RWC Pool C: Ireland vs Australia, Sat 17 Sep 9:30am; Pre/During/Post Match Thread

.ak

Hrmm... In regards to the past meetings with Oz, I'd have to say that is irrelevant based on the fact this is the best Oz side I've EVER seen. And they're playing a completely different brand of rugby they were playing under the Elsom flag...

I've got a feeling McCabe is going to be instrumental in tearing us apart... Especially if we opt for the tight game. Watch him bury a few runners and force our gain line backwards.

Also, in regards to all this 'Oh, it's raining, yay for Ireland', it's all delusional self-hope. It rained last week and we were dreadful. It rained in the November series last year and we couldn't make a pass stick. And whilst we may be guilty of trying to play Rugby in these conditions, it just doesn't bode well for us - our confidence is shot once we make a few slippery knock ons.

donfers

lads are youz getting in the south africa/fiji game before the irish game? it'll require getting up a bit earlier but that could be a good game, south africa aren't as strong as they were last time out and fiji give them loads of it then......what odds on a fiji/ireland double to shake the rugby world to its core?

would i get 25/1?

Fizman

donfers wrote: »

lads are youz getting in the south africa/fiji game before the irish game? it'll require getting up a bit earlier but that could be a good game, south africa aren't as strong as they were last time out and fiji give them loads of it then......what odds on a fiji/ireland double to shake the rugby world to its core?

would i get 25/1?

Ah, that double on PP is actually 60/1.

donfers

Fizman wrote: »

Ah, that double on PP is actually 60/1.

jaysus, it's not completely out of the question, get on it lads!

profitius

Australia

Pocock is a doubt for the Wallabies but expected to play. He has a back strain.

irishbucsfan

Australia

What about Ireland/Fiji/Samoa! Dream ticket right there.

Mr.SlumDuck

I really hope we stick it right in their Ozzie eye. Reading there in the Indo how they have no respect or clue who we are.

Sean O Brien, the European player of the year is reported to have come in only because of an injury to Paul Wallace! They only know POC, BOD and ROG. Cant wait to see Ferris, O Brien, Healy et all bury Cooper.

Our centre partnership is way more experienced and hopefully Darce will rediscover some form and put in a big game. POC and DOC have dominated the skies over much more formidable opponents. Healy/Ross have sent much better and bigger units back on their asses in both the blue of Leinster and green of Ireland.

We didn't play badly imo against USA. We just didnt manage to put the points on the board. I am hopeful we can win but positive the lads will give us goosebumps with a passionate and proud performance.

Meglamonia

Australia

Any of ye planning on getting up/staying up for the two games beforehand?

totallegend

Australia

Meglamonia wrote: »

Any of ye planning on getting up/staying up for the two games beforehand?

Argentina and Romania @ 430am? Fuhgeddaboutit, but SA v Fiji could be an interesting match alright, I'll probably get up for that.

The old optimism about Ireland is rising within me, I need somebody to give me a dose of reality, stat.

MungBean

Australia

Meglamonia wrote: »

Any of ye planning on getting up/staying up for the two games beforehand?

Planning on getting a few hours kip and getting up for em but when the alarm goes off theres a good chance I'll say feck that and sleep through the first one.

profitius

Australia

totallegend wrote: »

I need somebody to give me a dose of reality, stat.

Ireland have beaten 2 top class teams in world cup history! Having said that I'm confident that they'll perform.

.ak

Mr.SlumDuck wrote: »

I really hope we stick it right in their Ozzie eye. Reading there in the Indo how they have no respect or clue who we are.

Sean O Brien, the European player of the year is reported to have come in only because of an injury to Paul Wallace! They only know POC, BOD and ROG. Cant wait to see Ferris, O Brien, Healy et all bury Cooper.

Our centre partnership is way more experienced and hopefully Darce will rediscover some form and put in a big game. POC and DOC have dominated the skies over much more formidable opponents. Healy/Ross have sent much better and bigger units back on their asses in both the blue of Leinster and green of Ireland.

We didn't play badly imo against USA. We just didnt manage to put the points on the board. I am hopeful we can win but positive the lads will give us goosebumps with a passionate and proud performance.

I wish I shared your optimism. But really, do they need to know who were are? These guys are AB beaters.

