6 Nations

[Block G Raptor]

Ireland 16-11 Italy
shocking performance again

[beautifulrock]

Terrible display, Darcy looks like he will be out for the rest of the season. Where do we go from here?

[Con-Con]

Bad performance, and they weren't able to compete in the maul. Discrase.

[passinginterest]

Decent first 20 mins and then lost the heads completely. Disaster. O'Sullivan has to go at this stage, his team has passed it's peak and he's either not willing or capable to move on.

[geysir]

Great comeback by Wales
How come the Welsh are not affected by the curse of George Hamilton?

[osarusan]

Jesus, I've never seen England fall apart like that. I don't think Wales were anything special, just competent enough to take advantage of some truly clueless English play.

I watched it with the BBC feed, and Brian Moore was just disgusted.

[shakermaker1982]

If Rory Best and Easterby start next week then I give up. We were absolutely shocking at the breakdown area - this needs to be sorted out asap. Also, why the **** do we not try and steal ball when the opposition is throwing in? I watch Mal O'Kelly and O'Callaghan do it on a weekly basis for their provinces so I'm guessing it's an order from management/O'Sullivan to give the forwards time to counter the drive but do we need to do that every time?!

Bowe was absolutely outstanding last night against the saxons and if EOS doesn't put him in his 22 against France he's as clueless as Stan Staunton.

[ramsfan]

god help us against france:eek::eek:

[Rovers fan]

Its really weird how much we have disimproved. We have gone from one of the best in the world to a team which has no direction. The only players who played ok today were reddan and o'gara.

[pete]

Ireland were hopeless. It is O'Sullivans fault as the players are performing worse than for their teams. Italy are not as good as Wasps or other top European sides. Reddan did very well but not sure if team expecting his breaks.

Seen some of Bowe on Friday & should definitely be in team next week.

O'Driscoll is a good international player but over rated. Can't remember last time I saw him play well. He is a poor captain too. Give it to O'Gara in O'Connells absence.

England imploded & Wales were nothing special.

[Cymro]

Couldn't believe how spectacularly England flopped in the second half. That was not so much us snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as England snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

But who cares, it's a win against England and that's never a bad thing!

[OwlsFan]

Had to laugh at George Hooke (the Rugby panel's version of Dunphy). Way ott top comments about Wales at half time and then like Dunphy after the game, blamed the losing side for not supporting his theory. Teams come back from the dead in sport on a regular basis and yet we hear all the cliches from commentators when they do: "Who would have believed it?" "Amazing", "incredible" etc etc. That is sport. That's why we love it. If it was as predictable as buffoons like Hooke would like us to believe, I'd give up watching it. The only thingspredictable in sport are Wednesday conceding 90th minute goals and losing at home to teams who haven't won away from home in 9 months.

I agree with the comment above about George Hamilton. When Wales took the lead, it was "It's 20 years since Wales last won at Twickenham" and such like comments and I waited for England to immediately score. But no, the Hamilton hoodo is just for us :mad:

[NeilMcD]

Owls fan it is not as simple as that. I will give you a scenario that happened. Mila

n are 3 goals up in the Champions League Final and ITV have Gabby Yorath as their presenter and she offers the line that all mothers say to their sons, when their team is loing. Well if Milan can score 3 goals in the first half then Liverpool can score 3 goals in the second.

On RTE they are showing the class of Milan and saying what a shambles Liverpool are and saying that they cant see Liverpool coming back into the game.


Now we all know what happened, but that does not make Gabby Yorath a genius and John Giles and Brady fools, in fact the opposite is the case.


Sport makes fools out of clever people and clever people out of fools and it is why we love as you say but to analyse and predict you should go with the reality in front of your eyes and the most likely outcome.

[Anto McC]

Admittedly, it was a bad performance but i think some of the reaction in this thread is over the top. They didn't play well against a weaker side and some of you are suprised. The Irish rugby side for as long as i've been watching them have always been like this. I guarantee they give a much better account of themselves against a French team, who are better than them, next week. I'm not saying it'll be good enough to win the game but it'll be a better display.

I was a defender of Eddie during and after the world cup but his selection yesterday was woeful. I don't know why Easterby was playing yesterday to be honest. Also we'll miss D'Arcy particularly against France and England.

[geysir]

Couldn't believe how spectacularly England flopped in the second half. That was not so much us snatching victory from the jaws of defeat as England snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

But who cares, it's a win against England and that's never a bad thing!
Wales did the rope a dope.
The didn't just get a few lucky breakaways, their domination of the latter part of the game was total and it started with some brave confident rugby from their own try line under extreme pressure.

[Cymro]

We certainly improved in the second half. Both our tries were very fortuitous though.

[Keen2win]

I even knew they were crap some of the time.

