Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
You just picked the best couple of players, what about the others?
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Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
You just picked the best couple of players, what about the others?
Ireland's Call !!!!
Looks like the players answered with "sorry, wrong number" !!!
:(
It all came down to the preparation or lack of it. We haven't got players with the physicality of some of the other nations. Hence the managements decision to spend too much time in the gym and not enough time on the training ground. Also not playing more pre tournament games was a huge mistake. Surely they could have organised a few more friendlies against high quality club opposition if they couldn't get International teams.
There have been suggestions that O'Sullivan had to keep winning games over the last few years to keep the turnstiles clicking for the IRFU and that's why he didn't blood many players. I don't subscribe to that.
It's no coincidence that O'Gara's best form for Ireland was when Humphreys was snarling down his back. Why did he bother bringing some players if he wasn't going to use them. By playing so badly in the first game I think he panicked a bit and thought he had to get more game time into his first 15. He'd have given them a better kick up the ars* by dropping a few of them.
As Neil Francis said last night EOS is a survivor and expect to see some of the coaches pay the price by Christmas as sacrificial lambs.
So when should I expect all the emails about what really happened
to the players and the unrest in the camp?
Maybe I took it up wrong but I thought Trevor Brennen implied that
Denis Hickie was going to do an expose on it all but was waiting until
after the tournament?
A fair bit of it was down to simply not being good enough. Look at the state of play with all the other "home" nations (as ITV called them the other day). Scotland lucky to get through against a woeful Italian side. England huffing and puffing through an easy group and wales bowing out to fecking Fiji. The Irish team's reputation is built on beating these chumps.Quote:
Originally Posted by onceahoop
Lamb for Christmas‽ The IRFU really are crazy, why don't they slaughter the turkey?Quote:
Originally Posted by onceahoop
The other 5 lads are no where near the 1st team but its a different country & quotas in all walks of life there so it is difficult to understand. I don't think they have a quota system yet but soon a large percentage will be quota which might mean won't be challenging for the World Cup for a while.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
It will be interesting to hear what the Ireland players say. I expect some of the International retirees to have their say in the months to come. I don't think any Internationals who are staying will speak up though.
I wouldn't call them sacrificail lambs, especially Niall O'Donovan. He had responsibility for that pack, and ultimately the disastrous lineouts, and forward turnovers were as much down to him than anybody else. He deserves to lose his job. He will lose his job. We are going to have to go down under to recruit specialist coaches, particularly a scrummaging and lineout expert. Why not approach Matrin Johnson...he's looking to get into coaching? And he was arguably the greatest second row the game has ever seen. Something radical has to be done, and an overhaul of the squad for the six nations has to be high on the list. We open against Italy.That provides the perfect opportunity to experiment. I would like to see a team against the Italians along the likes of:
Girvan Dempsey: Luke Fitzgerald, Brian O'Driscoll, Andrew Trimble, Brian Carney; Paddy Wallace, Eoin Reddan; Tony Buckley, Jerry Flannery, John Hayes; Paul O'Connell, Alan Quinlan; Neil Best, Jamie Heaslip, David Wallace.
Might sound crazy, but we've gotta start blooding the likes of Fitzgerald, Carney, Paddy Wallace, and others to see if they can cut the mustard. If they can't do it against Italy, then they have no business being there at all.
I think Geordan Murphy will pack it in under the EOS regime, and I wouldn't be surprised to see Stringer & Mal join him. Hope and pray the Bull doesn't.
O'Gara needs a year out to get his act together off the pitch. Munster have more than adequate cover in Paul Warwick for him.
