France vs Ireland...England $hat the bed..it's on!

normanbond

Has Matt Williams finished blabbering yet? Can I turn the volume back on again?!!

Clegg

We've played well enough. Putting France under a lot of pressure and making them leak penalties.

Can't help but feel like we're not getting enough out of midfield tho. Aki and Henshaw are powerful carriers and it's good that they're getting over the gainline. But we need more than just that to open up the French defence.

eigrod

First score in 2nd half is massive. We have the ko so need to put them under big pressure in their 22

Burkie1203

Seems to be raining again now. Think that suits France.

perrito caliente

The heart is racing.

molloyjh

awec wrote: »

Ireland are playing like we need to win by 30 points. Completely daft.

Ah other than not taking that kick at goal thats just not true. We have been pretty good in the main and to be fair had Barnes spotted that blatant infringement at the ruck we might not be bemoaning the decision.

Overall we've been good. We're missing 10 players and are well and truly in the hunt for the game and the Championship with 40 mins left. Thats a good position for this team to be in.

WhoamI2022

Clegg wrote: »

Think we're in a bad position where we need to develop a fullback 'on the job.' Stockdale needs time to develop as a 15, but in while he's doing that we've leaking points. Same story with Larmour really.

When Kearney was playing 15 everyone complained about him and wanted someone else. He is replaced now and people still complaining :P

AbusesToilets

Ireland making the right calls, can't legislate for the ref missing calls.

costacorta

Still think we will get tries in second half but need to cut out mistakes.. There two tries were schoolboy tries from our point of view ..

Truthvader

Piehead wrote: »

Robert Kearney making very little sense in TV3 studio as we speak

Whatever, if he was playing France would not have got either try. 1 Stockdale out of position . 2 Stockdale not reliable.

Great winger though

Dave_The_Sheep

AbusesToilets wrote: »

Ireland making the right calls, can't legislate for the ref missing calls.

Except for those calls which were wrong. Such as the ones to go down the line when there are easy points on offer.

We've been the better side, but really need to wise up.

I'll take that at half time.

We are the better team, much more constructive in possession and playing a more varied game.

France are incredibly opportunistic and in a tight game they will hurt us off crappy ball and poor territory in a way that just isn't part of our DNA.

Neither the Irish nor the French player had the ball in their hand for the potential penalty tries and I really don't see how one could be a sure score and the other not considering the ball was at Hugo's fingertips and the French player had to gather a bouncing ball. I'm struggling with why they either both weren't or neither were penalty tries. You take the player out and Keenan is right under that.

I think Barnes is a great ref but he's not penalising France for being on the wrong side of the breakdown when Ireland gather the ball - it's a penalty regardless of the outcome. He's definitely missing a fair bit at the breakdown but so far we've the upper hand there so won't complaint too much.

If Stockdale could be a bit more accurate and assured in the backfield and we convert more of our territory we could do this. Frances defence is terrific but they were blowing out their arse for the last 15. I really wish we had more off the bench but there is plenty to be happy about that half.

COME ON IRELAND.

Ardillaun

Clegg wrote: »

We've played well enough. Putting France under a lot of pressure and making them leak penalties.

Can't help but feel like we're not getting enough out of midfield tho. Aki and Henshaw are powerful carriers and it's good that they're getting over the gainline. But we need more than just that to open up the French defence.

Aki had a good half.

flazio

Did the BBC give up on the match or something? Tribute to Sean Connery now.

Skeetur

What an absolute waste of possession.

leakyboots

The servers here would crash if POM had 1 carry, 1 tackle, 1 penalty conceded and a yellow card in the first half of a Six Nations championship decider away from home...

I think we can do this if we be sensible and keep chipping away, no need to get four tries. Take every point possible

Skeetur

Then Aki gets in on the possession wasting action. Brainless rugby ffs.

laugh

Ah man the decision making is terrible. Aki and Sexton.

Losty Dublin

blackwhite wrote: »

It’s always a home country TV producer for game coverage. French TV have a habit of not showing any replays that suggest France get a decision they shouldn’t have. Same for soccer as well.

Six Nations TV production is independent of the host broadcasting networks. A French company may well host the broadcast and supply the cameramen and audio and technical support and so on but the shots going out live and what to replay etc is a Six Nations Production management team.

purple hands

Whew...awful start

eigrod

****e. All came from Aki’s terrible kick

PTH2009

balls

pc7

Brutal from Ireland, absolutely brutal

DellyBelly

Aki with that kick.. Feck sake

Soups123

Sexton is killing us just keep kicking the fcukin thing away

Twice already this half he’s kicked it away from our possession

ctrl-alt-delete

Terrible

That's our goose cooked.

A-Train

Terrible just terrible. Opened at will.

Headless stuff out there.

Pretty sure the halfback was in front of that kick forward

awec

What a fcuking dumb play that was.

Car99

Decision making is poor and not just Sextons

Squidgy Black

Just can't reorganise ourselves fast enough when France are on the break.

Piehead

Jonathan Sexton needs to retire from Eire duty

Soups123

Game over

Mervyn Skidmore

France looking more likely to win the championship than Ireland.

Strumms

Brutal, Aki can be so brainless, but for about the third time the French kick and the bounce favors them perfectly the bounce couldn’t have been more favorable.

ctrl-alt-delete

More chance of France winning the 6 nations than Ireland right now.

AbusesToilets

Awful kick, awful chase, awful score to give up

Cosmo Kramer

Still absolutely no creativity in our game from open play, which forces us to kick through aimlessly. Plus we no longer have the playbook off set pieces.

The new setup is basically Joeball without the positive aspects brought by Schmidt.

Which is hopeless.

mfceiling

Mervyn Skidmore wrote: »

France looking more likely to win the championship than Ireland.

Excellent analysis.

Clegg

Why does it seem like if you beat out first wave of defence we're so easy to score against? Looking like a major coaching problem there.

KH25

Brainless play all over the pitch.

castletownman

Never in history has the stock of a player plummeted more than Stockdale

beertons

Score?

Ardillaun

Shouldn't have praised Aki.

flazio

I don't think we were favourites in the Spring anyway?

TomsOnTheRoof

That looks to be the game

leakyboots

These French halfbacks are something special, will terrorise opposition for the next decade

Podge_irl

flazio wrote: »

Did the BBC give up on the match or something? Tribute to Sean Connery now.

Moved to BBC1

A-Train

That’s that. Ireland’s heads are gone. Same old same old.