Also, I'd imagine the video analysis has been done, as they are a professional outfit. I'm sure they have a good idea of what we're capable of, or more important, what we're not capable of...

Kiwi_knock

Australia

Who will Australia have standing in defence at 10. For the last while it has been Ioane but with him out injured I imagine it will either be Beale or O'Connor moving to 10 and Cooper dropping back.

Hopefully this game does not descend into long aimless kicks because that will suit Australia's counter attacking play. If we are going to kick the ball it should be short high balls like Semenzato did to them in the previous game, should be targeting Ashley-Cooper with the kicks as he looked less than assured under the high ball.

I love watching Cooper play but am hoping he has one of those game where he is danger to his teammates with his wayward passing. For that to happen we have to unsettle him early on.

Teferi

Australia

durkadurka wrote: »

Pocock a doubt apparently.

Missed the captains run today.

Dont want to wish ill on the guy but....

If you want to be the best you have to beat the best.

Our chances rise if he doesn't play though. It would free up SOBs duties a bit too.

summerwine

Australia

I think in the general scheme of things, Ireland has done ok. I have believed over the last few years that kidney has been looking at his squads weaknesses and the team has been practising them consistently over the last while. When big games come along like sat morning, this will def stand to us as Australia will choose tactics that may not work.

The difficult road that the irish team has chosen without wins in the warm up matches will provide three important dimensions to the team. A hunger to win, a toughness to endure difficult games whilst not giving up and finally a sense of composure when situations don't go your way.

I think sexton is the right choice to start as he needs the experience in big games (it also took him a while to settle in his first 6n matches). ROG would have been the easy choice.

Playing Australia and losing is not the end of the world however Australia have two weaknesses I can see. 1. their lack of experience (especially in big games) and 2. toughness of which ireland has worked especially hard on. Combined with ireland being the underdogs and australia being a tad overconfident, I think Ireland has the beating of australia.

Added to that, I don't think that Ireland has shown any set pieces so far so the aussies are in the dark of what we have planned however australia has shown a few of their set pieces in the Italy game so there is some idea of what to expect.

The USA match showed real signs of cohesion by Irelands forwards and I suspect that the backs will follow soon. I reckon a hard path to the world cup will stand to Ireland and I suspect we will steadily improve in form till the world cup final

I prefer to have my pint on sat morn half full!:rolleyes::D

Either way, Ireland and Australia can provide us with a very exciting and special game. Both teams having the potential to attack. The build up is great!!!

peterako

Australia

Come On IRELAND!!!!



Hopefully I'll still be smiling on Sunday......

davegrohl48

Just checked out that Samo no. 8 from Australia. That is one serious player and if Elsom is back to form you have some unreal back row players on the pitch on both sides.
I think Australia will use Samo to gain position well up the pitch over the 80 minutes. Just think it is a while since this Irish side has faced someone as athletic as him. This is the part I fear, we have three slow forwards, a slow scrum half, two centres not known for stamina of late.
I think the gap in fitness will be exposed if we play a wide game. Need to grind and make this a close shootout.
Looking at our previous games in run up we have only attempted one drop goal. How is that not a match day tactic given our proven low try count? In fact Im pretty certain this squad under both coaches have only attempted a drop goal every couple of matches. N when weve needed them to win a game now n then they have worked. When we are corralled into having no other option but going for it it has worked in the past. Might work more often if squad were more tuned into it. A drop goal is a team effort which begins prior to the match starting, too late by game day.

Ardillaun

Matt Williams

summerwine wrote: »

Added to that, I don't think that Ireland has shown any set pieces so far so the aussies are in the dark of what we have planned however australia has shown a few of their set pieces in the Italy game so there is some idea of what to expect.

The USA match showed real signs of cohesion by Irelands forwards and I suspect that the backs will follow soon. I reckon a hard path to the world cup will stand to Ireland and I suspect we will steadily improve in form till the world cup final

The Russians easily pushed that American pack backwards too, so we'll have to raise our game accordingly. Given our slim tight five resources, it's a sign of where we are that we are reduced to hoping for a breakthrough there.

GerM

profitius wrote: »

The Irish pack has better ball carriers and a better scrum. Yes the Aussie scrum has improved but I fancy Mike Ross to cause some havoc. The Italian forwards gave them a battle last week and the Irish forwards are better than the Italians. Ireland also has a bigger range of attack moves than the Italians so that'll make it harder for the Aussies to defend.

