2009 Grand Slam Champions

[brokencrossbar1]

The result on Saturday was fantastic and over the game itself and the tournament as a whole Ireland are worthy Grand Slam winners.  O Driscoll has been magnificient and Kidney's decision to maintain him as captain and in the face of public discontent and behind the scenes concerns between the players over his role it was a very brave one.  O'Connell is getting back to the form he has shown previously and the likes of Heaslip, Ferris and Bowe have been immense.  O Gara showed that he has huge balls when push came to shove and his kick will be immortalised in RTE adverts fro the next 10 years.

Now, to put a different angle on things and I don't know if it has been mentioned already as I haven't read through things.  Does anyone else feel that Jones pulled his kick?  He is a seriously professional player and one of the ones you would put your house on.  The kick was far out, but not so far as he wasn't able to do it.  It was straight in front of the goals.  Wales were not going to win the championship, they would have won the Triple Crown, but that means nothing really these days.  It was a nothing kick from a Wales perspective.  He normally goes through a routine but he seemed to rush through the kick, it was away nearly before the cameras went back to it.  That is very unlike a kicker who is giving it his full.  Only my opinion, but perhaps he saw the opportunity to do something nice for fellow professionals and realised that on the day Wales did not deserve it?

[stephenite]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

[brokencrossbar1]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

[Billys Boots]

Only my opinion, but perhaps he saw the opportunity to do something nice for fellow professionals and realised that on the day Wales did not deserve it?

It might explain why O'Gara was all over him, and wore his jersey for the presentation.

[Gnevin]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

Why would this fella risk his enter career ? Most DG sail over and land 10 yards behind ,if players have such control why over cook it so much?  Jasus you lot are unreal he's human not a machine.

[Gnevin]

Only my opinion, but perhaps he saw the opportunity to do something nice for fellow professionals and realised that on the day Wales did not deserve it?

It might explain why O'Gara was all over him, and wore his jersey for the presentation.

Awe ok so Dublin didn't get beaten by Tyrone last August . We wanted to do something nice   

[cavan4ever]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

Why would this fella risk his enter career ? Most DG sail over and land 10 yards behind ,if players have such control why over cook it so much?  Jasus you lot are unreal he's human not a machine.

Why would he have kicked the Drop goal 5-6 minutes earlier if he was thinking like that. 

[brokencrossbar1]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

Why would this fella risk his enter career ? Most DG sail over and land 10 yards behind ,if players have such control why over cook it so much?  Jasus you lot are unreal he's human not a machine.

DG's are during the game play and adrenalin will always push it further.  A penalty is more controlled and you have more ability to manipulate.  Also DG's are normally closer in than most penalties.  I just found it strange how such an experienced kicker, one of the best in the game, rushed such an important game winning kick.  If someone did that in an AI final his hole would be rightly kicked.

[Gnevin]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

Why would this fella risk his enter career ? Most DG sail over and land 10 yards behind ,if players have such control why over cook it so much?  Jasus you lot are unreal he's human not a machine.

DG's are during the game play and adrenalin will always push it further.  A penalty is more controlled and you have more ability to manipulate.  Also DG's are normally closer in than most penalties.  I just found it strange how such an experienced kicker, one of the best in the game, rushed such an important game winning kick.  If someone did that in an AI final his hole would be rightly kicked.

I've seen T Feron talking less bollocks than you are currently

[cavan4ever]

Henson normally kicks the long ranges ones but he didnt have the bottle to kick it after missing one earlier, so maybe Jones didnt believe he could make the distance and wasnt confident.

[Billys Boots]

Only my opinion, but perhaps he saw the opportunity to do something nice for fellow professionals and realised that on the day Wales did not deserve it?

It might explain why O'Gara was all over him, and wore his jersey for the presentation.

Awe ok so Dublin didn't get beaten by Tyrone last August . We wanted to do something nice   

I don't understand what you mean - and it's not the spelling.

[brokencrossbar1]

It was the first thought that came into my head BC, but no one could kick a ball from 48m and be able to drop it just a yard short, it was on target, just lacked the extra yard. I can't see how anyone could kick it just like that, if he wanted to miss it it would be easier to put it wide of the posts and give it the distance.

The things is I have no doubt that he could kick it and leave it a yard short.  Top place kickers of every sport are so good that they know exactly how much they need to put into a kick to get it over.  All he needed to do was drop his intensity of the kick by 5 % and it was dropping short.  How many times have balls which could easily be kicked over the bar been dropped into the square to engineer a goal, it is the same concept.

Why would this fella risk his enter career ? Most DG sail over and land 10 yards behind ,if players have such control why over cook it so much?  Jasus you lot are unreal he's human not a machine.

DG's are during the game play and adrenalin will always push it further.  A penalty is more controlled and you have more ability to manipulate.  Also DG's are normally closer in than most penalties.  I just found it strange how such an experienced kicker, one of the best in the game, rushed such an important game winning kick.  If someone did that in an AI final his hole would be rightly kicked.

I've seen T Feron talking less bollocks than you are currently

What's you're f**king problem arsewipe, a player who misses a penalty which he is more than capable of kicking, and I question it, what is wrong with that?  He clearly rushed the kick and was not that devastated by it.  Head in hands yes, but he wasn't too badly annoyed looking at him.  I personally think he would have kicked that over if Wales had been going for the Grand Slam instead of merely a Triple Crown.

[stephenite]

Wales still would have won a triple crown if it went over - as a professional rugby player I doubt that he would have handed Ireland a triple crown and a grand slam over his own triple crown, regardless of how meaningless it is supposed to be.

I don't see why he would do something nice for the Irish, as a player you want to win every game

[bcarrier]

Jones kicked ball out on full just before that to give way lineout inside 22 which lead to Irelands drop goal. I admire the guy but think he actually got a bit rattled in last few minutes. I did think Wales were a miserable shower of feckers for taking drop goal before that though ...they needed two tries to win chamionship and elected instead to stop Ireland.

[Gnevin]

Only my opinion, but perhaps he saw the opportunity to do something nice for fellow professionals and realised that on the day Wales did not deserve it?

It might explain why O'Gara was all over him, and wore his jersey for the presentation.

Awe ok so Dublin didn't get beaten by Tyrone last August . We wanted to do something nice   

I don't understand what you mean - and it's not the spelling.

Well Dublin only lost because we wanted to be nice. Sure we can't win a game of football next week and we realised Tyrone deserved a bit more, I heard  Kerry did the same.