Messages

Unless England win in France they'll be below Italy in the table!

If that's not a sacking offence I don't know what is.

The experiment is over, ringing in so many changes was mad

What are you on about? Mitchell is ruled out for the tournament as is Lawrence, Dingwall isn't fit due to his January injury and Fin Smith has been rushed back to play far too early because Marcus Smith and George Ford have been absolutely cat. Pretty much all of the backline changes have been forced on him due to injury or atrocious form.

There's such a soccer-esque, "Wenger out" fad in rugby media at the minute and it's driving me insane. After the first round there was loads of calls for Townsend to get fired, look where they are now. No doubt in France Galthie is getting the same shite today. Borthwick on the receiving end of it now too.

Reality is that England's expectations were far too high after beating some poor south hemp sides in the autumn and once Ford shit the togs, Dingwall and Lawrence got injured pre-tournament and Mitchell got injured against Ireland they've been in freefall. Jack Van poorvelt came on against Ireland, they'd have been better off playing with 14 than letting that donkey near the team. Borthwick is a average manager but it's impossible to ignore how much he's been skewered by injuries and atrocious form. Pepper, Itoje, Chessum, Earl, Curry and Underhill have all been pathetic and really need to take a long hard look at themselves.

Question for the lads who want the GAA to drop Allianz. Will you boycott the GAA if they don't?

They should train up a big legged forward to do the job. Eales managed it for Australia and he was a giant. Forwards have the biggest muscles in their legs and if they worked on it should be the best kickers.

   

This type of comment drives me bananas. As if everything was just as simple as training a guy to do it. If all it took was training a guy up to become a world class kicker would you not think you'd try to train the no. 10 to do it? You know, the guy currently doing the kicking and the guy who kicks more than any other player during a game?

Every time a player fucks up its always assumed that he he just goes away and works on it then he'll improve. Rugby teams are, after NFL teams, probably the most overcoached sports teams in the world. Nearly everything in the game is built around repetition and structure. When things go wrong its because you're players aren't as skilled (or more commonly in the game now, aren't as strong) and never will be.

[hurling]

Aww now, we're not that hard. We don't try to stab refs.

think yous are hard #swagger... but years of football and hurling indicate otherwise #bottlers

You're a fool if you're going to gloat about Tyrone's hurling prowess over the Antrim boys.

[hould be another few handy wins in this division]

Predictable enough. Cavan very poor team. Should be another few handy wins in this division. The relegation cries here were such nonsense.
Trillickman be gutted...
In Malachy we trust...

Still trust him?

It was clear as day last year that our results were down to individual performances and that the management of this team is good for f**k all. A fluky win against Donegal (on an off week after pushing themselves to the limit to win an Ulster) was the only decent performance from last year). Me and a few others pointed this out after the shambles at home against Kildare and got shouted down for it by lads who wouldn't recognise a football if it hit them in the face.

There's no kick out strategy, no attacking plan, no emphasis on kick-passing or using speed in the attack. Half the team are being played out of position or in the team when they shouldn't be. Mc Kernan is clearly a wing-back, absolutely wasted as CHB. Cormac Quinn isn't a good enough man-marker to play corner-back, hes' much better as wing back. Cullen has no shooting feet, should be nowhere near a wing-back slot. Kennedy playing at FF in periods of games, Conn playing at wing forward, Matty at FF. McElholm light up the Tyrone champ from CHF but yet we never put him in that role for Tyrone, sticking him in at corner forward or out at wing forward. Brennan not getting in the team despite the fact you could drive a bus through the middle of our defence. Ronan Cassidy a forward playing as a wing back. The list goes on and on.

This is completely on the management. There'll be plenty of lads who say we haven't the players. That's a load of bullshit, we absolutely have the players to beat Louth, Kildare and Derry.

I don't think it'll age well, there's more to life than eviscerating people esp if you have the upper hand, Aluko needs coaching or a fools pardon not a beat down

If you're going to act like a fool you'll be treated like one. Where's your fools pardon for gobshites like Le Tissier or Barton?