I agree need to blood new players but Carney is 32 & Wallace needs to start playing as out half for his club before can be considered. I think maybe Staunton & the young Humphreys may challenge again..Quote:
Originally Posted by joeSoap
I expect him to retire as he does not rely on the IRFU for his salary. Easterby may follow for the same reason. Some of the older players such as O'Kelly & Hayes may hang on until the end of current IRFU contracts. Any one know when these renewed?Quote:
Originally Posted by joeSoap
BTW Contepomi is far from the nice guy image all the Dublin media have built him up as. Mouthing off to the referee constantly & goading Irish players. Hernandez is much better player. I expect Munster to give him a battering again next time they play Lenister. :(
I was just looking up Dempsey's age on wikipedia, he's 32 tomorrow as it happens, to see how long we have to wait for Rob Kearney to usurp him. Given the value of the kicking prowess exemplified by the likes of Montgomery and Hernandez is it about time we made space for our own 'big boot' merchant? Oh yeah, the important thing I was going to post before I lost track of myself there is one of the finer wikipedia tamperings, or at least I presume it's a tinkering!, I've seen for a while;
His (Dempseys) pastimes away from the game include golf, making jam and picking mushrooms. He has also found time to publish several academic works on the flora and fauna of some of the world's most remote islands. His groundbreaking discovery of the South Atlantic Guillemot (Uria Girvanae), unique to the islands of Tristan de Cunhas, in particular brought him much credit within the Royal Society. :)
Ooh I doubt it, well at least not the next time though possibly the time after.
There are some bitter bodies in Donnybrook eager that will be really revved up for the first Leinster-Munster game of the season due to their omissions from the World Cup squad. Also I could well see Jonny Sexton being given a run in either/both of the Munster fixtures due to the dates they're on.
Hernandez plays full back for his club and Contempomi plays outhalf for Leinster.....Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
Still though, is it not time for Humph Jr to step up?Quote:
Originally Posted by OneRedArmy
Quote:
Originally Posted by OneRedArmy
And Wallace is nowhere their abilty. Now if he started playing outhlaf consistently and to a high standard, then I think he would have a far better claim on the position
O' Gara needs to go off some place and not look at a rugby ball for a couple of months. If he doesn't come back then leave Wallace at it
I've never had any sense that he's even at Paddy Wallace's level, never mind showing any promise to be better.Quote:
Originally Posted by kingdom hoop
He got a few 1st team appearances at Leicester but was very much 3rd choice and has never really made a breakthrough (one good performance against Munster when Goode was out injured). He played for Ireland A when the England A team hockeyed them in Ravenhill this year.
He's also about 25 or 26 now, no spring chicken.
Also appears Paul Burke and Andy Goode are playing ahead of him this year?
He's 25.
I made the typical rush to snap judgment based on that Munster match.:rolleyes: I'd say he must be injured or something at the moment cos Burke started their first game and was replaced by a winger (Johne Murphy took the kicks thereafter actually). And in their most recent game Goode started with neither Burke nor Humphreys on the bench. Edit; yes Humphreys is injured, don't know where, how, when etc. Just had a quick perusal of a forum and there were a good few posters saying Humphreys should be ahead of Goode, or at least rotated with him. He's still one to watch, 25 is pretty young in rugby terms.
Watching Ireland yesterday was like watching a car crash. I agree with IFK when he says that if we didn't need the four tries, we might well have beaten them. However the damage was done earlier on in the group.
When we needed that little spark and flair we were left wanting. It reminded me of Irish teams ten/fifteen years ago when skill when creativity was non existent and trudging, labouring movement was the order of the day. We had no flair and we were completely out of ideas. We had no players in support for the offload, we hardly ever competed with their lineout and our kicking from defence only added to the problems. We simply had nothing up our sleeves for such a demanding game.
They were basically the Irish football team with an oval ball.
The Irish football team have always progressed past the group stages since 16+ team tournaments introduced. The rugby team don't even have to qualify although more than likely will have to partake in qualifying group next time.Quote:
Originally Posted by Torn-Ado
Thats true. But my point was that the Irish rugby team, like their football playing counterparts, are completely devoid of any ideas and creativity. And therefore are sh*te.Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
Here are some on the on-field targets outlined by the IRFU in their strategic plan published in 2003
- Ireland consistently ranked as one of the top 4 teams in the world and reaching the semi-finals of RWC 2007
- Winning at least one 6 nations championship
- Finishing at least in the runners-up position in 3 out of 4 seasons of the 6 nations championship
- Winning the European Rugby Cup once and winning 2 Celtic leagues.
Anybody can make their own minds up as to whether Eddie O'Sullivan has achieved the targets set out by his employers. Granted the last one had little or nothing to do with him.
Compare this to his football counterpart. The FAI have stated that the target for the senior side is qualification for the 2010 WC and i'm pretty sure if that is not achieved the manager will be on his way.
the targets make interesting reading but really just beg the question : why the hell was he given a brand new 4 year contract before the WC (subject of his primary target) even began. The mind boggles.Quote:
Originally Posted by fitzknows
Heard someone on the radio today (might have been Gerry Thornley) saying he was fairly certain most of the players weren't relishing another four years under EOS. That will make for interesting times. If he loses the dressing room it'll be curtains.
