Rugby Union 2010

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Originally Posted by endabob1

Hat's off to Kidney, he got it spot on again. TOL stepped up his game and ROG did the business coming off the bench.

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I thought O'Leary was quite average again at best. His kicking is poor, and he's stepping before every pass now. Good defensively, but nowhere near the standards of Parra, Care, Cussiter t date in this tournament. Rog won the game for us I thought with his tactical kicking and more guarded outlook. That said, I thought Sexton had a massive game apart from his place kicking, and will retain his place against Wales. Heaslip was awesome. The boy's got some engine on him. Tony Buckley had a huge game around the field when he came on, and stole the ball at the end to put paid to Englands last chance. Bowe, well no comments required, and Earls had a great game also. We attempted 100 tackles during this game and made 99 of them...Hats off to Les Kiss!! They completely routed us possession wise, yet we won 3-1 on tries. This was as big a victory as I can remember.

if there is a better defensive outfit (especially in the rucks and mauls) in the northern hemisphere then id be surprised. That was an immense performance. Heaslip, Ferris, Bowe and Sexton all had superb games and the lineout disruption is a thing of sheer beauty. Thist eam is the real deal and Sexton is a WC winning outhalf - unshakeable even after missing a few kicks.

Great result especially considering the territorial and tackle stats. Earls and Bowe were excellent, Murphy deserves a mention as well considering the match practice he has had lately. ROG did very well when he came on, decent game by Sexton though his kicking was poor. The experience will stand to him and these are the types of games (when the championship is realistically gone) to be blending in new players. Good to see Buckley come on and play reasonably well, the scrum is a concern and the likes of Hayes dont have long left in the tank and we need to see players stepping up to the mark in those positions. Lineout very strong, dont think we lost a single of our lineouts and was so often the start of good play by us.

Good win for the U20s as well, the future is bright for Irish rugby, as was noted in a few of the english papers yesterday, the provincial system does seem to be working much better than the premiership style system employed in England. Danny Care also getting a slating from the English papers yesterday as well from the overturned peno, twice in two years.

Should Ireland not be worried though as to why we got so little possession? Teams more competent than England (e.g. France, NZ) would have beaten us with such possession. Does that mean that the forwards were well beaten or why did England have so much possession.

Great win though and enjoyed seeing Johnson suffering the pain of it. Teach him to stand on the wrong side of the carpet ;)

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Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Should Ireland not be worried though as to why we got so little possession? Teams more competent than England (e.g. France, NZ) would have beaten us with such possession. Does that mean that the forwards were well beaten or why did England have so much possession.

Great win though and enjoyed seeing Johnson suffering the pain of it. Teach him to stand on the wrong side of the carpet ;)

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Ireland had all the possession against France and couldn't do anything with it 3 weeks ago.

This England side are slow, ponderous, predictable and don't take many chances so when in possession of the ball they soon rack up the phases but end up going backwards. This will eventually lead them to getting turned over or resorting to booting it back (they didn't do much of the latter for this match. Probably because of the stick they got after the Italy game.)

The only reason England were still in the game was because we kept giving away stupid penalties. We must stampt this out.

The reason England were in the game was because our scrum was a disastrophy of epic proportions for nearly all the game. Taking my green tinted glasses off, we were lucky not to concede a penalty try, and had Care not been so boneheaded in getting the penalty reversed the game probably would've gone against us.

Our lineout isn't far off being excellent, but unless we get some semblance of parity with the top teams in the scrum we might as well write the script for the World Cup now. Packs win games, backs decide the score. An old stereotype, but never a truer phrase spoken.

Healy is having somewhat of a baptism of fire but I believe it will stand him in good stead, its a huge step up to international rugby and hopefully it will pay off next season. I was also disappointed in Buckley coming in in place of Court, who should have a brighter future ahead of him. That said, in his time on the pitch Mushy looked much more involved and up with the pace of the game than I've seen him for either Munster or Ireland.

Saturday will be a good test. Wales are still a decent side and after last year they'll need little encouragement to get stuck into Ireland.

I think Earls and Ferris are settling into the team nicely and could go on fire in a big way on Saturday.

I think Ireland could have turned the screw at any moment against England. How long were we behind for, like three minutes? We basically played conservatively, taking what was in front of us. Even if they had got a penalty try, I think we were capable of stepping up a gear whenever we wanted, much like the French were against us.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

Healy is having somewhat of a baptism of fire but I believe it will stand him in good stead, its a huge step up to international rugby and hopefully it will pay off next season. I was also disappointed in Buckley coming in in place of Court, who should have a brighter future ahead of him. That said, in his time on the pitch Mushy looked much more involved and up with the pace of the game than I've seen him for either Munster or Ireland.

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Healy is doing well, tighthead remains the issue. I also thought Court was unlucky, particularly as he did well against France when coming on and that he can play loose or tighthead. Tough on Hayes, but he's got to be looking dodgy for the World Cup, in which case we should be biting the bullet and blooding a tighthead - either Buckley or Court with the other on the bench. Not happening against Wales anyway.