Ireland team v Italy:
15 Jamie Osborne, 14 Robert Baloucoune, 13 Garry Ringrose, 12 Stuart McCloskey, 11 James Lowe, 10 Sam Prendergast, 9 Craig Casey; 1 Jeremy Loughman, 2 Dan Sheehan, 3 Thomas Clarkson, 4 Joe McCarthy, 5 James Ryan, 6 Cormac Izuchukwu, 7 Caelan Doris (capt.), 8 Jack Conan

Replacements: 16 Ronan Kelleher, 17 Tom O'Toole, 18 Tadhg Furlong, 19 Edwin Edogbo, 20 Tadhg Beirne, 21 Nick Timoney, 22 Jamison Gibson-Park, 23 Jack Crowley

A few changes in the Ireland team and panel from the trimming at the hands of the French.

Italy are a decent team and it will be tight enough on Saturday, but not to win will leave Ireland in a bit of a dead season, might mean more new blood which wouldn't be a bad thing long term.

Good to see Farrell firing a few shots. The were criticised for lack of pace and not fronting up physically against France so Baloucoune and Conan are obvious responses to that. Big Edogbo coming off the bench will do no harm either.

Ballsy selection. I like balacoune, he has size and speed, the modern winger. Very harsh on Beirne who wasn't a problem last week. I look forward to seeing edogbo and izchukwu playing despite the fact I don't think either are up to it. Edogbo in particular is a media darling simply because he looks like he'd be effective. The rugby reality can often be quite different.

Yes he should, he bigger than most previous flyhalfs for Ireland.at about 6ft 2in, but a basic of rubgy is knowing how to tackle. The fact that its common knowledge he missed so many, means he actually invites more players to run down his channel trying to force breaks.

I think he's closer to 6'4" and he's about 95kg so he's not going to bully many boys off the ball but he should be able to make a tackle.

Straight down the gullet he can tackle. He doesn't lack the physicality. His problem is that he's slow and so he's late to pretty much every back field tackle. He'd be much better off in the defensive centre and letting the wings and full back mark the back field. I mean like he's criminally slow on the cover. Slower even than Ramos who's pretty bad too.

[s up to the IRFU to reset and go again, expect it to be rough, but there are a lot more lads playing rugby now because of the success of the recent teams.]

France have 5 times the players registered playing rugby

Ireland for a numbers of years has punched way above its station and now we are back on that developing a new team stage

There was nothing wrong with milking players while we were winning and the cries for bringing along lads to bleed them into the team would have been met with Ireland are shite.

It's up to the IRFU to reset and go again, expect it to be rough, but there are a lot more lads playing rugby now because of the success of the recent teams.

 For France and England they should be at the top tree every year based on pure numbers playing and money.. Ireland need that dream team coming through every now and then

There's no evidence for that. Whilst international rugby as a spectator sport is more popular and provincial is strong, club rugby at the roots is struggling much as rural GAA is. Perhaps even more so. Provincial development squads are still stacked with the products of schools rugby and the traditional Protestant playing pool. It's nearly 20 years of peace and reconciliation in NI and yet Northern Catholics still aren't in playing rugby or making international squads in any number.

Need to forget about the rebuild talk and wake up and see the situation in front of us. The reality is the rugby players Ireland are now producing are miles behind France and England. Outside of Porter and Furlong our props are all 3rd rate players, nowhere near the quality or size to compete at international level. They're AIL quality props.

There's nothing coming through in the back line where we are without doubt lining out the worst back 3 in the competition. O'Brien is nothing special. Stockdale has been a has been for 6 years now and Osbourne has talent but won't get far with what's around him. McCloskey is a 2nd rate smash merchant, England would have about 10 guys who could do it better than him. Take a look at Ulster and Munsters squads at the minute, they are easily the worst squads they've assembled since the professional era started, there's hardly any quality players from which any Ireland manager could make a winning team.

Sheehan, Doris, Beirne, possibly Conan and Gibson Park are now our only world class players. That's simply not enough to carry a terrible squad to success. Casey is nowhere near international level, in fact he's wouldn't get a game at any Premiership rugby team. That he's our 2nd best scrum half says it all.

["When scoring is too easy, the best way to defend is to deny the opposition the ball."]

EoinW it looks like you're already setting up camp for the summer in the same place as you did last year, among the woods but unable to see the trees.

"When scoring is too easy, the best way to defend is to deny the opposition the ball."

You just don't seem to get it at all.

The changes to the kickout rules and the removal of the keeper from open play means there is no guaranteed way to re-secure possession after any score or wide.

So when in the closing minutes of a game, there will continue to be an obvious incentive to protect a slender lead through possession (with 11 men instead of 15 making it a tougher ask btw). But there is now limited incentive to do so earlier in the game. If you're still inclined, you can f**k around with the ball for minutes at a time if you like. The difference being that your opponents, with an aggressive game plan, need to make just one turnover and can then viably post a big lead in just 3-4 minutes of play, thereby rendering your pishy "tactics" obsolete.

