Ireland V. Italy, Sat Feb 6th. Croke Park. 14:30.Mod Warning Post no. 296

PhatPiggins · 08-02-2010 12:48pm

Jeez I thought France were in total control to be honest. The had at least another two gears to go through Typical French bare minimum away win but they could have beaten a far better Scottish team if needed.

JustinDee · 08-02-2010 1:26pm

danthefan wrote: »

Edit - not to mention playing in a Stadium where we haven't won for 10 years.

As John Eales once said: "balls to hoodoos"

d'Oracle · 08-02-2010 2:08pm

twinytwo wrote: »

Parra walking into the irish team?.. that might be going a bit far.

Its not.
He would walk in and make us a far better team.

profitius · 08-02-2010 2:27pm

The French played well against Scotland but I didn't see anything that Ireland should be frightened about. We're more experianced and better defensively these days and the performance against Italy was fine. The scrums and lineouts went well.

I hope its a fast paced game because Ireland might have the edge on fitness as well as an extra days rest and an easier game.

walshb · 08-02-2010 3:27pm

funkyflea wrote: »

Kearney didn't play poorly except for that block down - its a mistake he needs to make sure he never makes again.

What about the aimless and ridiculous kicks? I thought he had a very poor game, and I hope Kidney reels him in about it. Can't get away with that against tougher opposition. He's a better player than what showed on Saturday.

Crash · 08-02-2010 3:45pm

profitius wrote: »

The French played well against Scotland but I didn't see anything that Ireland should be frightened about. We're more experianced and better defensively these days and the performance against Italy was fine. The scrums and lineouts went well.

I hope its a fast paced game because Ireland might have the edge on fitness as well as an extra days rest and an easier game.

Replace "France" with "Ireland", "Scotland" with "Italy", and "Italy" with "Scotland" and that still works - France learnt nothing about us, as many on here are happy to say, but if we go by that, we've learnt nothing about France either.

BoarHunter · 08-02-2010 4:43pm

Ireland didn't produce much becasue they like to play counter against a team that produces some game. the Italians produced very little ... so we didn't see ireland much.

against France Ireland will be more than happy to defend and counter attack. They will play turnover balls.

that will be a whole new game

stackerman · 08-02-2010 5:37pm

Well I cant see Ireland with the Grand slam this year (hope Im wrong!). I know that it was the first game and we were missing players etc, but they looked like they lacked confidence, which surprised and worried me.

nosco · 08-02-2010 6:17pm

BoarHunter wrote: »

Ireland didn't produce much becasue they like to play counter against a team that produces some game. the Italians produced very little ... so we didn't see ireland much.

I think this is the first time i've ever heard of a counter attacking strategy in rugby.

danthefan · 08-02-2010 6:21pm

Ireland are about as far from a counter attacking team as you can possibly get. We are a structured team, seemingly happy to play boring rugby.

08-02-2010 6:24pm

walshb wrote: »

What about the aimless and ridiculous kicks? I thought he had a very poor game, and I hope Kidney reels him in about it. Can't get away with that against tougher opposition. He's a better player than what showed on Saturday.

As has already been said he is told to kick by the coaches.

Those aimless kicks are a tactic.
The breakdown is now such a mess that teams have become negative and are scared to run as you are highly likely to be turned over.

If you try to run the ball you risk getting turned over,if you kick it you are either going to force your opponent to kick or run.

The theory would be that you want them to knock it on,kick it back badly or run the ball and you can turn them over.
With both sides having this fear mentality,it results in the fullbacks just playing ping pong because they are afraid to run it.

Kenteach · 08-02-2010 6:24pm

There did seem to be a fairly lacklustre gameplan in operation. Most of the negative comments and criticisms are justified, we played poorly and introvertly against a weak team. Thats not to say we are now a weaker team ourselves, thats just how Saturday panned out. I reckon this is as good a chance as we'll get to win in Paris, and even playing as we did on Saturday would not see us too far away at the end.

danthefan · 08-02-2010 6:25pm

Poite and his views on the breakdown + Italy's inability to do anything with the ball made kicking a safe option. Still boring as hell though and not a tactic we should need to resort to against a poor team imo.

anonymous_joe · 08-02-2010 6:28pm

nosco wrote: »

I think this is the first time i've ever heard of a counter attacking strategy in rugby.

Dunno really. Teams like New Zealand rely upon broken play to capitalise on turnovers and make massive ground.

BoarHunter · 08-02-2010 6:32pm

nosco wrote: »

I think this is the first time i've ever heard of a counter attacking strategy in rugby.

Of course. Munster and ireland rugby are all about defense and turnovers.

if you give Ireland all the ball in a match they don't know how to play a first hand attack in front of a defense in place.

Ex : South Africa

And what usually happen after 2/3 phases is that they get rid of the ball with a kick.

Their game is to steal the ball in rucks and get it from their line out and they excel in it actually. if the can play a turnover then their game is on.

So when Italy didn't get the ball away much, we didn't see Ireland. When Ireland tried to produce some game it was not really dangerous and they gave it away from the boot.

Next week France will get wide and O'connell and friends will have a lot mroe opportunities to provide some ammo to their backline while the french defense won't be perfectly in place. that's where they will have their chances.

for me a turnover is a counterattack, sounds good to me.

Judgement Day · 08-02-2010 6:35pm

Raphael Spoiled Chalkboard wrote: »

As has already been said he is told to kick by the coaches.

Those aimless kicks are a tactic.
The breakdown is now such a mess that teams have become negative and are scared to run as you are highly likely to be turned over.

If you try to run the ball you risk getting turned over,if you kick it you are either going to force your opponent to kick or run.

The theory would be that you want them to knock it on,kick it back badly or run the ball and you can turn them over.
With both sides having this fear mentality,it results in the fullbacks just playing ping pong because they are afraid to run it.

Ping pong against France will prove disasterous so I hope we won't see much of it and TOL would need to reduce his number of aimless box kicks too. Keep the ball in hand, as the Scots did for some of their match, and we can win. Bringing back Shane Horgan and Alan Quinlan would also be a good idea.

08-02-2010 6:40pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

Ping pong against France will prove disasterous so I hope we won't see much of it and TOL would need to reduce his number of aimless box kicks too. Keep the ball in hand, as the Scots did for some of their match, and we can win. Bringing back Shane Horgan and Alan Quinlan would also be a good idea.

France and New Zealand are different to evey international team in that they will run it back instead of kicking it.
If you look at their teams the hands throughout the fowards and backs are sublime,so their offloading game is very very good.

They will play a tactic of offloading at every oppertunity,if they get it right which they usually do then they are less likely to get turned over.

With France you want to let them run,double team them and try to win a turnover and counter attack.The nature of their play means that alot of the time their defence isnt set up well if a team counter attacks.

I think we will kick but alot less.

If you remember heaslips try last year,O'Connell passed very quickly for it.This is the type of thing we need to do.There is no point in trying to bringing the ball into contact at every oppertunity.We need the fowards to get the ball out quick.

chupacabra · 08-02-2010 7:01pm

Judgement Day wrote: »

Ping pong against France will prove disasterous so I hope we won't see much of it and TOL would need to reduce his number of aimless box kicks too. Keep the ball in hand, as the Scots did for some of their match, and we can win. Bringing back Shane Horgan and Alan Quinlan would also be a good idea.

We did it last year and we will do it again this year, playing with ball in hand is a very dangerous game to play in modern rugby unless you are 100% accurate and clinical and your skill levels are very high which Ireland cannot realistically claim to be. We will kick everything to France this weekend and hope and pray our defense holds out. BOD and Kidney said as much before the start of the championship.