[shakermaker1982]

Admittedly, it was a bad performance but i think some of the reaction in this thread is over the top. They didn't play well against a weaker side and some of you are suprised. The Irish rugby side for as long as i've been watching them have always been like this. I guarantee they give a much better account of themselves against a French team, who are better than them, next week. I'm not saying it'll be good enough to win the game but it'll be a better display.

I was a defender of Eddie during and after the world cup but his selection yesterday was woeful. I don't know why Easterby was playing yesterday to be honest. Also we'll miss D'Arcy particularly against France and England.

To be fair we were expecting a performance against France last September after two horrific displays against Namibia and Georgia and nothing happened. The team needs new blood and fresh ideas - not just a rejig. Munster are on fire at the moment but as soon as you let EOS near them they look off their games.

Fair play to Wales yesterday they took some risks and it paid off. I thought Henson had a decent game and Hook got into groove in the second half. Gatland and Edwards are going to make them a very difficult unit to beat.

[Rovers fan]

Also we'll miss D'Arcy particularly against France and England.

will we? He is playing useless at the moment, I can't even remember the last time he made a line break. Tbh I'd nearly rather have trimble in the centre and have two of bowe,kearney and fitzgerald on the wing. Murphy is crap! Time to start blooding a few young players. Look at france they have given loads of young players a chance. Eddie is only playing the tried and trusted cos he knows his job is on the line. Give the likes of heaslip and buckley a chance against scotland or wales otherwise when hayes is gone buckley will have no experience.

[OneRedArmy]

Another shapeless performance from Ireland, particularly when we got put under pressure in the second half.

FWIW, here are my players assessments:

Dempsey - my MOTM. As usual little wrong defensively, brave under the high ball and came into the line impressively on a number of occasions, including getting another crucial try.

Trimble - sublime off-load for the try and a couple of fantastic defensive turnovers, but he was fairly ineffective when moved inside. He isn't a winger, but neither is he a 12. I'm not sure whether Eddie or O'Driscoll put him at 12 when D'Arcy went off but it was the wrong decision. He's an outside shoulder runner, not a crash ball confined spaces runner. Fingers crossed he gets played at 13 against France.

O'Driscoll - standard performance. Fantastic defensively, a few cameos going forward, but he is nowhere near the attacking threat he was 2 or 3 years ago.

D'Arcy - as effective off the pitch as he was on it. Nobody likes to see a player injured but given his recent provincial and international form, he won't be missed.

Murphy - a few good high balls taken and a few runs but his pass to Dempsey was sloppy and unforgivable.

O'Gara - very good goal kicking (apart from the final one), reasonable out of hand (still missing a few touchkicks) and the Garryowens were reasonably productive. Not easy to play behind a pack like ours at the minute.

Reddan - a few Michael Bradley-esque passes which nearly bypassed O'Gara completely, but offset by a better all round game including a couple of fantastic breaks. Deserves a run.

Horan - He's only on the team for his loose play. Didn't notice him much about the pitch and he got munched as usual in the scrum.

Best - He's no Flannery/Jackman in the loose so he needs to do the simple stuff well. He missed a few throws which puts his place under severe pressure, except.....(see below on Jackman)

Hayes - Like Horan got munched in the scrum and is showing his age around the pitch. Our front row is our biggest weakness, bring on Healy and Buckley...

O'Callaghan - revelled in the absence of O'Connell. His best performance in quite a while. Great lineout steal (why oh why don't we contest more, particularly when we can't stop the maul?!) and a nuisance at the breakdown. Also carried well. Good to see him back.

O'Kelly - Started well, but faded badly. A rfesilient type but showed his age.

Easterby - Needed a big performance and didn't give one. A limited player at best and his usually excellent defence wasn't quite as prominent.

Wallace - Good performance. We don't have many ball carriers and Wally popped up all over the pitch. Still not a seven, whatever Eddie thinks...

Leamy - tried hard, defensively sound but comprehensively outplayed by Parisse. May work better at six.

Replacements
Kearney - huge left boot and strong defensively and a few good breaks. Either he or Bowe should start.

Jackman - the only reason his career hasn't really gone anywhere until recently has been his AWFUL lineout throwing. Whilst Best was bad, Jackman was very, very suspect. He had a few awful ones, then we cut numbers and threw to the front, which while increasing the chances of success, makes it much more difficult to move the ball. Not convincing me yet.

The rest weren't on long enough to assess but great to see Buckley getting a run.

I expect Jackman to start on Saturday and if Easterby doesn't get the boot (with Leamy going to 6 and Heislip coming in at 8) then EO'S is a bigger muppet than I thought.

Kearney to start and Bowe to come into the 22 also.