I don't think this is true at all. I witnessed Pomeroy last year in the Tyrone Championship look to hold possession for extended periods around their own halfway line. Their defenders could freely cycle possession between each other with ease because the forwards were shit scared of crossing the halfway and conceding a 2 point free. For Pomeroy is was a lot easier, once one of their players retreated behind the halfway then another could run up the pitch in possession whilst their marking forward had to watch as they galloped away.

The idea that since the new rules is so easy to push up and turn possession over is just pure bollocks. We still regularly see the extended periods of "keep-ball" that we seen under the old rules, especially at the end of each half. The recent games are littered with examples of players putting a hand or arm up to signal "look now, it's keep-ball time"

I don't think it's particularly close either. Would anyone bet their house on a UI in the next 30 years?

Word on the street is that the Fermanagh man and the second most expensive management team ever assembled are running out of road. Maybe we dodged a bullet?

first win in 582 days..  Derry running out of Tyrone managers 😂🤣

Yes, but he's guaranteed himself a decent run at things.

Will Malachy still be there come championship?

Considering he got them to the All Ireland semi-final last year.. what do you think? 😊
You don't have to get a new manager every year!

I wonder how much longer MOR can dine out on QF win over the worst Dublin team of the last 20 years.

Whether you like it or not Brennan kept Burns out of the team last year and I don't see how you could overlook him this week given how wide open our defence was last week. There is a strong argument for Brennan at 3 and Burns at 6.

Out the field I'd rest Kennedy, if he's just coming back to fitness I see no need to flog him in what will be a dogfight of a match. He's a good sub option and Conn, Oguz and Daly are more than good enough to cover MF. Conn needs to be given freer reign by the management. Twice the last day he made a bursting run through the centre of defence and was entitled to have a shot from 30 yards, he threw the ball out wide both times to a player in a worse position and the initiative was lost.

Contrary to opinion I'd start J Clarke but not the other 2. He's a fit young lad, Sigerson is not that high intensity as IC football and I don't see why he can't do 40-50mins of the Derry game. He was too good the last day to overlook. No defender matched anywhere near his performance level (as regards defending).

As for up front, I'd start Jordan and Canavan so long as he's fit. The idea that McGarrity is some all-star, fix all player to whom we can just launch shitty passes and he'll clean up is laughable. Start 4 half-forwards and only play 2 inside, freeing up space for those to play. Playing our forwards in a slow crowded attack is our biggest weakness, we need to focus much more on fast counters and creating space inside for our forwards. Other teams can do it and so should we.

I've never once heard anyone say that about McGarrity. There's a reason his name is put about. He's 6ft2 and a completely different profile of inside forward than we have. If you want to continue persisting with two little guys in there who struggle to win their own ball then by all means sneer at the option of playing McGarrity inside.

We gave badly lacked a physical presence in the forward line for years. Donnelly isn't cutting it there.

There's alot more wrong with our attack than just someone under 6ft playing at 14.

Whether you like it or not Brennan kept Burns out of the team last year and I don't see how you could overlook him this week given how wide open our defence was last week. There is a strong argument for Brennan at 3 and Burns at 6.

Out the field I'd rest Kennedy, if he's just coming back to fitness I see no need to flog him in what will be a dogfight of a match. He's a good sub option and Conn, Oguz and Daly are more than good enough to cover MF. Conn needs to be given freer reign by the management. Twice the last day he made a bursting run through the centre of defence and was entitled to have a shot from 30 yards, he threw the ball out wide both times to a player in a worse position and the initiative was lost.

Contrary to opinion I'd start J Clarke but not the other 2. He's a fit young lad, Sigerson is not that high intensity as IC football and I don't see why he can't do 40-50mins of the Derry game. He was too good the last day to overlook. No defender matched anywhere near his performance level (as regards defending).

As for up front, I'd start Jordan and Canavan so long as he's fit. The idea that McGarrity is some all-star, fix all player to whom we can just launch shitty passes and he'll clean up is laughable. Start 4 half-forwards and only play 2 inside, freeing up space for those to play. Playing our forwards in a slow crowded attack is our biggest weakness, we need to focus much more on fast counters and creating space inside for our forwards. Other teams can do it and so should we.