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Originally Posted by Macy

Healy is doing well, tighthead remains the issue. I also thought Court was unlucky, particularly as he did well against France when coming on and that he can play loose or tighthead. Tough on Hayes, but he's got to be looking dodgy for the World Cup, in which case we should be biting the bullet and blooding a tighthead - either Buckley or Court with the other on the bench. Not happening against Wales anyway.

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A 6 Nations game where a Triple Crown and outside chance of the championship is still on the line is no place to be blooding anyone. Buckley seems to be upping his game and is even scrummaging a little better so that is positive and in the longer term he is probably a more suitable replacement for the Bull. What really concerns me is how our lineout is going to suffer when Hayes does have to pack it in.

Good news Argentina in the Tri-Nations from 2012
http://www.trinationsweb.com/news/vi...e.asp?id=24775

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Originally Posted by WexCar

Good news Argentina in the Tri-Nations from 2012
http://www.trinationsweb.com/news/vi...e.asp?id=24775

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Thought this was decided already tbh. The Pumas 2nd/3rd string is playing in the Vodacom Cup (level below Currie Cup in SA) this season as the first step towards integration. A couple of Puma players have moved to Super 14 teams in advance of the change

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Originally Posted by juniorballer

A 6 Nations game where a Triple Crown and outside chance of the championship is still on the line is no place to be blooding anyone. Buckley seems to be upping his game and is even scrummaging a little better so that is positive and in the longer term he is probably a more suitable replacement for the Bull. What really concerns me is how our lineout is going to suffer when Hayes does have to pack it in.

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Buckley will be 31 when the World Cup rolls around and regardless of whether he's good enough or not (and he isn't) he's not the solution.

Also, I can't help but thing the whole Hayes lineout thing has been built up to something bigger than it actually is. I've no doubt he's good at it, but these days you need two or three pods and a fair bit of variety to have a successful lineout.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

The reason England were in the game was because our scrum was a disastrophy of epic proportions for nearly all the game. Taking my green tinted glasses off, we were lucky not to concede a penalty try, and had Care not been so boneheaded in getting the penalty reversed the game probably would've gone against us.
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Until we find a world class front row unit then decent scrummaging sides will always bash us around a bit. Hayes is on his last legs. Time for Court or Buckley to step up.

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Originally Posted by endabob1

Thought this was decided already tbh. The Pumas 2nd/3rd string is playing in the Vodacom Cup (level below Currie Cup in SA) this season as the first step towards integration. A couple of Puma players have moved to Super 14 teams in advance of the change

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All I know is this is the 1st I've heard of it being confirmed.

Its hard to stay up to date with all the rugby news out here where the only sport that exists is Ice-Hockey, it can get quite annoying and time consuming having to trawl the internet for all the bits of news floating around.....ah well I shall continue.

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Originally Posted by WexCar

All I know is this is the 1st I've heard of it being confirmed.

Its hard to stay up to date with all the rugby news out here where the only sport that exists is Ice-Hockey, it can get quite annoying and time consuming having to trawl the internet for all the bits of news floating around.....ah well I shall continue.

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Wasn't meaning to be an ar$e, sorry if it came accross that way...

Having done some research it looks like they were invited in September pending the meeting of some guidelines, one of which was financial which is why the IRB have stepped in now.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news...0914-fnot.html

They still have be confirmed though, the players playing in Europe seems to be the major stumbling block
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post...r-Four-Nations

The Sharks signed Juan Martin Hernandez, but he's missed most of the season with injury, it was supposed to be the first of a few Pumas moving to Super 14 clubs in advance of the Pumas move.

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

Also, I can't help but thing the whole Hayes lineout thing has been built up to something bigger than it actually is. I've no doubt he's good at it, but these days you need two or three pods and a fair bit of variety to have a successful lineout.

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I'd agree with that - it's a cover for the scrummaging. However, he/Ireland did put more emphasis on the line out role. I didn't realise that Buckley was that old, in which case he isn't the future.

I do take the point about the Triple Crown to some degree, but then that does kinda show limited ambition. Something that people were quick to criticise O'Sullivan for in fairness.

On the puma's, possibly the six nations missed a trick here by not inviting them into the Championship.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5UKF...layer_embedded

2:21 in this video

2 Italy forwards needed to lift Carlo Del Fava. Hayes lifts O'Connell by himself.

Whats your point though? However strong he is he can only lift one jumper and be in one place in the lineout at the one time. Whilst lifting quick and high is important, having three or four jumpers for variety, accuracy of throw and the timing between jumpers and thrower is more important in having a successful lineout.

Don't get me wrong, Hayes is a class act in the lineout, but I don't see all the credit being dished to the French and Italian props for Harinordoquy and Parisse's aerial ability (two of the best lineout operators in the world IMO).

Probably should have mentioned, I wasn't saying you were wrong. He is just freakishly strong.

good performance so far. Opportunistic anyway! But whats happened to Sextons place kicking? Nightmare and we could and should be out of sight...