Six Nations 2023 - Wales v Ireland, Sat 4th Feb, KO 2:15PM - TV: VM1, BBC1, S4C

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203712#Comment_120203712

I think you're mixing confidence and arrogance.

We really don't do confidence well and yet for the first time in many years I was never worried about a loss yesterday. Normally home or away Wales tend to up their game against us. Yet I never fancied them yesterday.

The Irish players are far superior (and we still worry) than their Welsh counterparts. Our coaching set up is superior. We are number one in the World for a reason. So yes I was confident but never arrogant. Anything can happen in sport, that's why we love it.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204057#Comment_120204057

Every team is going to have a purple patch at some point.

Wales scored 7 points in theirs. We scored 27 in ours.

It’s unreasonable to think we could maintain the opening 25 mins for the entire 80 at Test level.

OldRio

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203818#Comment_120203818

Haha, I forgot the rolling of the eyes. He really was fed up of her wittering on.

aloooof

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203941#Comment_120203941

I’d have to see it again but I thought Porter was on his knees to technically out of the game. Correct decision for me.

scott1974

I've seen that Gatland giving out about Porters late challenge after the try, which seems to have very little in it.

As opposed to Williams challenge on Jackson.

https://youtu.be/czoFyTfN6U8

Former Former Former

The penalty against Porter for the hit after the try was harsh, there was very little in it and IMHO the Wales lads bought the penalty with their reaction.

The penalty for the tackle while on the ground was 50-50, maybe he's sliding into it (which is allowed) and Adam jumps into the tackle (not allowed) but could go either way.

Otherwise I thought the ref kept the game moving along very quickly, any TMO interventions were very brief and I don't think he missed anything egregious.

Was mentioned on BBC comms and I agree that givng the drop out for being held up over the line is an odd rule, I would go back to the 5m scrum.

sydthebeat

The pen against aki for"tackling the man off the ball" was result the worst decision of the game, but it was called by the touch judge

randomname2005

Personally surprised by some of the penalties as discussed above. However, by the letter of the law, they are and hopefully we can get consistency not only in the game but across games. If every semi late arm led tackle is going to result in a penalty then most try saving tackles that don't work will be penalised. We recently had a head butt into ringrose's hip/leg as he scored a try, tackler never in any position to possibly prevent the try legally and nothing came from it. What porter did was minor in comparison but penalised. Exact consistency will be impossible but a more homogeneous application of the laws would be good.

If refs and tmos are going to be that pedantic then it should have been a penalty to Ireland in the build up. Welsh 14 comes in the side way ahead of the last foot and takes a player out off the ball, at least as bad as the penalty against aki imho. At about 20 seconds in this video

https://twitter.com/VMSportIE/status/1621893252625436673?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1621893252625436673%7Ctwgr%5E41fc468371a956bdda6564eef924bbae9a362876%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sportsjoe.ie%2Frugby%2Fpeter-omahony-liam-williams-282162

randomname2005

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204087#Comment_120204087

I don't know, all of the officials missing the knock on in the first half is worse in my opinion. Maybe Keenan should have let him score so it would be officially reviewed

jimbingo

Ref was fine , Wales weren’t , Ireland need to play all the game though it’s hard when the first 27 mins yields 27 points. We will have to play 80+ against France .

prawnsambo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204057#Comment_120204057

There is concern about the amount of penalties we conceded which allowed Wales back into the game. But that's an easy fix and unusual for us generally. So it's not a major concern and I would assume that will be one of the main areas of attention in the coming week.

Scotland do this every year. They start well, think they're the best team in the championship and fall at pretty much every hurdle from that point on. I predicted they'd win this match and I'm predicting that they'll continue as before. England are still a long way from being a force to reckon with and Scotland could have made it a far less tight finish if they hadn't been so profligate with their chances.

kuang1

Haven't watched the match a 2nd time yet, but my god Doris looked immense. Keenan was also brilliant, but I was convinced in real time that Doris would have been MOTM.