Phillip Browne's (IRFU Chief Exec) RTE interview today wasn't exactly an unqualified endorsement of Eddie's position.
He said they would be doing a review of what went wrong and that would include O'Sullivan's role as Head Coach.
I think the exact quote was "as it stands Eddie O'Sullivan is our coach for the next four years".....
Who are the token black players in the South African squad?Quote:
Originally Posted by Soko
One of the commentators said they offered him the contract early as if IrelandQuote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
went on and did well/won the RWC it would have costed them a whole lot more
to keep him on.
The IRFU were expecting to do very well and so saw it as a good move in managing costs.
Unfortunately for them it completely backfired.
The contract question is a hard one to get right, Mick McCarthy was offered a new contract before the 2002 World Cup and the FAI were lambasted for it, whereas Kerr's contract was only until the end of the 2006 qualifiers, if we had qualified, then it not unreasonable to guess a new contract would have been offered to take him well past the World Cup, no matter how well we did in it.Quote:
Originally Posted by SkStu
In the current situation, there's no way Staunton should have been given a 4 year deal, a 2 year deal (ie until the end of the qualifiers) with a 2 year extension following a review of the qualifiers would have been a far better option.
who said this "eddie osullivan is a great coach"?
Just back and Paris' beer was as expensive as I remembered! How can it cost 8/9 euros a pint?!
Other than BOD I cannot recall too many players coming out with any credit from that performance. D'Arcy looks lost and O'Gara is a pale imitation of the player that helped Munster win the HC. I had high hopes going into the WC - I thought we had a chance of winning the group but never imagined for one second we'd play that poorly in all 4 games.
Our back row was non existent - Neil Best should have been on earlier, WTF has happened to Leamy? Our scrum seemed to hold up ok, we have clearly been working on that area but unfortunately we seemed to have neglected the lineout - did we lose 4 off our own throw?
God I'm disappointed, to make matters worse our football team isn't much kop either and Germany are coming to town.....
Don't really see Carney beyond this season, the only logic to including him in the World Cup squad was as an unknown impact player, and then he wasn't used. If O'Sullivan is in charge for the 6 Nations he could well play as it'll be do or die for him as coach if he survives that long and similarly a new coach will be wanting to get off to a good start. After that, it'll be no choice but rebuild given the age profile of the squad.Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
That'll be business as usual between Contepomi and Munster. He's no better or worse than Stringer for mouthing off to the ref or opposition, but that's different as he's from Cork?Quote:
Originally Posted by pete
Exactly - O'Donovan was touted as a potential replacement for O'Sullivan around the Championship! O'Sullivan's fault we had no scrummaging specialist coach so he must share that responsibility, but the rest of the pack play can be put down to him to a large degree.Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeSoap
Martin Johnson as coach??? Isn't he the ****er that snubbed our president?
No he poplitely shook her hand. He's the ****er who with one simple move totally threw the whole Irish team off their game.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kramer
Best forward I've ever seen in Rugby (with apologies to Zinzan brooke)
Bingo. Great move on behalf of Johnson. Silly move on the Irish part, very similar to the stoopid reaction of Caffrey when Mayo were practicing in front of the Hill last yr.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dodge
Not sure that protocol and etiquette should be the key factor in recruiting a rugby coach.Quote:
Originally Posted by Kramer
Johnson is a legend. Really not sure if he'd be a good coach, but he'd certainly instill them with pride.
I couldnt care less who we get as a lineout coach as long as he can restore our lineouts to the way they used to be.
We used to have one of the best lineouts in the world over the last few years. But this WC was embarrassing. We lost many of our own lineouts in dangerous positions and rarely competed with the oppostions. Not good enough.
Do France , England , Figi and Scotland have any chance over the weekend?
Slight chance, none at all, slight chance.Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavo
England, Scotland and France to a lesser extent are all in with a shout IMO.Quote:
Originally Posted by gustavo
Scotland have no chance, they're woeful. The others have a small chance, if France were playing anyone else, I'd say they had an even chance but against the All Blacks in Wales, it's unlikely.
I hope Australia win not just because I have them as winners but it will be really depressing to see England in the semi final.