2009 Grand Slam Champions

[Mayo4Sam]

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.

In the ruck just before vickery got the line the ref clearly said to him next time u do it ur gone and the very next ruck his hands were all over it.

Think its very unfair to call johnson and guscott creeps, i like guscott, hes never done anything wrong other than be good
johnson made a stand in landsdown, there was no way he could have backed down, if it was the other way round and we got one of theirs to move down the red carpet we'd be gloating over it, a man who alwaus played with passion and one his country a world cup, the only reason we hate him is cause he destroyed us so often.

Thought outside of his kicking ogara was ok, he made 2 late kicks for the corner that really lifted pressure. Also cant be dropped as we have no alternative, possibly hump junior in 3 years.
Thought carney and ferris were excellent

[Our Nail Loney]

wow as I said before the season started greatness beckons for this Irish squad.  Odriscoll is up there with dooher as one of the bravest sportsmen I have seen. Kyle is a legend. 
Nice touch by kidney at the end re gaa  comment. I hope martin johnsons snarling arse is uncomfortable tonight in his job after his disrespect to our president
I love rugby and the whole drinking rugby thing

What did he do?? Musta missed that?

[pintsofguinness]

wow as I said before the season started greatness beckons for this Irish squad.  Odriscoll is up there with dooher as one of the bravest sportsmen I have seen. Kyle is a legend. 
Nice touch by kidney at the end re gaa  comment. I hope martin johnsons snarling arse is uncomfortable tonight in his job after his disrespect to our president
I love rugby and the whole drinking rugby thing

What did he do?? Musta missed that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtmCGFt6Dg

The Irish team should have fucked them out of the way though.

[Square Ball]

Just at the end of the video Tom McGirk says, it was a day for hating the English and they gave us a very good reason to hate them.

Do the Irish need another reason to hate the English?

[Our Nail Loney]

wow as I said before the season started greatness beckons for this Irish squad.  Odriscoll is up there with dooher as one of the bravest sportsmen I have seen. Kyle is a legend. 
Nice touch by kidney at the end re gaa  comment. I hope martin johnsons snarling arse is uncomfortable tonight in his job after his disrespect to our president
I love rugby and the whole drinking rugby thing

What did he do?? Musta missed that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtmCGFt6Dg

The Irish team should have fucked them out of the way though.

Youtube blocked in work here, will get a look when I get home, cheers...

[muppet]

England came with a dour game-plan which Ireland would have coped easily with had we hit our penalties. The score should have been 20-6 entering the last two minutes and we would have been more than happy with that.

Some of the players seem to be struggling under the weight of all the Grand Slam talk. Normally O'Gara nails his kicks even if he does nothing else. Others such as BOD seem to thrive on the pressure to deliver. It was amazing the number of times England had an overlap but never got to take advantage because someone, usually O'Driscoll, put in a man & ball tackle. Either we were fortunate or we have a great defensive system, I don't know enough about rugby to be able to tell the difference.

Scotland is a huge banana skin. Instead of going there to get two points and another link in the Grand Slam chain I think we should forget the Welsh for the moment & go there to try to seal the Championship. A big win in Murrayfield should be enough. Then & only then should we worry about the Grand Slam.

Enjoyed meeting AZOffaly and Passedit before the game. It is amazing how easy it is to talk to people you meet off this discussion board. We should do that kind of thing more often.

[Main Street]

It was an absorbing to watch on tv. Good to get the minnows out of the way

Wasn't it absurd when the RTE commentary team thought the 2nd yellow was harsh, that the English guy had a right to clear the way and this was said over a tv replay which showed that the ball had long departed the ruck and was in play elsewhere?

[FermPundit]

It was an absorbing to watch on tv. Good to get the minnows out of the way

Wasn't it absurd when the RTE commentary team thought the 2nd yellow was harsh, that the English guy had a right to clear the way and this was said over a tv replay which showed that the ball had long departed the ruck and was in play elsewhere?

Yeah, i noticed this as well. The interview with Jack Kyle after the game was superb though.

