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

Dave_The_Sheep

Byrne may have his limitations, but at the moment he is the best 10 we have to face England, Sexton being unavailable. Of all the alternative to Sexton, Byrne's game probably suits us best, so this is no bad thing. I'm not particularly worried about 10 tomorrow. It's not where we'll lose or win, that's up front. Most likely the scrum/front row.

TRANQUILLO wrote: »

He's a cheerleading sycophant. Dont mind him.

Uh, who?

If you mean Murray, you couldn't be more wrong.

The Lost Sheep

Kraftwerk wrote: »

There's a lot of negativity about Byrne on social media. He's a very capable player and Sexton isn't always firing on all cylinders himself. JGP is bringing a new dynamic to the team too that Byrne is used to at Leinster so I don't think he'll be at sea.

I think the pack will hold its own too. Scrum may go against us as Jones will be in the refs ear pre game and England will be at the shenanigans while the ref scrutinizes Ireland. But hopefully it won't be a Wales level disaster.

I'd be more worried about the back 3. Earls excels against weaker opposition but he often falls short in the bigger games and Keenan and Lowe are new to the scene. England could do a serious amount of damage if the back 3 are anyway shakey.

I wouldnt call it negativity about Byrne. He's capable yes but not sure about stepping up beyond that. Ref wont be focused on Ireland any more han England at scrum time...
That is extremely unfair and incorrect about Earls. But agree that England could do plenty of damage out wide considering Keenan and Lowe are new to international level and Lowe's defence is a bit ???

aloooof

TRANQUILLO wrote: »

I wouldn't imagine you've encountered much Zebo talk in 200 odd posts.

You’re own join date is August there, chief.

I think it’s indicative that we’ve had a few pages of actually interesting discussion and this is what you gravitate to, tbh.

El_Duderino 09

aloooof wrote: »

Ah, if our biggest worry at the end of 2moro evening is that one of our players had a good game, then it’ll have been an exceptionally good day at the office tbh.

Yeah but that isn’t the worry I expressed. I worry they’ll make him the starting winger again. The way Ireland works it is usually that an established player can have one good performance followed by several bad performances and stop be picked because of cliches like “we all know what he’s capable of” and “what he brings to the dressing room”.

I think Earls should be an important player for Munster for the next couple of years before retiring. But he shouldn’t be a starting option for Ireland even if he plays well tomorrow

aloooof

El_Duderino 09 wrote: »

Yeah but that isn’t the worry I expressed. I worry they’ll make him the starting winger again. The way Ireland works it is usually that an established player can have one good performance followed by several bad performances and stop be picked because of cliches like “we all know what he’s capable of” and “what he brings to the dressing room”.

I think Earls should be an important player for Munster for the next couple of years before retiring. But he shouldn’t be a starting option for Ireland even if he plays well tomorrow

To be fair to Farrell, I think even in his short spell so far, he’s shown more than most of our recent coaches that he’s willing to pick on form rather than on reputation.

On the evidence so far, I don’t think any player will be afforded several bad performances before being dropped tbh, including Earls.

Look at Stockdale, VdF, Murray for example.

aloooof

the baby bull elephant wrote: »

'Gibson-Park has the potential to cause defences a huge amount of problems' https://the42.ie/5269504

Cheers for that, very interesting read. It seems like it’s very possibly by design then. A change to the angle might make it more difficult for the escorts and make it much more of a contestible for the attacking player. One to keep an eye out for 2moro.

ionadnapokot

the baby bull elephant wrote: »

'Gibson-Park has the potential to cause defences a huge amount of problems' https://the42.ie/5269504

As much as I’d like to give the benefit of the doubt to Park I don’t think those kicks from the right side was a tactic from Ireland. They just drifted in.

When NZ kicked v Arg It was primarily to the Argentina’s rhs of the pitch. They didn’t want box kicks coming back down on Clarke side because he struggled defending them v Aus.
When NZ were on the lhs of the pitch they kicked infield so Clarke and others could chase down the kick and Barret could cover backfield with Mounga and field kick return.

Ireland would be wise to follow suit and protect Earls on the right as NZ did with Clarke on the left.

El_Duderino 09

aloooof wrote: »

To be fair to Farrell, I think even in his short spell so far, he’s shown more than most of our recent coaches that he’s willing to pick on form rather than on reputation.

On the evidence so far, I don’t think any player will be afforded several bad performances before being dropped tbh, including Earls.

Look at Stockdale, VdF, Murray for example.

Yeah that’s true enough.

lawrencesummers

Byrne is lucky that He wont have to contend with Tuilagi running at him, but he is going to be targeted plenty.

Solutionking

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Byrne is lucky that He wont have to contend with Tuilagi running at him, but he is going to be targeted plenty.

Which is why the backrow needs to protect him.

sydthebeat

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Byrne is lucky that He wont have to contend with Tuilagi running at him, but he is going to be targeted plenty.

I guess you havent seen much of ollie lawrence play then. Possibly a harder straight up carrier than tuilagi.

bilston

sydthebeat wrote: »

I guess you havent seen much of ollie lawrence play then. Possibly a harder straight up carrier than tuilagi.

I was wondering about this. Personally haven't seen him play, but his stats suggest he could a tough cookie. Still looks like we have a physical advantage in the midfield which is unusual for us against England...at least in the last couple of years.

