Rugby 2015

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08/10/2015, 1:46 AM
Charlie Darwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

"It was a very physical game" - the latest which all the players trot out after each match. The Canadians, Romanians and Italians have all played a physical game so far. Surely it goes without saying that a rugby international will be a physical game. We'll hear it about the French as well because their forwards are massive but these days, so are the forwards (and backs) of just about every national team.

Is the French game really that important? New Zealand or Argentina in the quarters. If Ireland wants to win this competition, we'll have to face the All Blacks at some stage ? Should we not rest our top players for the French game and take on the All Blacks with a fresh team fired up rather than a bruised one after a physical game against the French which more than likely we may lose anyway ? Or are we just targeting the semis

If, for the sake of argument, we beat the French and beat Argentina, I assume it will be either Australia or South Africa in the semi-final or do the All Blacks stay in our half of the draw?

You try and win all your games and get the easiest draw you can. Which is beating France and getting Argentina.
08/10/2015, 6:44 AM
Real ale Madrid

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

Is the French game really that important? New Zealand or Argentina in the quarters. If Ireland wants to win this competition, we'll have to face the All Blacks at some stage ? Should we not rest our top players for the French game and take on the All Blacks with a fresh team fired up rather than a bruised one after a physical game against the French which more than likely we may lose anyway ? Or are we just targeting the semis

I'd take a semi final at this stage - we've never got that far before. Argentina may be brilliant though so it will be a tough ask either way - I would say we have a 50/50 chance of beating Argentina - our chances of beating the AB's are less than that for sure.

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

If, for the sake of argument, we beat the French and beat Argentina, I assume it will be either Australia or South Africa in the semi-final or do the All Blacks stay in our half of the draw?

The Semi Final Draw is looking like this:

(S. Africa v Loser Wal/Aus) v (NZ v Loser Ire/Fra)
(Winner Wal/Aus v Scotland/Japan) v (Winner Ire/Fra v Argentina)
08/10/2015, 9:09 AM
OwlsFan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

You try and win all your games and get the easiest draw you can. Which is beating France and getting Argentina.

I don't disagree with that but the media built this up to a bigger game than the Italian one. "Now on to the big one" and such comments. Ireland rarely put on huge performances back to back. I would say if we beat the French, it will be a draining effort leaving us exhausted for the next game. Hence I hinted that perhaps we rest key players for that game and if we win, well and good, but if not, the key players are fresh for the game against the All Blacks. Probably talking rubbish as I am not a rugby aficionado :)
08/10/2015, 10:08 AM
Real ale Madrid

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I would say if we beat the French, it will be a draining effort leaving us exhausted for the next game.

We have played 7 matches as a squad over the last 9 weeks, have a fully fit squad - no injuries ( unheard of in modern day international rugby ) - we should be more than capable of putting in 2 or 3 huge performances in a row over the next few weeks, without getting exhausted as you say.

Lets face it - our world cup starts on Sunday, fully fit squad, 2 winnable games - we've never had a better chance. Time to $h1t or get off the pot!
08/10/2015, 1:45 PM
Charlie Darwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I don't disagree with that but the media built this up to a bigger game than the Italian one. "Now on to the big one" and such comments. Ireland rarely put on huge performances back to back. I would say if we beat the French, it will be a draining effort leaving us exhausted for the next game. Hence I hinted that perhaps we rest key players for that game and if we win, well and good, but if not, the key players are fresh for the game against the All Blacks. Probably talking rubbish as I am not a rugby aficionado :)

But it is a bigger game because Italy are rubbish at rugby.
08/10/2015, 2:24 PM
OwlsFan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

But it is a bigger game because Italy are rubbish at rugby.

I thought it was about qualification not the opposition. For instance, as regards football, if the last game against Georgia secured us qualification, surely it would have been a bigger game than the next one against Germany or does "bigger" relate to the opposition rather than what's at stake?
08/10/2015, 2:26 PM
Charlie Darwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I thought it was about qualification not the opposition.

What do you mean? It's about giving yourself the best chance to get as far as you can, which means raising your game above the opposition whoever they are.
08/10/2015, 3:08 PM
tetsujin1979

Quote:

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

But it is a bigger game because Italy are rubbish at rugby.

They're far from rubbish, they came within one impeccably timed tackle of getting a result against us. It's a bigger game because France are a step up from Italy, and if we play the same way against the French, we can't expect to get a win, and the repercussions of losing on Sunday, i.e. playing New Zealand in the quarter finals
08/10/2015, 5:06 PM
Charlie Darwin

Quote:

Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

They're far from rubbish, they came within one impeccably timed tackle of getting a result against us. It's a bigger game because France are a step up from Italy, and if we play the same way against the French, we can't expect to get a win, and the repercussions of losing on Sunday, i.e. playing New Zealand in the quarter finals

Rubbish compared to us then. Nine times from ten we'd have flattened them, and I think we'd have won even if they'd gotten that try.
10/10/2015, 9:51 AM
OwlsFan

Well I still think that getting out of a group is what group stages are about and thus the Italian game was bigger for the prize involved. The French game is about who we play and I was under the impression that Ireland thought we could win the tournament so isn't this not wanting to play NZ a negative thing? Now off to the airport for more important stuff in Warsaw. Good luck to both teams though.
12/10/2015, 9:20 AM
Real ale Madrid

Always great to beat the $h1te out of France, no matter what the sport. Thought we did it well but obviously at a huge cost. Best case scenario Sexton, O’Mahony are ok and O’Brien is not cited. O’Connell looks like he will be out for a lengthy period of time, looked like an awful injury.

