QuoteThought that was a great bit of play, really exciting stuff, much unlike the football!
Ireland look good with the ball.
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.
Thought that was a great bit of play, really exciting stuff, much unlike the football!
Ireland look good with the ball.
Level, nice to see the stadium full, I see the bailout money is being spent already!!
Kick in the teeth before half time.
True, but much much better, hope they can keep it up.
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"
I'm what? I'm ants at a picnic?
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.
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.
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!Originally Posted by Jofspring
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.
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.
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.
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/breakin...#ixzz16g4wgBwq
Fergus McFadden starting at 11 in Llanelli tonight. Seems to indicate he'll be taking Fitzgerald's place against Clermont.
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
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.
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