Six Nations 2012

[GalwayBayBoy]

Wobbler you must be on the wind-up, the Welsh tight five were destroyed by Ireland today. Wales player for player are not better than Ireland they are though much better coached and that was evident today. Scrum-half and centres are where Wales were at their strongest, they targeted D'Arcy all day with their big runners and it got them over the gain line nearly every time and resulted in the second try.

D'Arcy was shocking today and gave McFadden no chance outside him.

Was it Darcy that got completely flattened in the lead up by either North/Roberts to Davies try?
Jesus, you might have well have put any of the 8 stone Rugby WAGS in there,and they would have made a better attempt at a stop.

Darcy and McFadden both got run over at various points today. In fairness the likes of North and Roberts are twice their size and have pace to go with it. Especially North. Some of their tackling was still too high though. Big lumps like that have to be cut off at the knees.

[CiKe]

It was McFadden that got bounced but it D'Arcy that missed the tackle and McFadden had to bite in.

England in Twickenham can be quite formidable, it will be a dead rubber game for us although Kidney's job could be on the line.

Wasn't he given a new contract before the WC? Who would be the realistic candidates to replace him i.e that we might want and stood a chance of getting? Has Schmidt got international ambitions?

[tyroneboi]

It was McFadden that got bounced but it D'Arcy that missed the tackle and McFadden had to bite in.

England in Twickenham can be quite formidable, it will be a dead rubber game for us although Kidney's job could be on the line.

History repeating itself maybe! Was Eddie O'Sullivans last game not against England at twickenhan in the last game of the 6 nations the year after a world cup?

[orangeman]

I haven't seen the match or the controversial penalty at the end which Wales converted to win it -

Was it a penalty or not ?

[Milltown Row2]

Was defo a penalty for sure. For me Ireland (Sexton) missed too many. O'Gara should be playing along side Sexton, no real reason why he can't in my view. Wales over all the better team and more threatening team

[Captain Obvious]

Was defo a penalty for sure. For me Ireland (Sexton) missed too many. O'Gara should be playing along side Sexton, no real reason why he can't in my view. Wales over all the better team and more threatening team

Sexton has been always hit or miss while O'Gara was mostly hit.

[whitegoodman]

Wobbler you must be on the wind-up, the Welsh tight five were destroyed by Ireland today. Wales player for player are not better than Ireland they are though much better coached and that was evident today. Scrum-half and centres are where Wales were at their strongest, they targeted D'Arcy all day with their big runners and it got them over the gain line nearly every time and resulted in the second try.

D'Arcy was shocking today and gave McFadden no chance outside him.

Agree with this.  We play with no imagination, we are too loyal to the older generation ( Darcy & Donnagha ) and rely on blood and guts to get us over the line.

Both Darcy and McFaddan were poor for that try, its all about technique in the tackle, no matter how big they are.  McFadden tried to tackle high on a far bigger man and was knocked back.  The key should have to tackle lol as these boys would have been taught at school boy level....I hope.

Not much can be said about Darcy, at least McFadden can have the excuse of being a bit green at this level.  Even Paddy Wallace is a better defender than Darcy at this stage!!!!

Centre, back row, 2nd row and general game plan need to be looked at.  We could badly do with a backs coach, Gaffney was bad but was not replaced.

[Dubh driocht]

D'arcy and Mc Fadden will be lucky to retain their places. O'Driscoll's absence was huge- there's no way he would have let their centre in for the third try. In this talk about conditioning I have to say the 4 Ulstermen were superb- Bowe and Ferris both made one mistake each( which cost us the game) but had fine games while Best and Trimble were outstanding- the latter is the only back that comes anywhere near to O'Driscoll's physicality.
I don't go with this no chance in Paris stuff.Despite playing poorly we could easily have won today and with Earls hopefully available ,you never know what mood the French will be in.
It might be a long shot but a few euro on a Down-Ireland double will pay for the holidays.

[whitegoodman]

Bowe did well for Best try and to finish is own but thought it was one of his poorer games.  Trimble did alright and Ferris was ok by his high standards.

Only Kearney and Best can hold their heads hight after that performance imo.

My main problem is that Kidney has a panel full of players who take on Europe year on year and come out on top yet when they join Ireland, under a different coaching team, play dreadful rugby (Oz match exception) and fail continually over the last 3 years since the GS when it counts.  So what does the coach do about it, more of the same, every time.

People can talk about the importance of NIQ players at club level but Leinster only have Nacewa who makes an impact and outside of the front row, Munster rely mainly on irish players with Howlett past his best.  Ulster may be the exception to this with reliance on Muller and Pinnaer especially, but we should have enough to be producing better than that today.

[Milltown Row2]

In Dublin next saturday, any good pubs to watch the rugby?

[johnneycool]

daft decision. Davies should have gone and don't thik Ferris one was a penalty. The game was lost though by ridiculous decision to have Sexton go for it inside his own half. A man extra, why not put it in the corner and eat up the clock and hopefully get a try - Sexton was never going to kick that in a million years

The penalty attempt from his own half was madness in the extreme. Who would have made that decision, Sexton or O'Connell? Even if Sexton did think he could make it O'Connell should have overuled him.

As you say Wales were a second row down and Ireland were doing well in the lineout.

Don't know enough about the technicalities of the tackle but you just knew Wales were either looking for a penalty or the drop goal at the end so the Irish should have been squeaky clean to see the game out.

The two Irish centres were targetted by Wales and one of the tries came from McFadden being steam rolled over in the tackle, hopefully he can improve but you can expect France to have taken note and try the same thing!!

Could be a long 6 nations campaign for Ireland.

[Hound]

Sexton had the distance in the long penalty, but did have to force it hence accuracy went. Against 14 men though POC should have insisted on going for the lineout.

Madness bringing on O'Gara so late. He'd two things to do - both restarts, and he made a balls of both of them, gave our lads no chance of winning either. Especially the last one where Halpennny had done us a bit of a favour by not taking more time and ensuring the clock was up.

Those Welsh backs are some monsters. If O'Gara and Earls had been on from the start it would've been a massacre.

Still it was a game we would have won but for silly errors. Tommy Bowe taking his eye of the ball at such a crucial moment. And how many pens did O'Brien, O'Connell and Ferris give away between them?

[AQMP]

No surprise as Bradley Davis is cited for the spear tackle on Donncha Ryan and could be facing a long spell on the sidelines...but Stephen Ferris has also been cited for his tackle on Ian Evans...WTF

[AZOffaly]

Ferris has no case to answer according to the hearing and a tweet by Evanne Ni Chuilinn.

[Hardy]

Davis got a seven week ban, according to RTÉ at lunchtime. Seems about right in both cases. Unfortunately, they can't reverse the result of the match. Weak referees are the ruination of more than one sport.