I would disagree on the ball carrying point. We have the best one or two ball carriers on the pitch but the Australians are far more comfortable with the ball on average. We have players like DOC and Ross who do very little carrying and POC who isn't much of a carrier in terms of getting over the gain line. All the Wallabies are comfortable with the ball in hand and are very mobile. All are capable of breaking a tackle and rumbling 20m upfield. None of them are as destructive as SOB but they can all break tackles and have decent hands.

The scrum is a bit of a fallacy at this point. The Australian scrum has always struggled to shake their reputation as being a weakness since the 2007 hammering but they don't get shoved around. NZ haven't done it. SA haven't done it. Italy didn't do it. We might get a slight upper hand on them but our front row won't be a major weapon I think.

I think the one area of the game where this game will be won and lost is the breakdown as standard. If we can provide quick ball we can let Sexton expose their midfield. If we're bullied there again then the game is over as soon as it has begun. If we turn around at 30 minutes and we're behind with POC standing one out taking on slow ball then the game is slipping away.

Kiwi_knock

Australia

Anyone else think it is bad that a 35 year old No 8 is faster than the majority of our backs.

pappyodaniel

Australia

Anymore news on Pocock's back injury? it would be a serious boost for Ireland were he to miss this game. If he is missing my optimism for an Irish win will go up.

he'll be given until tomorrow no doubt. Just like TO'L in 6N

pappyodaniel

Australia

Deleted User wrote: »

he'll be given until tomorrow no doubt. Just like TO'L in 6N

As much as I admire the guy, fingers crossed he's not fit for tomorrow and hopefully we'll see more of him in the remaining games.

danthefan

I'd say there's no way Pocock will be missing, this is all attempted mind games.

Cpt_Blackbeard

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

Anyone else think it is bad that a 35 year old No 8 is faster than the majority of our backs.

Wallace is a no. 7 :pac:

ninebeanrows

Matt Williams

It's going to take a long time for Irish rugby to get over what will happen tomorrow.

I really fear for the team out there. They are in for a trouncing

Sean Bateman

Matt Williams

Hopefully the weather stays dodgy as it should be an equalizer.

I'm genuinely fearful about tomorrow. D'Arcy has no form at all, Earls just isn't good enough and O'Callaghan has been fooling people for a long long time. Best's darts were good against the USA but one swallow doesn't make a summer...normally they're terrible.

Reddan does this weird crab like shuffle before passing the ball...it denies our backs that key split second to make something happen. It's reminiscent of George Gregan's final year or so playing for the Wallabies.

We've also made what could be a fatal error in selecting our best players in the back row rather than a balanced back row. Kidney had to bite the bullet and drop Ferris. What should have been done of course is sticking Ferris in beside O'Connell in the row with O'Brien at 6, Heaslip at 8 and (say) Jenno at 7. But now's not the time for that sort of experimentation...that should have been done over the last year or so.

We'll deliver a better performance tomorrow but in my view we've little or no chance of winning. It saddens me to say that.

lynchy101

Teferi wrote: »

If you want to be the best you have to beat the best.

Our chances rise if he doesn't play though. It would free up SOBs duties a bit too.

We are not trying to be the best.

Australia are a better team but with a bit of luck we could sneak a victory.

Then we could reach a semi final vs either England or France.

sickpuppy

Matt Williams

Kiwi_knock wrote: »

Anyone else think it is bad that a 35 year old No 8 is faster than the majority of our backs.

Samo is a rare breed of athlete seeing him in full flight was a joy
some great clips of him in the early 2000s with the brumbies holding the ball in one hand must have huge paws.

We have not the speedsters other teams have

Kiwi_knock

Australia

summerwine wrote: »

Added to that, I don't think that Ireland has shown any set pieces so far so the aussies are in the dark of what we have planned however australia has shown a few of their set pieces in the Italy game so there is some idea of what to expect.

A lot of Australia's set piece play against Italy revolved around Ioane, the Aussie attackers were creating space for him to break free. Ioane takes some great lines and his absence will be felt by the Australia. With his absence Australia's attacking play changes as well. In my opinion Australia's set piece plays will be entirely different than those they employed against the Italians.