Buer

lawrencesummers wrote: »

Byrne is lucky that He wont have to contend with Tuilagi running at him, but he is going to be targeted plenty.

Any outhalf is targeted to a certain extent by runners. Byrne isn't unique in that regard. I don't expect him to receive specific attention though. He's one of the bigger out halves around and is generally very comfortable in the physical stakes.

UAEguy2020

sydthebeat wrote: »

I guess you havent seen much of ollie lawrence play then. Possibly a harder straight up carrier than tuilagi.

Yeah but that’s against rubbish opposition, this is a step up 😉

sydthebeat

UAEguy2020 wrote: »

Yeah but that’s against rubbish opposition, this is a step up 😉

Rubbish?

Worcester Generally play teams that are better than them

UAEguy2020

sydthebeat wrote: »

Rubbish?

Worcester Generally play teams that are better than them

Worcester are also rubbish which is the problem. Test rugby is a whole different beast.

Lawrence looks a destructive runner and it will be interesting to see how he fares

But Tuilagi at full fitness is a talisman, sucks in so many defenders and can send opponents into next week with a tackle.

Different kettle of fish. He's big but his absolute strength is even bigger.

I imagine that the Irish team would swap the option of facing a fit Tuilagi for Lawrence any day.

theVersatile

https://twitter.com/IrishRugby/status/1330145191559311362?s=19

Ed Byrne out, Bramham to 17, John Ryan to 18

Bazzo

IRELAND WON THIS MATCH, BY A LOT!

Tomtom364

Slightly out of the box thinking.

Should Ireland call Billy Holland up to the squad.
Not to play.
But to coach the damn lineout.

By all account Billy is an absolute lineout expert and does a heck of a lot of work in the Munster lineout analysis.

Kraftwerk

Bazzo wrote: »

IRELAND WON THIS MATCH, BY A LOT!

Irish players were not allowed near the try line!! While England found tries from nowhere! Complete fraud.

AbusesToilets

Catt is seemingly doing nothing to shape an effective attack. Aki doesn't work without a ball playing 13 outside of him. Would like to see Frawley and Ringrose get a run out. Ross Bryne is not good enough, doesn't offer a threat and stands way too deep

Captain_Crash

I thought it was an encouraging performance! Take away the gammy second try and we were right in it, we also went for a line a few times instead of taking the points!! We’re a team in transition who were missing a number of starters and just played a full strength England team without getting steamrolled!

I’m saying that, the boys in the studio are right.... we never looked like winning but you learn more from losses than wins and if we can learn and evolve from this, it was a worthwhile 80mins.

Kraftwerk

I hope this doesn't result in a change of attitude to JGP. He was caught out a few times but still quick and threatening. He'd have worked better with Burns.

breezy1985

Novice rugby question.
Were England fouling during Irish lineouts. They weren't making any attempt to play the ball but just stick a hand in between our receiver

Akrasia

How is our lineout still so bad?

Akrasia

breezy1985 wrote: »

Novice rugby question.
Were England fouling during Irish lineouts. They weren't making any attempt to play the ball but just stick a hand in between our receiver

They're allowed to knock the ball away as long as they don't knock it forward, or grap an irish player while they're in the air

The Lost Sheep

breezy1985 wrote: »

Novice rugby question.
Were England fouling during Irish lineouts. They weren't making any attempt to play the ball but just stick a hand in between our receiver

No. They were fine. Opposition can catch ball or knock it back to their side but cant touch anyone who's in the air

Akrasia wrote: »

How is our lineout still so bad?

Kelleher is poor at throwing. Ryan who was running the lineout made same very poor decisions on calls which english read well and contested

theVersatile

Pros:
POM is a king
Doris did well
About 40% of James Ryan's performance.
Lowe powerful in contact down the edge
Porter with some shift; Roux a workhorse
Earls - age is only a number
Jacob gets a needed try for the confidence (shout out to Burns for the chip)
Farrell showed glimpses of quality in contact - especially around the 60-70 min mark. (not forgetting him getting bamboozled by May though).

Meh:
20% of James Ryan's performance.
Keenan took a lot of hits - safe under the high ball - but didn't find purchase in attack - caught for May's score.
Healy chugged along.
Murray took control when he came on.
Bundee quiet.
CJ very quiet, may potentially move down pending stats.
The subs in general - lacking impact bar half backs. Maybe Herring.

Cons:
The other 40% of James Ryan's game.
Kelleher and the line out.
Discipline.
Immense lack of luck.
JGP with poor decisions and average skills - you'd wonder why Murray didn't start if we planned on kicking as much as we did - then bring on JGP when chasing.
Ross Byrne very deep, very static, not very square. Probably unlucky with some of his kicks, but one to forget overall.

Akrasia

Kraftwerk wrote: »

I hope this doesn't result in a change of attitude to JGP. He was caught out a few times but still quick and threatening. He'd have worked better with Burns.

If Murray was a slow as JGP was at a lot of rucks today, people would be demanding that he be exiled to the swamps of eternal despair

JGP was slow because we didn't have any clean ball. JGP isn't a bad player, but he made some very poor decisions today, taking on big risks against huge players without support resulting in missed opportunities, turnovers and almost giving away a try