[shakermaker1982]

How I'd start against France

Horan
Jackman
Hayes - Buckley on at 55 minutes.
O'Callaghan
O'Kelly - but only just
Leamy
Wallace
Heaslip
Reddan
O'Gara
Bowe
BOD
Trimble
Kearney
Dempsey

[Rovers fan]

How I'd start against France

Horan
Jackman
Hayes - Buckley on at 55 minutes.
O'Callaghan
O'Kelly - but only just
Leamy
Wallace
Heaslip
Reddan
O'Gara
Bowe
BOD
Trimble
Kearney
Dempsey


That is exactly how i would have it except bob casey on instead of o'kelly. Oh and frankie sheehan on the bench ahead of rory best!

[OneRedArmy]

That is exactly how i would have it except bob casey on instead of o'kelly. Oh and frankie sheehan on the bench ahead of rory best!Rightly or wrongly Casey is nowhere near selection. O'Driscoll, Cullen and Caldwell are all ahead of him in the pecking order.

I'm not sure why you are so against Best. He didn't play fantastic but is coming back from a serious injury and needs game time. Part of our inability to move ball in the last 20 mins was directly due to Jackman needing to reduce numbers and throw to the front in order to hit his man at the lineout.

Sheahan's international days are done (and should've been done before they started after the London hotel incident).

[Schumi]

I agree with the teams above although Trimble did better on the wing than at centre on Saturday oddly. Jackman's throwing was a bit dodgy but Best's was worse if anything and Jackman will do a lot more around the pitch given a full game. Best's performance may be down to not being fully fit but the 6 nations is hardly the place to play yourself back in.

[pete]

O'Driscoll should move to inside centre alright as he just there for defence now.

[NeilMcD]

http://newstalk.ie/newstalk/off-the-ball/downloads/desandpat.mp3

[Kingdom]

http://newstalk.ie/newstalk/off-the-ball/downloads/desandpat.mp3

Thats shockin, absolutely shockin.

[shakermaker1982]

what does it say lads? Can't access it here...

[Rovers fan]

Rightly or wrongly Casey is nowhere near selection. O'Driscoll, Cullen and Caldwell are all ahead of him in the pecking order.

I'm not sure why you are so against Best. He didn't play fantastic but is coming back from a serious injury and needs game time. Part of our inability to move ball in the last 20 mins was directly due to Jackman needing to reduce numbers and throw to the front in order to hit his man at the lineout.

Sheahan's international days are done (and should've been done before they started after the London hotel incident).

Oh i know there is no hope of casey starting cos he wouldn't know the line out calls or anything but its a joke that he isn't in the squad. Players playing in england always get overlooked for some strange reason.
I have never rated best as a player for some reason

[joeSoap]

The team against France is:

Dempsey; Murphy, O'Driscoll, Trimble, Kearney; O'Gara, Reddan; Horan, Jackman, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Kelly; Leamy, Wallace, Heaslip.

Horgan is on the bench.

[OneRedArmy]

The team against France is:

Dempsey; Murphy, O'Driscoll, Trimble, Kearney; O'Gara, Reddan; Horan, Jackman, Hayes; O'Callaghan, O'Kelly; Leamy, Wallace, Heaslip.

Horgan is on the bench.
All in all as expected. Trimble and O'Driscoll need to be reversed though.

[shakermaker1982]

did Bowe make the 22?

I thought O'Sullivan said a while back that Murphy was always poor against France hence he never selects him? He owes us a big performance.

[joeSoap]

Dont think its being officially announced til lunchtime. I was talking to someone I know in Lansdowne Road who told me. With Horgan on the bench, I doubt Bowe is there.

[shakermaker1982]

Horgan looked off the pace against the Saxons. On his day he is a monster but he needs serious game time. Cheers for the heads up Joe.

[Bald Student]

All in all as expected. Trimble and O'Driscoll need to be reversed though.BOD wears 13 no matter what position he plays in. It's a habit he picked up from Tony Mac.

[OneRedArmy]

BOD wears 13 no matter what position he plays in. It's a habit he picked up from Tony Mac.He played outside centre on Saturday (although he did line up inside when defending lineouts and Italian scrums).

I don't really care what jersey he wears, he hasn't got the pace to play outside centre anymore and good old steady Eddie is unlikely to tinker or go against what his captain thinks.

Here's hoping I'm wrong.

Also team is as joesoap predicted. RTE's headline says "sweeping changes".....

[beautifulrock]

Significant changes and certainly in the right direction. Regardless of the many moaners I will be cheering them on in Paris.

[OneRedArmy]

Significant changes and certainly in the right direction. .Too little too late.
Regardless of the many moaners I will be cheering them on in Paris.You can moan at Eddie's coaching ineptitude and ridiculous conservatism of selection whilst still managing to cheer the team on. God knows I've been doing both since he was appointed....

