[Hound]

If O'Gara had nailed the penalties, there wouldn't have been much mention of him.
He did reasonably ok out of the hand. Found good touch a couple of times and didn't do as well with a couple of others. I've seen him had worse days in open play, but manage to nail the penalites. I still believe he is a limited player beyond his kicking.

The bigger is issue is the lack of replacements. Also, you have to question why many Irish players are one dimensional and it seems can only play in one positiion effectively.
Most other rugby nations have players who have the all round game to play.

The other night France threw Baby in at fly half and he seemed to cope in a position he never played in before. You look at Élissalde, Michalak who can play scrum half and fly half.
Ireland just doesn't do that sort of dynamic rugby. When you heaer it mentioned about about Tommy Bowe's has improved a lot by being played as a centre at Ospreys, you have to wonder why players aren't getting all round grounding in the Irish system.

We tend to produce scrum halves who throw, fly halves who kick etc. When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. Last night something different than just kicking away possession. England were standing up flat, bordering on the offside. I don't remember Ireland trying to dink the ball in behind them, make a quick break, or try and do something to get them turned the wrong way.

In fairness O'Leary is an all rounder. His kicking game is the main reason he's ahead of Reddin, and of course he's played stand off for us for 10 minutes this campaign. Although I think Kidney instructs him to kick a bit too often. And I think if O'Gara had been hauled off at half time, and we'd played Wallace at 10 and D'Arcy at 12 for the second half, we would have won far more comfortably. It would surely improve O'Gara's performances if he knew his place was in real jepoardy.

Scotland are improving with every game. Definite potential bananaskin. Amazing they started the campaign without their 3 most dangerous backs.

[thewobbler]

Scotland really could be a tough game. The Scottish back row is arguably better than any we've faced this season to date...and it's not like our halfbacks have clicked in the previous games.

We still should have too much class for them at midfield and further back, but if the Scots get in our faces there won't be much in it.

I imagine we'll be going out with the same team again, which is sensible enough. But if Kidney doesn't trust the likes of Murphy and D'Arcy to come into a tight game, maybe they shouldn't be involved at all? BOD was out on his feet yesterday in the last quarter - so something really mustn't be right with those two.

Secondly, if Paddy Wallace really isn't under consideration as a replacement fly-half, then we really need to get one on the bench. It's not acceptable that such a crucial position can be left solely in the hands of a man with questionable mental fortitude.

I'd have Court, Best, Casey, Leamy, Reddan, Humphreys and D'Arcy myself. 

[Bord na Mona man]

In fairness O'Leary is an all rounder. His kicking game is the main reason he's ahead of Reddin, and of course he's played stand off for us for 10 minutes this campaign. Although I think Kidney instructs him to kick a bit too often.

True I suppose, though his passing is not exceptionally quick. Maybe it is a pipe dream to expect both quick wrists and a good boot on a player. I just think that if the ball has to come through the hands of O'Leary, O'Gara and then Wallace before it gets to the real flyers you are really aren't giving yourself much chance of opening up a team.

England kept a couple of men on either touchline to make it difficult for O'Gara to find touch, also they defended any back row drives by Ireland fairly well too. So Ireland didn't really have many other ways of worrying them. Kearney, Fitzgerald and Bowe rarely got a decent pass and most of their best moments came from kicks and chases of their own possession.

[Bord na Mona man]

As an aside, didn't Bernard Jackman do something very similar to the English lad when Ireland needed points at the end against Wales last year in Croke Park?

Yep, he ploughed into the back of him and gave Wales the match sealing penalty. It was even worse because the Welsh player had both arms in the air to indicate he wasn't trying to interfere with play.

[Diet Coke]

Result was all important yesterday.......thought ref was terrible....england constantly offside....never heard him once say "hands out white, or roll away white". My main concern come Cardiff is the bench....no real replacements for Hayes, O'Gara or Kearney. The Welsh have good replacements and I think it will come down to the respective benches to win the game. Hope I'm wrong.

[pintsofguinness]

Result was all important yesterday.......thought ref was terrible....england constantly offside....never heard him once say "hands out white, or roll away white".

When one of the English boys was sent off they said on the BBC commentary that the ref told him to move away but we couldnt hear it.  So he was probably telling them the whole game.