Ireland Team Talk XI: Team of nervoUS MOD warning Post 1

shootermacg

kingofthekong

shootermacg wrote: »

Stockdale will be a better full back than a winger. That makes sweet FO sense to me. Wingers are essentially the blondes of the team and Stockdale is a blonde with zero positional sense.

Wonder who Daly pissed off in camp? He's better to Keenan IMO, bigger, faster and stronger. What's going on there?

Massively disrespectful to stockdale....you wouldnt say any of the above to his face but being on an anonymous forum fills you with the confidence you probably lack in real life

On Keenan ahead of Daly, personally think Keenan is better, and coaches spend far more time analysing the guys in trainning...something must not be good enough or they will maybe rotate Daly in for Georgia

aloooof

ionadnapokot wrote: »

"Oi! van Graan. NO!

I applaud this reference.

sydthebeat

aloooof wrote: »

There's merits to both, and they have their similarities, in that attack is their strength and defence their weakness. But to say Zebo shouldn't even be in the camp (with the "if he was available / playing in Ireland" caveat) is going overboard imo.

Competely agreed.

With the injuries to larmour and r kearney gone, Zebo would certainly be in camp and a strong contender for a starting jersey.
Is he a bit if a luxury player? Yes he is, but he's a natural born finisher and in this game against Italy he could have had a bagful.

However obviously all of this is moot because he's playing abroad.

sydthebeat

shootermacg wrote: »

Go on, admit it, you've this clip bookmarked haven't you

molloyjh

aloooof wrote: »

Even if he didn't field any balls in the backfield in the final, I would still contend he's superior in the air than Lowe, tho.

Lowe is definitely far more physical in the tackle. Zebo has put in some brilliant last-ditch try saving tackles in his time tho. Zebo probably has the better boot too?

There's merits to both, and they have their similarities, in that attack is their strength and defence their weakness. But to say Zebo shouldn't even be in the camp (with the "if he was available / playing in Ireland" caveat) is going overboard imo.

To be honest I'm not looking to compare the two. Like others I have my concerns about Lowe defensively too and not sure he'll be able to make the step up. He's done enough to be given a shot in camp, and seems to have done enough there so far to be kept on. Lets see how that goes.

We've heard over the years plenty of stories re Zebos work ethic etc. There have been constant conversations on his defensive appetite at Racing too, although I've seen relatively few of their games to be able to have a concrete opinion on those comments. What I do know is that I've yet to see anything to dispel the notion that he's less than interested in that side of the game. I've seen a number of games where he has simply looked lethargic in defence. For a guy with so much zip on the other side of the ball it looks odd at the very least.

He seems to be very happy where he is and have license to express himself as he wants. That is genuinely great for the guy. He has some serious talent and him enjoying his rugby is in no way a bad thing. Quite the opposite. But I haven't seen a huge amount to convince me that he should be playing for Ireland, even considering his attacking abilities. Donncha Ryan on the other hand...I'd love to see him back, especially now. We could do with the gnarliness.

EDIT: On rereading that I should probably point out that what I mean is that I see no reason the playing abroad rule should be broken for Zebo. Obviously if he was playing here then that would be a different story. He would be in the squad. But I also think he would be showing up better defensively too. He was when he was at Munster previously.

arsebiscuits1

shootermacg wrote: »

Stockdale will be a better full back than a winger. That makes sweet FO sense to me. Wingers are essentially the blondes of the team and Stockdale is a blonde with zero positional sense.

Wonder who Daly pissed off in camp? He's better to Keenan IMO, bigger, faster and stronger. What's going on there?

Have you anything to actually back this up?

Have you stats? Figures? Anything to suggest you didn't just pull this out of nowhere?

Yes you can have an opinion. But you're basing this opinion on information you have absolutely no access to.

Unless you feel you know more than the coaches?

ionadnapokot

kingofthekong wrote: »

Massively disrespectful to stockdale....you wouldnt say any of the above to his face but being on an anonymous forum fills you with the confidence you probably lack in real life

On Keenan ahead of Daly, personally think Keenan is better, and coaches spend far more time analysing the guys in trainning...something must not be good enough or they will maybe rotate Daly in for Georgia

regardless of who of Stockdale, Keenan or Daly plays or doesn't play or even what position. It will be fine for Italy.

