Ireland - Italy

[Soko]

An unmitigated distaster.

Horan - Rarely seen and part of a poor front row
Flannery - Not one straight line out all day. Not helped by deciding to throw to the back twice for his first 2 throws
Hayes - Good lord we are bare on front row forwards
O' Kelly - Shocking, retire now or concentrate on Leinster. You're done.
O' Connell - Carried the pack on his back, world class.
Easterby - Who?
Wallace - Best of an outmuscled back row
Leamy - Talented but over run once again
Stringer - Terible again, I dont care how Reddan plays but play him
O' Gara - Did well behind an awful pack, Italians were offside all day
D'Arcy - Lose and stone and come back to me, not half the player he was 2 years ago
O' Driscoll - Well marked, the only one who looked genuinely ****ed off
Bowe - Average but took the "try" well
Horgan - Will someone please tell him step inside of the touchline?
Murphy - Quickly becoming a club star and international misfit


3 defeats on the way. Yes Wales will beat us too.

[FarBeag]

Ireland was horrendous apart from O'Connell. That try which Bowe supposedly touched down was never a score. Italy were robbed.Unless they improve 100% next week for the France game they will be slaughtered.

[Dodge]

Unless they improve 100% next week for the France game they will be slaughtered.

France saying the same now...

[pete]

I think some of the less experienced players can be excused like Flannery & Leamy but O'Kellys & Stringers time is up.

If Ireland are not going to win the Championship should be introducing players now not next February.

When good players play crap in the international team have to look at the manager.

[Dodge]

BTW can we give italy a little credit.

[A face]

At least France didn't do that well today, but cant help think that its just a case that they didn't really get going. We'll really have to pull up our socks next week, the French will be raring to go after that defeat.

[finlma]

Bowe - Average but took the "try" well

3 defeats on the way. Yes Wales will beat us too.

Bowe took that try terribly. It was a pathetic attempt to ground the ball. He's no better than average and should never play for Ireland again.

O'Kelly should go.

We'll beat Wales - they're really poor. I have money on them to win 1 game but I think they might actually lose every game.

We'll recover and may win 4 games.

[Soko]

Bowe took that try terribly. It was a pathetic attempt to ground the ball. He's no better than average and should never play for Ireland again.

O'Kelly should go.

We'll beat Wales - they're really poor. I have money on them to win 1 game but I think they might actually lose every game.

We'll recover and may win 4 games.

Winning 4 games means beating Fance and England away, that wont happen for another 10 years.


Wales were no where near as bad as we were. 18-13 down with 20 minutes to go and Martin Williams sin binning killed them. Honiss leads the way for Dallalglio and Dawson knocks on for his try, those were chepa scores. Their pack will be able to get enough ball to give us the runaround and we could well lose, they've got a great record in Landsowne Road.

[finlma]

Winning 4 games means beating Fance and England away, that wont happen for another 10 years.

We'll only beat 1 of them away but that will still give us 4 wins.

I agree that the scoreline flattered England but believe me that Wales are very poor this year and I think they'll only beat Italy.

[Soko]

Explain to me how exactly we are going to beat either England or France away. Answers on a postcard To Eddie O' Sullivan, 1 Lansdowne Road because he sure as hell doesn't have a ****ing clue.


Did you watch the Wales game or just see the scoreline? They'll get ball against or terrible pack and use it to good effect. They're a significantly better team they we are. You are in for some shock after this weekend, We are crap.

[finlma]

Did you watch the Wales game or just see the scoreline? They'll get ball against or terrible pack and use it to good effect. They're a significantly better team they we are. You are in for some shock after this weekend, We are crap.

I watched the game alright. England aren't great either and I think we'll beat them. The shock of the Italian game will result in a massive improvement. I still think EOS should go - he's getting everything wrong.

BTW just heard from a friend that Leamy, BOD and Castrogiovanni have all been cited. No suprise about BOD, not sure what Leamy did.

[micls]

BTW can we give italy a little credit.