[Hotrocks]

Not a big fan of Rugby, and after watching yesterdays game i am still not!
Has Ireland only got o Gara to take the kicks, his contribution to the game was zero!
As for England they were horrible and could still have won only for their ill discipline!
Watched on Setanta, could they get no one else to co- commentate only that biased little bastard Moore!

[Tankie]

Not a big fan of Rugby, and after watching yesterdays game i am still not!
Has Ireland only got o Gara to take the kicks, his contribution to the game was zero!
As for England they were horrible and could still have won only for their ill discipline!
Watched on Setanta, could they get no one else to co- commentate only that biased little b**tard Moore!

Stick to the GAA as you clearly do not understand the game. As a game though yesterday it was not great but a win is a win and its was great to see BOD probably claim the Loins captaincy!

[johnneycool]

wow as I said before the season started greatness beckons for this Irish squad.  Odriscoll is up there with dooher as one of the bravest sportsmen I have seen. Kyle is a legend. 
Nice touch by kidney at the end re gaa  comment. I hope martin johnsons snarling arse is uncomfortable tonight in his job after his disrespect to our president
I love rugby and the whole drinking rugby thing

What did he do?? Musta missed that?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jZtmCGFt6Dg

The Irish team should have fucked them out of the way though.

the Irish team had 80 minutes that day to 'f**k them out of the way' but didn't!!

As for saturday, very jittery indeed and the team in general wasn't helped by O'Gara's poor kicking which if they'd been converted would have settled the team earlier. Fair fucks to O'Driscoll for taking it upon himself to take the drop goal on to give a lead when things were still in the balance.
O'Gara would have had an absolute mare if he hadn't of redeemed himself somewhat with some good kicks for touch when Ireland needed to get a better field position when under pressure.

IMO if England had of started with Moody of the big eye brows they may have probably beaten Ireland but we'll have to thank young Martin for that one. i hope he paid the GAA for the damage to that seat he was punching.


The Scots won't be a soft touch especially as they specialise in ruining the party and it's a real banana skin if Ronan doesn't pin them back early on, one of those games ireland go in as favourites, a tag we don't carry well.

[Doogie Browser]

Yer man Jack Kyle was a great guest on RTE after the game, he was bright as a button and enjoyable to listen to, he must be at least in his mid 80's.

[Dinny Breen]

Firstly thank god Brian O'Driscoll is Irish simply the best player Ireland has ever produced, very unassuming to meet as well.

No point in bashing O'Gara, he was poor as he has been since the World Cup in 2007. Part of the problem was that the English team had a simply game plan and that was to slow down Irish ball as much as possible and they competed on every ruck hence the high penalty count. O'Leary had to dig out nearly every ball and our ball presentation was poor often resulting in a squeeze ball (ball placed between the legs) which by it's nature is a slow ball. Ireland tried to pick and go to quicken up the ball to scrum half but the English fringe defence was excellent and they domnated the collision area.

Should have won comfortably and while weary of Scotland if we can dominate up front and we should we will win by 10 - 15.

By the way again credit must go to Gert Smal our set-piece was again excellent on Saturday and Ferris, O'Connell and John Hayes again were all immense.

[5 Sams]

Lads I admit I know next to nothing about the egg chasing but I enjoy watching it.....but yer man Stephen Jones in the Times yesterday gave BÓD 6 out of 10 and basically said he had an average game.....I've heard a few lads on here giving out about Jones....seems like he goes out of his way to wind people up with his opinions...is he the rugby version of Liam Hayes?

[Main Street]

Part of the problem was that the English team had a simply game plan and that was to slow down Irish ball as much as possible and they competed on every ruck hence the high penalty count. O'Leary had to dig out nearly every ball and our ball presentation was poor often resulting in a squeeze ball (ball placed between the legs) which by it's nature is a slow ball. Ireland tried to pick and go to quicken up the ball to scrum half but the English fringe defence was excellent and they domnated the collision area.

It looked to me that Stringer got into the flow of that game quickly, was more assertive than O'Leary at the back of the ruck and got the ball moving to the back line decisively.