[beautifulrock]

Too little too late.....

What you mean, one game one win, we need to look forward now. The WC is a sad history.

....[/QUOTE]You can moan at Eddie's coaching ineptitude and ridiculous conservatism of selection whilst still managing to cheer the team on. God knows I've been doing both since he was appointed

Agreed, but it is now starting to overflow to the players, for instance do people realise that Simon Easterby has been a legend for Ireland over the last 4 years, if there was a ball to be slowed down Simon was your man. I admit he is now seriously jaded and probably finished as an international player but he should be applauded for his fine service to the cause not jeered out the back door.

[OneRedArmy]

What you mean, one game one win, we need to look forward now. The WC is a sad history.....And thats precisely why we needed more changes to the team over the past few years. You can blood 2 or 3 new players per year fairly easily and the best sides do this. The players were there to do this in all but a few positions (prop and out-half). Ireland didn't, a large number of the team is now stale and thats Eddie's fault.


Agreed, but it is now starting to overflow to the players, for instance do people realise that Simon Easterby has been a legend for Ireland over the last 4 years, if there was a ball to be slowed down Simon was your man. I admit he is now seriously jaded and probably finished as an international player but he should be applauded for his fine service to the cause not jeered out the back door.I don't understand your point. Either he gets picked or he doesn't? If anyone is to blame its, unsurprisingly, Eddie, for continuing to play him beyond his sell-by date.

BTW, the 6 position has moved on hugely and just stopping ballcarriers and catching a few at the tail of the line doesn't cut it anymore. I can count the number of breaks Easterby made with ball in hand in his whole international career and that, frankly, isn't enough for a backrower.

[beautifulrock]

.

I don't understand your point. Either he gets picked or he doesn't? If anyone is to blame its, unsurprisingly, Eddie, for continuing to play him beyond his sell-by date.

BTW, the 6 position has moved on hugely and just stopping ballcarriers and catching a few at the tail of the line doesn't cut it anymore. I can count the number of breaks Easterby made with ball in hand in his whole international career and that, frankly, isn't enough for a backrower.

Simple point I was making and not really that hard to understand. What I am saying is that his effort and commitment deserves more tht he is getting, real rugby follower will have seen his worth so perhaps thats what matters most.

[pete]

RTE's headline says "sweeping changes".....

I laughed at that too. 1 change enforced by injury & 2 players dropped to the bench. 1 addition to match day 22. What would RTE call it if there were say 5 changes? :rolleyes:

[OneRedArmy]

Simple point I was making and not really that hard to understand. What I am saying is that his effort and commitment deserves more tht he is getting, real rugby follower will have seen his worth so perhaps thats what matters most.So anyone who doesn't rate Easterby isn't a real rugby follower?:rolleyes:

Do you still think he should be in the side? What in particular is wrong with the way he's being treated?

Go and watch a few French Top 14 or Super 14 games and see whats expected of a 6 in the modern game.

[pete]

France make 6 changes by rotating their bench & probably improving their team.

RTE.ie


Ambitious France transform winning line-up :D

[joeSoap]

I would have preferred Tommy Bowe to Geordan Murphy, and possibly Mick O'Driscoll to Mal, but from what was available to him, I believe he has picked the right team. Horgan on the bench after one shocking comeback performance against the Saxons has O'Driscolls influence written all over it. Bowe was our one true performer in that game, and should be at least on the bench on merit ahead of Horgan.

Looking at the side the French have picked, I believe that if we can get at Skrela early and upset him, we have a chance. If we let them start like they did against the Scots.....Goodnight !!

I predict: France 23-15 Ireland.

[Anto McC]

Not good at all. They look lost, as if they've no idea what they've to be doing. I was defending EOS last week but this problem is certainly down to him.

[osarusan]

"The man eats pressure for breakfast."

[OwlsFan]

Ireland lost that game. Stupid line out throws when every throw to O'Callaghan was won. Turnover ball gives France 3 tries. In the last minute instead of keeping the ball in hand they try a dink to the corner. Ireland were the better team. Mistakes and headless chicken tactics at the lineout cost them the game.

I watched it on BBC. Can't bear the Hooray Henry Rhyle Nugent or the buffoon George Hook who is the rugby's version of Drunkphy.

Very disappointed.

[NeilMcD]

Typical Ireland, moral victory or glorious defeat.

[Rovers fan]

they were unlucky. Should have kept amongst the forwards in the last move. Jackmans lineout throwing didn't hold up unfortunately. Heaslip made an impact. They just gave france too much of a head start. France lost interest and we could easily have won it in the end. Hooke was right though france are working towards the future we aren't. Buckley got about 4 minutes game time.