2008 Six Nations Thread

[john mcgill]

Just back from Croke Park, as we were leaving I saw a bunch of gurriers around the gates.  I said to the brother  watch the wallet you don't want to get robbed.  He took his ticket out and said we just have been!

[Diet Coke]

Worst display I've seen in over 20 years. No game plan at all. Are there no talented young fellas playing rugby.....France, Wales all are prepared to give youth a chance....EOS's idea is bring on a couple of lads with 5 mins to go.
Time for a clean sweep, get rid of all the dead wood.

[ludermor]

i was beside a few welsh lads at the game and i cringed every time ireland scored ( thankfully not too often) and they played that awful diddly di shite. They might as well have had a few lads dressed up as leprechauns outfits dancing with shillelagh's

[Hardy]

i was beside a few welsh lads at the game and i cringed every time ireland scored ( thankfully not too often) and they played that awful diddly di shite. They might as well have had a few lads dressed up as leprechauns outfits dancing with shillelagh's

Give it a few years and we'll have it at championship matches in the GAA. Only a small step from that to young ones shaking big mops.

[Hardy]

That was an unforgivable insult to the All-Ireland Champions.

"Congratulations ... when I tell everyone that you're in love with me"!!!

It shows what some gobshites in Croke Park are capable of.

[ONeill]

France need to beat Wales by 20 points or more in Cardiff to win the 2008 championship.

[stephenite]

Woeful performance, EOS has got to go etc.

One thing, Trimble shouldn't be allowed play rugby at that level again, how close was he to Shane Williams when he nipped in for that try? It wasn't the Monaghan U-16 development squad he was playing for, he can tackle people in rugby, all he needed to do was jump on him! Shocking stuff

[maddog]

Desperate performance, never seen Croker so quiet. Atmosphere pure dung.

[AZOffaly]

Brutal stuff to watch. Ireland lacked heart, or a real game plan I thought. They were at their best when sticking it up the jumper in the first 20 minutes against the wind, there were a few munster-like phases with recycling and pick and drives, which is good when you can't kick. If horgan had been 6'6'' the game would have been totally different.

From then on though, we never had a grip on the game. Wales owned the ball, we didn't slow them down enough, and when we did have the ball we kicked crazily. I presume Reddan was under instructions, but the amount of Box kicks which landed on top of Byrne or Williams was bananas.

O'Driscoll is not a great leader in the roaring and shouting department, but he used to lead by example, and the amount of ball he used to turn over in the tackle was inspirational in itself. He's not doing that now, and hasn't for a while, probably because of injuries.

I don't think Paulie would be a great captain either to be honest. I'm not convinced of him in the Munster jersey as captain, and I actually like Ronan O'Gara's coolness when making decisions, which a captain needs.

[Hoof Hearted]

jackmans attack on jones was one of the stupidest things i ever saw on a playing field, be it soccer, rugby or GAA.
it was cowardly too. Jones had his arms in the air and never saw it coming. he could have caused the chap a serious injury
the other players should have given jackman some earful after the match

[AZOffaly]

jackmans attack on jones was one of the stupidest things i ever saw on a playing field, be it soccer, rugby or GAA.
it was cowardly too. Jones had his arms in the air and never saw it coming. he could have caused the chap a serious injury
the other players should have given jackman some earful after the match

Agree. I think Jackman was pissed off after being dropped, and decided to lay down a physical marker when he came on. To say it was ill-advised would be understatement of the month.

[Hoof Hearted]

Of course the situation is difficult because we are in a transitional phase. The first year the coaches usually want to see as many players as possible. It is true that Marc Lievremont and co have brought in a lot of new faces. So far in this tournament, they have seen a total of 37 new players in only four matches!

The above was taken from the 6 nations website.
compare this with what what we have done

The french are aiming for world cup 2011
if they win a 6 nations tournament in between times its a bonus

what have we learned in the last 2 months

[thejuice]

one of the stupidest things i ever saw on a playing field,

I actually couldnt believe what i had just seen. An action of sporting suicide if I ever saw one. What was he thinking?

Ireland were toothless and incompetant. Perhaps we shouldnt let them play in Croke park again for being so rubbish, they're lowering the value of the property by covering it with shite. they can go play in Donnybrook. I'd love to know what Eddies game plan was..........give Wales as much possesion as possible and hope they get tired?

Was in a pub in Cornwall which was full of Welsh men. It was quite dull to be honest, considering the game was brutal. Sadly one Welsh asshole thought it was alright to shout abusive comments at the Irish players on TV. Calling Paul O'Connell a "Stupid f**king Mick", Jackman a "Thick Paddy" and Brian O'Driscol a "Soft Mammys Boy" while going off injured. While it was tempting to break this individuals nose I decided I'd ignore him. Sadly there are still some people in Britain that think its ok to use that kind of abuse towards Irish people. But thats a whole other topic.

[Dinny Breen]

To be honest the perfomance and game plan was one of the worst have seen from an Irish rugby team. I lay the blame firmly at O'Sullivans feet and as I have been stating for the past year he has to go. Obvously he's not going to resign so somebody in the IRFU needs to develop balls or else they'll end up looking like the FAI...

[ildanach]

15 - Geordan Murphy (Leicester) 55
14 - Tommy Bowe (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 12
13 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster) 23
12 - Shane Horgan (Boyne/Leinster) 60
11 - Robert Kearney (UCD/Leinster) 5
10 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster) 81 Captain
9 - Eoin Reddan (London Wasps) 9 
1 - Marcus Horan (Shannon/Munster) 55
2 - Rory Best (Belfast Harlequins/Ulster) 21
3 - John Hayes (Bruff/Munster) 83
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster) 44
5 -  Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster) 51
6 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster) 31
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster) 45
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Clontarf/Leinster) 7

Replacements
16 - Bernard Jackman (Clontarf/Leinster) 8
17 - Tony Buckley (Shannon/Munster) 6
18 - Mick O'Driscoll (Cork Constitution/Munster) 14
19 - Simon Easterby (Llanelli Scarlets) 64
20 - Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster) 81
21 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster) 7
22 - Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster) 3
Not considered due to injury
Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster) {Arm}
Girvan Dempsey (Terenure College/Leinster) {Hip}
Jerry Flannery (Shannon/Munster) {Hamstring}
Brian O'Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) {Hamstring}[/i

what is that clown doing now..
Kearney had a great game at full back why not leave him there for another game. He won't pick murphy when he should have been picked.
We are just playing for pride so why not give fitzgerald a game at this stage too.