Rugby Union 2010

[Charlie Darwin]

I agree in general but how is picking Sexton ahead of O'Gara conservative? I'm not sure what's going on with Cullen but I'd have thought he'd be fit enough to play a test by now. Certainly with Ryan having disgraced himself and O'Driscoll having a poor one against SA he'd have to have a serious shout.

I think Stringer should be the starting SH on merit but I think Reddan is more of a running threat and we need that bit of unpredictability against the ABs.

[Schumi]

The only running Reddan seems to do is sideways before he passes the ball.

[SwanVsDalton]

I've fairly sure I'm going to be screaming 'STOP THE CRAB! PASS!!!' throughout the match because of Reddan.

[Real ale Madrid]

I agree with much of what's posted but Kidney's explaination put forward in the Press Conference of giving these lads another go seems like a good idea to me. Remember we've never beaten the AB's so there's really is no pressure to get a result, but playing a very simple game plan we have given them numerous good games down there so if we can transform that sort of form to our home turf then surely we should get even closer.

The message Kidney seems to be saying to his players is - look lads I kind of messed things up the last time, so I'm taking the hit for that one. This time were going to make this game plan much simpler and its up to you lads to execute it. I expect Ireland to try and keep NZ pinned in thier own half and try to work something off set pieces if given the opportunity.

Personally I wouldn't have Reddan or M O'D anywhere near an Irish shirt, but I think DK has kept them in there as a message of solidarity to the rest. If we can simplify our game plan and improve in the lineout ( our scrum has no chance of improvement ) then I think we can put up a much better show.

I was always a glass half full type of person anyway, and it's up to the players now to perform.

With our backs to the wall and expectations at zero - i think the players will step up, we have enough talent to do it.

[Mr A]

I think the scrum will be better.. that's a stronger front row than against South Africa. It's not great mind you, but better.

[Macy]

I think the scrum will be better.. that's a stronger front row than against South Africa. It's not great mind you, but better.
Agree, Court is a better scrummager than Buckley. Still would've preferred Ross to be given a chance given his form. He's a must start against the puma's anyway - there's simply no point rolling out Hayes for that one, surely?

It's disappointing that Kidney is slipping into exactly the same faults as O'Sullivan. My only hope is that we're going stale now, so still have time to recover ahead of the championship and world cup.

[bennocelt]

Anyone watch the Wales game yesterday on the beeb? The commentating was shocking, shocking!!! Jonathan Davies, who always grates, saying that Fiji wud probably have a national holiday if they get the draw with Wales- WTF, they beat them in the last world cup!!!!! And both him and the commentator waiting for the drop goal from Fiji. When was the last time one seen Fiji winning a game like this, they nearly always go for the try.
Wales are going to be annihilated by NZ

[Jofspring]

Personally i think it sends more of a message to the on form guys that Kidney will pick a certain set of players and stick with them no matter how well you perform. D'Arcy has done nothing in recent years and how are we going to know who will be our best pairing come the world cup. For ball winning in the lineout alone Toner should be in ahead of O Driscoll. If Nagle gets more game time with Munster and continues to perform the way he did against Australia then Mick might start find it hard even getting into the Munster team. I like MOD but i think Toner is a much better option. I know we still have the six nations to come but does anyone honestly think Kidney is going to experiment here. Doubt it. That leaves very little time to try new players. The team picked for today may step up today and play out of their skins but in the long term we will learn nothing from this game. Whether it be a narrow loss, a heavy loss or by some miracle a win.

What happens if the World Cup comes around next year and Brian O Driscoll is out or D'Arcy, O Connell, Buckley, Flannery etc... are injured. I wouldn't like to be coming up against Australia or New Zealand in a World Cup with a team of players that have had no experience against top teams at International level or players that are off form. Best (never thought he was a good hooker), MOD (Works hard but not a great lineout option), D'Arcy (off form for a while now), Court (Struggled against the Samoans to an extent), Hayes (also struggled and i'd say he would liked to have retired by now), Buckley (looked promising for a while but has started to struggle in the scrums again), Reddan (his distribution against South Africa was very poor and he seemed to be going sidewards and taking an age to make a decision giving SA a chance to close down our backs). Earls, Toner, Stringer and Ross at the very least should be in the team today.