It's the French match i really worry for the back 3 in defense.
& the front row in the scrum.
& our halfbacks.
&.....
Interestingly France are only 3 point favorites!!

aloooof

molloyjh wrote: »

EDIT: On rereading that I should probably point out that what I mean is that I see no reason the playing abroad rule should be broken for Zebo. Obviously if he was playing here then that would be a different story. He would be in the squad. But I also think he would be showing up better defensively too. He was when he was at Munster previously.

All fair points, molloy, seems like it all came from a mis-understanding on your first post. Completely agree, we shouldn't be breaking any playing-abroad unwritten rules for him.

ionadnapokot

Delighted to see young Garbisi at 10
Disappointed no Minozzi at 15

sydthebeat

callow enough italy team, that back line is a bit all over the place.... and using a 6 / 2 split on the bench.... only 6 caps between the locks...

canna at 12 is obviously to give a hand to Garbisi who is, at last, supposed to be the real deal at 10 for them..... a lot of pressure on the young lads head

we need to keep the ball away from, and play out of, contact as often as we can and holes will absolutely appear in that defense.
we need to pretty much play an anti-schmidt game

sydthebeat

ionadnapokot wrote: »

......
Disappointed no Minozzi at 15

allowed to stay and play with Wasps in the premiership final.

ionadnapokot

sydthebeat wrote: »

allowed to stay and play with Wasps in the premiership final.

thats a joke that is
imagine if Racing did that with Zebo:D

but seriously. fuppin joke

ionadnapokot

sydthebeat wrote: »

callow enough italy team, that back line is a bit all over the place.... and using a 6 / 2 split on the bench.... only 6 caps between the locks...

canna at 12 is obviously to give a hand to Garbisi who is, at last, supposed to be the real deal at 10 for them..... a lot of pressure on the young lads head

we need to keep the ball away from, and play out of, contact as often as we can and holes will absolutely appear in that defense.
we need to pretty much play an anti-schmidt game

anti-schmidt game? you mean more off-loads?

Mori will also win his 1st cap off the bench.
https://youtu.be/vb-xCkfVzz0?t=179

kingofthekong

Italys pack look powerful

ionadnapokot

Very good interview with Rob Kearney. Joe Molloy is good at this.
Might even get the book!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j00JIiJqv10

sydthebeat

ionadnapokot wrote: »

anti-schmidt game? you mean more off-loads?

Mori will also win his 1st cap off the bench.
https://youtu.be/vb-xCkfVzz0?t=179

i dont necessarily mean more offloads only. Schmidths game plan was predicated on holding onto possession by taking the contact and recycling quickly to find gaps out wide. It was very much centered around retaining possession where possible.

in this new Farrell era, and in the new climate of ruck and jackle interpretations... against this italian team id like to see us try to play through the contact, whether thats an offload out of a tackle, or quicker hands before contact... essentially playing for space rather than for contact. I think we have more ball carrying options now in the forward pack, and id like to see them using their hands more often. Theres no need to have grunter rucking specialists if the plan is to avoid rucks where optimal (under joe it was closer to seeking rucks where possible.. a strategy that worked well, quite often, at that time)

we had 130 rucks against italy last time we played them in 2019 with 58% possession

id imagine we will have similar possession on saturday, but id like to see about 20 less rucks in our end of game stats... weather permitting of course

Dog Botherer

kingofthekong wrote: »

Italys pack look powerful

Backrow isn’t bad, pretty solid international level stuff.

On the other hand, tight five test starts = 0,17, 3, 0, 3

ionadnapokot

sydthebeat wrote: »

i dont necessarily mean more offloads only. Schmidths game plan was predicated on holding onto possession by taking the contact and recycling quickly to find gaps out wide. It was very much centered around retaining possession where possible.

in this new Farrell era, and in the new climate of ruck and jackle interpretations... against this italian team id like to see us try to play through the contact, whether thats an offload out of a tackle, or quicker hands before contact... essentially playing for space rather than for contact. I think we have more ball carrying options now in the forward pack, and id like to see them using their hands more often. Theres no need to have grunter rucking specialists if the plan is to avoid rucks where optimal (under joe it was closer to seeking rucks where possible.. a strategy that worked well, quite often, at that time)

we had 130 rucks against italy last time we played them in 2019 with 58% possession

id imagine we will have similar possession on saturday, but id like to see about 20 less rucks in our end of game stats... weather permitting of course

The rucks. The rucks.
Yes it's something that the Irish forwards need to evolve away from contact.

