Ireland's had to step into the playmaker role since Elano's been injured, he's not quite at that level yet, but the fact that Sven thinks he can do it now speaks volumes.
Hamann was suspended today, and Johnson was only just back from injury, so Ireland had to do a lot more tackling than he normally does in a game to win back the ball. As we all know from Cyprus, he can't tackle for nuts. Don't think the sending off offence was malicious, he's just not a good tackler.
Bookmarks