Over the last three years Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, England, France, Wales and even Scotland have all tried new up and coming players on a regular basis at International level. Results may have been poor sometimes but this will stand to them come the world cup. Ireland i feel will just be full of more excuses come World Cup time.

[Jofspring]

Certainly with Ryan having disgraced himself

Surely your not talking about his citing are you? A nothing incident if you ask me. He jumps over the player who is lying in the way. He catches him alright but the player gets straight back up. The samoan should never have been in the position he was in the first place and Ryan was running to join the ruck. 3 week suspension was very harsh. Especially considering Mealamu got two weeks for a diving headbutt on Lewis Moody.

Ryan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J0hqduFCvc

Mealamu:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yE2Ky0awsA&feature=related

[Charlie Darwin]

Well the Mealamu ban was a pathetic capitulation on the part of the disciplinary committe/IRB. It's one of those odd situations where every kiwi bar the ones actively involved in the team could see it was a clear act of thuggery yet the authorities still bowed to the pressure.

Ryan made a very deliberate movement and put his boot through the man. I have some sympathy because the referee was letting their players lie offside the whole game (except more of that this evening) but we've had so many problems with ill-discipline in big games in the past and his actions have made our second row options even weaker for this game.

On a related note, I watched Leo Cullen yesterday and he clearly does look some way short of full fitness. Let's hope he's back at 100% to compete for a spot in the Six Nations next year.

[Charlie Darwin]

Did I just see D'Arcy attempt a drop at goal? Surreal.

Ireland have really come back into this after a poor, nervy opening. ABs look up for it. Referee is already having a shocker, missing offences on both sides.

[tricky_colour]

Thought that was a great bit of play, really exciting stuff, much unlike the football!
Ireland look good with the ball.

[tricky_colour]

Level, nice to see the stadium full, I see the bailout money is being spent already!!

[Charlie Darwin]

Kick in the teeth before half time.

[Real ale Madrid]

True, but much much better, hope they can keep it up.

[paudie]

38-18 a bit harsh on us but a good performance.
Piece of genius by BOD for his try.
Tony Ward really annoying. His comments consist mostly of "The All Black are very very good"

[Charlie Darwin]

Hard to argue with him there.

It's just frustrating that after competing so well under the kosh for 40 minutes we came out in the second half and gave up two very simple tries.

Our work from restarts set the tone for the whole match. It's no use solidifying the scrum and lineout when you give the opposition front-foot ball from every restart. I think we miss O'Connell a lot more than we've realised.

[Jofspring]

Always felt New Zealand where fairly comfortable. Whenever they felt they needed to up it a gear they did and usually came away with a try. Ireland had to put in a lot more work to create anything. Some good performances out there but as i said not much learned for the world cup next year barr maybe a few good scrums. We have always known Irish teams can work hard against the top teams but at the end of the day it was a 20 point loss to a team miles ahead of us.

The scrums for the last month or so have been driving me bananas. Why have a long pause between saying crouch-touch-pause-engage? The way they are doing it now is more like crouch-pause-touch-pause-pause-pause-engage. I also saw a good point made by a guy that played as a prop for 20 years. He said one of the main problems with scrums is that the props have nothing to bind onto on their opposite number because the jerseys have got so tight and this is causing a lot of scrums to collapse. A lot more than they used to when teams wore the older jerseys.

[Real ale Madrid]

but as i said not much learned for the world cup next year barr maybe a few good scrums. We have always known Irish teams can work hard against the top teams but at the end of the day it was a 20 point loss to a team miles ahead of us.


The World Cup ? Who cares about the world cup, I just want to see us compete for the 6 nations next Spring. Far too much revolves around the bloody world cup. Do you really think that if a load of our top players are injured come world cup time that we are going to even compete against Aus / SA? Of course we are not. We have a tiny player pool - our priorities lie closer to home, we should deal with the world cup when it happens - IF we have a full strengh squad and we can steer clear of injuries at this time next year, AND if we get a bit of luck, MAYBE we can beat the Aussies, and set us up for a game against Wales in a WC Q-Final. But thats a big big MAYBE, lets remember we havent beaten one of the big 3 southern hempishere teams in the southern hemisphere since 1979. That will be 32 years come the world cup!

