2009 Grand Slam Champions

[Dinny Breen]

Very hungover and vey happy to be an Irishman today what a way to win and what a team.

[muppet]

Very happy man today.

Very surprised to a post by myself above at 2.40am and even more surprised that it is almost coherent. Almost.

[Capt Pat]

Having just watched the final penalty decision again, I am still not sure that what the ref did was right. From what I could see it should have been a penalty the other way for holding on. Wallace did not come in from the side he was a part of the ruck and moved towards the side to try and pick up the ball, maybe the ref had already said hands away its a ruck but I didn't hear that. I can't see the start of the play on the replay I have so it may not have been a ruck when Wallace first put hands on the ball. I thought the ref gave a couple of other dogy penalty decisions to Wales as well.

[Hardy]

I thought the ref was a bit of a lottery and had way too much influence on the game. A penalty ratio of 17-4 seems highly unusual too. Though I did think it was justice that O'Gara missed the first one - looked like a dive to me. I didn't see any contact. But when I mentioned it in the pub last night I was shouted down. "The foot came out", I was told. I didn't see it. What do people think? (Looking for ammo to resume the debate tonight).

[ziggysego]

The foot definitely went out, but I feel O'Gara made a meal of it.

[cavan4ever]

I thought the ref was a bit of a lottery and had way too much influence on the game. A penalty ratio of 17-4 seems highly unusual too. Though I did think it was justice that O'Gara missed the first one - looked like a dive to me. I didn't see any contact. But when I mentioned it in the pub last night I was shouted down. "The foot came out", I was told. I didn't see it. What do people think? (Looking for ammo to resume the debate tonight).

It did but on such a great day for Irish Rugby and Sport how did you end up debating that ??

p.s hope u do your grand national thing again this year.

[turk]

Well done Ireland!!

[Orior]

Shall we forgive the Poyntzpass man for coming on and throwing a forward pass, and then giving away the final penalty?

Aye, why not.

[Hoof Hearted]

At last ! We have been there or thereabouts for 7/8 years.
4 Triple Crowns ow in 6 years, with Italy never a problem, it was always the French who gave us the problems. 2 years ago, the first game in Croke Park, i thought was our best chance of a grand slam. Yet again, failure to beat the French was our downfall.
With a new management in place this year, a proven successful manager to boot, and with the French at home, i knew this was a fantastic chance of the clean sweep. thankfully we held off the French and went on from there.

Now where ?

I think this a fantastic oppurtunity for the world cup. The players and management will be looking to do this back to back, but with england and France away next year, it will a tall order. A solid season would do. then in world cup year, aim to do this again. I honestly think that with Kidney in charge we could be world champions. Am i being too optimistic here ?

[Hardy]

I thought the ref was a bit of a lottery and had way too much influence on the game. A penalty ratio of 17-4 seems highly unusual too. Though I did think it was justice that O'Gara missed the first one - looked like a dive to me. I didn't see any contact. But when I mentioned it in the pub last night I was shouted down. "The foot came out", I was told. I didn't see it. What do people think? (Looking for ammo to resume the debate tonight).

It did but on such a great day for Irish Rugby and Sport how did you end up debating that ??

Good point and I often give out here about people dwelling on the negative. It wasn't all we discussed. But I would hate to see the soccer disease infect rugby as well as gaelic.

p.s hope u do your grand national thing again this year.

I'll be doing it OK for the crack. But don't be expecting miracles. The stats have proven amazingly reliable in the National though, above all races. Didn't work great for this year's Cheltenham, unfortunately.

[bcarrier]

Hardy you werent alone in your ROG thoughts ...this is from planet rugby

Man of the match: The officials gave it to Brian O'Driscoll but that strikes us as a cliched cop-out. Instead we give it to the man who did so much damage to the Welsh challenge by ruining their line-out: Paul O'Connell.

Moment of the match: No possible candidate other than the moment the goal-kick from Stephen Jones dropped under the bar. Relief and Joy all rolled into one.

Villain of the match: Hmmm - we'll refrain from giving it to Ronan O'Gara for his theatrical tumble in the first minute on sentimental grounds. No award.


In fairness to ROG he worked through his wobble and eventually found key to breaking down wales by targeting the Henson/Williams channel .

Stephen Jones ( the " journalist" ) is at it in ST again today .... no BOD/POC in " his" lions team

[Main Street]

O'Gara has some guts, it looked like he was hit by a bus and run over by a JCB and got up to play his Rugby, attempting to kick the perfect angled balls.

Great team performance in a game which was just surreal. They have been knocking on that door of destiny for years now.
I kinda knew that last penalty wouldn't make it all the way

[bridgegael]

Hardy you werent alone in your ROG thoughts ...this is from planet rugby

Man of the match: The officials gave it to Brian O'Driscoll but that strikes us as a cliched cop-out. Instead we give it to the man who did so much damage to the Welsh challenge by ruining their line-out: Paul O'Connell.

Moment of the match: No possible candidate other than the moment the goal-kick from Stephen Jones dropped under the bar. Relief and Joy all rolled into one.

Villain of the match: Hmmm - we'll refrain from giving it to Ronan O'Gara for his theatrical tumble in the first minute on sentimental grounds. No award.


In fairness to ROG he worked through his wobble and eventually found key to breaking down wales by targeting the Henson/Williams channel .

Stephen Jones ( the " journalist" ) is at it in ST again today .... no BOD/POC in " his" lions team

know nothing of this guy,  but surely he is on the wind up,  or just knows nothing!!

[muppet]

Jones is Welsh. He picked 9 Welsh players for the Lions test team. That says all you need to know about him.

He picked Shanklin and Henson ahead of O'Driscoll.

Kenny Logan told him that he needed to call a taxi and to come back tomorrow after he said he was leaving O'Driscoll out.

BTW one of the most memorable images of the game was O'Driscoll picking up Shanklin and driving him backwards. I wonder did Steve Jones miss that bit?

[Main Street]

Good photo in the ET