Edit - O'Mahony just ruled out of the tournament.

Quarter Finals are as follows:

Sat 17 Oct
QF1: South Africa v Wales (4pm, Twickenham)
QF2: New Zealand v France (8pm, Millennium Stadium)

Sun 18 Oct
QF3: Ireland v Argentina (1pm, Millennium Stadium)
QF4: Australia v Scotland (4pm, Twickenham)
12/10/2015, 12:19 PM
swinfordfc

We have an awful hard game now - Argentina will be no walk over - they being very good so far and give NZ a serious run for 60 mins!
12/10/2015, 3:35 PM
shakermaker1982

Have to say atmosphere was unreal yesterday. I had never been to the Millenium before and it truly is a world class venue.

So many bodies on the floor during the game. Brutal. I could hear the hits from the top tier.

Fair play to the lads, they fronted up to a very physical French side. Sad to see the French morph into England and just look for the crash, bang and wallop.

Only heard about the SO'B incident on the way back to the hotel. We got very lucky that incident wasn't picked up by the TMO. Get the impression Pape made a deal out of it. Unless Sean hits like Tommy Hearns I'm not sure how he'd be in floor for that long!
14/10/2015, 3:52 PM
swinfordfc

He did hit with a fist and got lucky that he only got a week! .... and the IRFU would be mad to appeal it!
19/10/2015, 9:47 AM
OwlsFan

I still think that I was correct that we should have rested players for the French game instead of putting in that huge effort and losing key players in the process. You could see from the anthems how fired up the Argentinians were and we couldn't match their intensity. If there were black shirts in front of us with O'Connell and Sexton and O'Brien, it would have been a different story. Ok we may have lost (but we have run them close recently) but we were going to have to face them sooner or later and who knows. We obviously didn't believe our own hype about winning the tournament if we were trying to dodge the All Blacks. The All Blacks were fired up for the French. I am not sure they would have been so fired up for us while we would have been ready for them. We even may have beaten the French with key players having been rested.

Shame.
19/10/2015, 11:27 AM
Real ale Madrid

We did the usual RWC trick - play well in the group stages and lay an egg when it matters.

Haven't been so gutted over a sporting event in a long time. In 28 years we have never won a knock out game in the RWC. Failure to adjust to Argentinian tactics early on was crucial. But we got ourselves back into the game and Madigan kicks out on the full, Murray knocks on from an under pressure scrum and a plethora of missed tackles in the final quarter sealed our fate.

Depressing.
19/10/2015, 11:51 AM
NeverFeltBetter

How do the northern hemisphere teams catch up? Is it just a case, as with Argentina, that they have to arrange for more tests against the tri-nation teams on a regular basis? Or is there something that could be done closer to home?

Even as a fairly relaxed fan of rugby, I'm surprised with how easy the Rugby Championship teams have had it against northern opposition in this tournament.
19/10/2015, 3:11 PM
swinfordfc

Its a completely different brand of rugby ... theirs is flat out expansive game while up here - its labourous - slow and arkward ......
19/10/2015, 4:46 PM
tetsujin1979

Quote:

Originally Posted by OwlsFan

I still think that I was correct that we should have rested players for the French game instead of putting in that huge effort and losing key players in the process. You could see from the anthems how fired up the Argentinians were and we couldn't match their intensity. If there were black shirts in front of us with O'Connell and Sexton and O'Brien, it would have been a different story. Ok we may have lost (but we have run them close recently) but we were going to have to face them sooner or later and who knows. We obviously didn't believe our own hype about winning the tournament if we were trying to dodge the All Blacks. The All Blacks were fired up for the French. I am not sure they would have been so fired up for us while we would have been ready for them. We even may have beaten the French with key players having been rested.

Shame.

Can't agree with this, you play your best players in the hardest games, and you can't legislate for injuries, or something like O'Brien's citing. If you did, then you'd never play anyone.
We beat France in February 18-11, but didn't score a try, and the assumption was they would improve for the World Cup. Everyone overestimated the abilities of the French in the tournament, not just Schmidt. I know everyone's an expert after the event, but we probably would still have beaten them with the second choice players starting in key positions.
19/10/2015, 6:15 PM
Mr A

When the footballers under-perform in a big game they get absolutely slated, the rugby guys get such an easy time by comparison. I know Ireland were missing players but that doesn't excuse how we started. Argentina were very good but so many Ireland just weren't at the races for chunks of the game. So disappointing.

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