Yesterday was all about trying to gain some momentum ahead of another six nations, and finally came a good performance - lets be glad of that, hope for anther good one next sunday and look forward to the Spring. We can deal with the world cup when we get there.

[OneRedArmy]

I thought it was a fairly good performance and at last a reasonable atmosphere in the Lansdowne Library.

One thing I was thinking about yesterday was the injuries we suffered, and we always seems to suffer, against the ABs. 3 players with serious injuries and a few more walking wounded who might miss next week. Its always the same against the All Blacks. They are physically fitter and stronger man for man and every time we play them we pay the price. We put a staggering number of heroic tackles on Saturday and they just kept coming at us, at pace, and it killed us physically. They don't lose the ball in contact and are almost impossible to put down without conceding either yards or men (i.e. committing two or three defenders to a tackle which consequently leaves space outside).

In the professional world, unless you believe they are genetically more disposed to having greater muscle mass, there is NO real excuse for being less physically developed than any other team. The Irish Times said on Saturday that the AB's have a full pelt 60 minute game on the Tuesday before a test. Apparently we, and other Northern Hemisphere sides do 10 mins.

This wasn't the whole answer, their allaround skills are better and the have an infinitely bigger pool of players to pick from, but we aren't helping ourselves IMO by being off the pace physically.

The cold hard reality is that Ferris and Heaslip were two of our standout players, both in attack and defence. But looking cold at it, its hard to argue that Kaino and particularly Read didn't comprehesively outplay them.

Sobering stuff. That said, I agree that the World Cup isn't really were we're aiming for. We should be focusing squarely on the 6 Nations. England and Scotland are on the up, France will be tough as always and Wales are going through a similar period to ourselves. At this stage I wouldn't be surprised if we were challenging for the title or indeed the Wooden Spoon. A lot to play for.

[Charlie Darwin]

They are physically fitter and stronger man for man and every time we play them we pay the price. We put a staggering number of heroic tackles on Saturday and they just kept coming at us, at pace, and it killed us physically.
There's an article in, I think, the Times today that argues the same point. The difference between us and the ABs, Saffas etc. is that they play every game at this intensity, and even the Super 14 is regularly played at an intensity only the best Heineken Cup games are. I don't think it's because they're stronger per se, just that they're conditioned to hit this level of intensity every time.

Also, to be fair, Tom Donnelly did sustain an injury that put him out of the tour so it's not like they're Ubermenschen - but they are some way ahead of us in that regard. I think the Six Nations is going to be really important here. We have the France match and possibly England to really put right the things we got wrong on Saturday - that's two games. We know France will play at that tempo and I think England are capable of it, but I'm afraid I can't see Wales bringing that sort of intensity to the tournament.

I actually think the lesson from this is that we can't just concentrate on peaking for the World Cup. We need to be playing at 100% per cent in every game, even if it means we do pick up injuries for important games. Our second-choice players will be a lot better able to fit in if those around them are playing at that sort of itensity. I don't think we're good enough to win the World Cup but we are definitely good enough to make the semis if we hit the right level of performance.

[Real ale Madrid]

Well people have voted with thier feet and some justice has been done, not gone far enough imo but a very large step in the right direction, well done to the irfu.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/sport/irfu-announce-new-ticketing-structure-for-six-nations-483715.html#ixzz16g4wgBwq

[Charlie Darwin]

Fergus McFadden starting at 11 in Llanelli tonight. Seems to indicate he'll be taking Fitzgerald's place against Clermont.

[dantheman]

Back to back wins against Bath and a big match is set up now against Biarritz in January? Can Ulster do it?

Leinster looked like real contenders yesterday, can Munster do it against Toulon?

Fascinating. Marvellous

[joeSoap]

Leinster have been the most impressive side in the tournament to date....
Ulster at last, have a really big game to look forward to.
Munsters lack of ability in the scrum is their undoing and will not be rectified in time to save them in this seasons competition I believe. They can't get a result in Toulon with a shambolic scrum like they currently have.