Its nothing got to do with giving italy credit-yes they played well and have improved immensely but at the same time Ireland were useless...It wasn't Italy forcing them to play badly their basic play was just shocking with most players not playing to their potential

[Dodge]

I'm not arguing that, I was just saying that Italy played way above what i and most people here thought. In now way was I saying that the irish performance was acceptable

[joeSoap]

BTW just heard from a friend that Leamy, BOD and Castrogiovanni have all been cited. No suprise about BOD, not sure what Leamy did.

Just Leamy for stamping. O'Driscolls was deemed as 'rucking' and wasn't cited as the ref had already penalised Italy for an offence at the ruck. Castrogiovanni an consider hiself really lucky because although there seems to be no question he did bite Easterby, he could not be 100% positively identified, ergo no sanctions. Epi T'Aione, the Sale winger got 18 weeks for pleading guilty to biting Leamy during the Heineken Cup game, so he really is lucky. Leamy deserves to be cited, and will possibly get a 6 week ban if the IRB are consistent.

I was just saying that Italy played way above what i and most people here thought.

I agree with that. Italy really surprised me. But I'd say thats their lot...England next week for them .

[shedite]

In fairness. Ireland V Itlay is always a no win situation. We either thrash them and people say "it was only Italy" or we struggle like last week and people say "we'll lose everything. Calm down fickle rugby fans

[CollegeTillIDie]

Well people were wondering would Brian O'Driscoll get cited after last Saturday's match. Here is an observation, given that the spear tackle on BOD went unpunished in the Lions-All Blacks series , I reckon Brian will probably get away with anything shy of manslaughter over the next couple of years... as a sort of compensation for not being looked after when he was millimetres away from being a quadraplegic.

[joeSoap]

Well people were wondering would Brian O'Driscoll get cited after last Saturday's match. Here is an observation, given that the spear tackle on BOD went unpunished in the Lions-All Blacks series , I reckon Brian will probably get away with anything shy of manslaughter over the next couple of years... as a sort of compensation for not being looked after when he was millimetres away from being a quadraplegic.

So, you're saying that because he was hard done by in New Zealand, that he should be allowed to get away with whatever he likes as a result? He was well compensated for the spear-tackle...well compensated indeed by his constant whining in the aftermath that led to book and dvd sales.

O'Driscoll acted like a spoilt child last saturday. The Italians lived on the verges of offside all day, spoilt the game totally for us, and GOD didn't get the opportunities he was sure he was going to against a 'weaker' side. He did stamp on the Italian, and quite a few times. He also threw a few punches (careful that Paul O'Connell and John Hayes were on his shoulder when doing so). It was a pure 'I'm taking my ball and going home' performance by what is supposed to be captain of our national side....wan ker !!

[CollegeTillIDie]

So, you're saying that because he was hard done by in New Zealand, that he should be allowed to get away with whatever he likes as a result? He was well compensated for the spear-tackle...well compensated indeed by his constant whining in the aftermath that led to book and dvd sales.

O'Driscoll acted like a spoilt child last saturday. The Italians lived on the verges of offside all day, spoilt the game totally for us, and GOD didn't get the opportunities he was sure he was going to against a 'weaker' side. He did stamp on the Italian, and quite a few times. He also threw a few punches (careful that Paul O'Connell and John Hayes were on his shoulder when doing so). It was a pure 'I'm taking my ball and going home' performance by what is supposed to be captain of our national side....wan ker !!

I am not saying that is what should happen I am merely saying like the same way that bad referees compensate teams who are victims of bad decisons by making equally bad or worse ones against the opposition the IRB are behaving towards Brian in a similar manner. Not saying it's correct at all.

P.S. As regars BOD being a wa n ker , it could be worse He could have been a Southsider

[Soko]

He seemed like the only ****er bar POC who wanted to do something about it so fairplay. A little OTT but he was on the wrong side. I'm not going to listen to symapthy for spoiling Italians who bitch and moan about getting a shoeing on the wrong side, if we had more players with that much fight then we mightn't seem so lost.