The plan at rucks.
I havent seen any change of plan from Irish forwards. Lets hope.

Retaining possession is of course how Ireland ascended the mountain in 2018 and then died on in 2019.
I think it was primarily because of the lack of a kicking strategy in attack.

Thats what i desperately want to see from Ireland v Italy. Kick to attack. Because if we are going to try and play more with our forwards we are going to get physically smashed v France.

bilston

ionadnapokot wrote: »

thats a joke that is
imagine if Racing did that with Zebo:D

but seriously. fuppin joke

To be fair Italy agreed to it, and presumably Minozzi himself made the decision. Its a chance for silverware (albeit Exeter are massive favourites) for Minozzi. The Ireland game is fairly meaningless for Italy at this stage.

It would have been interesting if Scotland had had a 6Ns match this weekend (I know they play Georgia). What would their captain have done?

WhoamI2022

sydthebeat wrote: »

callow enough italy team, that back line is a bit all over the place.... and using a 6 / 2 split on the bench.... only 6 caps between the locks...

canna at 12 is obviously to give a hand to Garbisi who is, at last, supposed to be the real deal at 10 for them..... a lot of pressure on the young lads head

we need to keep the ball away from, and play out of, contact as often as we can and holes will absolutely appear in that defense.
we need to pretty much play an anti-schmidt game

Was Schmidt not the most successful coach Ireland has ever had?

ionadnapokot

bilston wrote: »

To be fair Italy agreed to it, and presumably Minozzi himself made the decision. Its a chance for silverware (albeit Exeter are massive favourites) for Minozzi. The Ireland game is fairly meaningless for Italy at this stage.

It would have been interesting if Scotland had had a 6Ns match this weekend (I know they play Georgia). What would their captain have done?

With Italy agreeing to it, that must be code for €
Still a pity we wont get to see him. Makes Larmour look flat footed!

sydthebeat

WhoamI2022 wrote: »

Was Schmidt not the most successful coach Ireland has ever had?

Of course he was

Your point??

WhoamI2022

sydthebeat wrote: »

Of course he was

Your point??

It seems some fans are acting as if Schmidt was the worst coach ever because of a bad few months. I seen it happen with other coachs as well as soon as they leave Ireland, it looks to be the fashionable thing to slag them off. No idea what it brings to the conversation.

sydthebeat

WhoamI2022 wrote: »

It seems some fans are acting as if Schmidt was the worst coach ever because of a bad few months. I seen it happen with other coachs as well as soon as they leave Ireland, it looks to be the fashionable thing to slag them off. No idea what it brings to the conversation.

I've no idea what it brings to the conversation either so I'm not sure why you're bringing it up.... No one here called Schmidt "the worst coach", so maybe you should stay off Facebook for a while.

If you want to know my position, read the post i put up after the one you quoted

OldRio

The weather for Saturday looks crap. Wet and windy. Not sure if it's ball up jumper bad but not what Ireland wanted.

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/RuaidhriOC/status/1319609338193956873?s=19

thomond2006

I imagine those English and French clubs aren't exactly in the market either.

Some tough decisions however might have to be taken on some of the older players who aren't in the Ireland picture.

salmocab

thomond2006 wrote: »

I imagine those English and French clubs aren't exactly in the market either.

Some tough decisions however might have to be taken on some of the older players who aren't in the Ireland picture.

Yeah I was thinking it’s not the time to be looking around. It might well suit them to let a couple move on especially older lads

Clegg

BOD was talking about this in a recent interview with Murray Kinsella. This is a gem for a few reasons. BOD playing at outhalf, wearing the 17 jersey and looking like a baby. And there's an utter lack of rush defence. So alien in the modern game.

https://twitter.com/Murray_Kinsella/status/1319669914425176064?s=19