Interested Observer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204069#Comment_120204069

That's what the penalty was for, not a tip tackle, but he'd just slipped in trying to cover, it's not like he was at the bottom of a ruck and made the tackle. I'd say there's as many refs who wouldn't give it as would.

And in general I thought the ref was fine. Few pedantic ones but he was grand.

Poorside

I love this kind of win, play some exceptional rugby, blow the oppo away with some of our best players missing and still have things to work.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203674#Comment_120203674

No he didn’t go off with a HIA but he should have. Biggar had already been subbed off prior to him asking the question. If you look where Sexton was at the time he asked the question, it’s fairly clear who he was referring to. Considering Sexton had taken a shoulder to the face shortly before that. It really should have been mandatory at that point.

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204009#Comment_120204009

I look forward to it. You should have put your house on the bet to beat the spread so.

Akrasia

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120203821#Comment_120203821

Ireland were by far the better team yesterday. I was concerned that even being 3 scores ahead with 15 mins to go, Farrell didn't bring on the replacement loosehead or hooker until 73 mins, and Byrne wasn't brought in until Sexton got injured

Wales were awful. They butchered chances and gave away lots of stupid penalties and looked poorly coached and unfit.

I still think the real test is against France next weekend.

Conan didn't add much when he came on despite Wales being down to 14 and visibly fatigued. I think against France we need a 3 lock pack. POM should lose out to Beirne at 6 and Coombes should bench instead of Conan

Henderson or even Joe McCarthy should start in the 2nd row

All_in_Flynn

I think McCloskey is going to find himself out of the 23 next week. He went ok yesterday but I just get the feeling with the way Farrell spoke in the post match presser that Aki will be brought back in.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204293#Comment_120204293

Did POM play so bad on recent months to get dropped? I thought he had a good game yesterday as part of the good back row unit.

Is Joe McCarthy at the level he needs to be at to start against Francet? Is Henderson the player he was? And the final question - why is the form second half in the country not in the squad - Jean Kleyn?

dublin49

Great that we are becoming fast starters rather than the opposite,I thought Porters try saving hold up was the key to at least the margin of the score as a score there and who knows ,I didnt feel the game was won until VDF try and the welsh certainly could have made bigger inroads to our lead but some great defending and botched plays,As always you have taken that result hands down before the start but slightly disappointed with second half display.I would love to see Osborne involved next week as we don't have any X factor players on current team ,bar Doris perhaps.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204374#Comment_120204374

Lots of talk about Osborne but maybe a Crowley-Ringrose centre pairing may be the answer. Crowley did very well against a good chunk of the French team (Toulouse) - the game two weeks ago was played at a faster pace to the Test yesterday.

just to add that Ringrose and Keenan are world class players. Sexton ain’t bad either.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204266#Comment_120204266

Just looked at it again. Biggar and sexton were both subbed in the same break of play, but Dickson pointed at sexton and asked something along the lines of "what's happening with the 10?" Rather than "the 10 doesn't know what's happening". It's hard to make out.

But in any case, the hit from Williams is very soft, as commented on by Dickson when he said there's no high degree of danger. Williams was passive but high.

Sexton didn't go for a hia as the medics or independent medical officer didn't seem it necessary. Good news for next weekend.

FrancieBrady

Sexton has explained what happened.

“I was just trying to get the physio,” explained Sexton of that exchange with Dickson.

“I had a dead leg, wanted to get it strapped up but he said I needed to come off for a HIA. I said I just needed to see a physio and get a quad strapped. That was the confusion.

“I went off, did my HIA. I’m fine.”

Sexton said his bang to the leg should be OK too and he is expected to be fit for the clash with France next weekend back in Dublin.

https://www.the42.ie/johnny-sexton-ireland-wales-5-5987760-Feb2023/?utm_source=shortlink

stephen_n

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204535#Comment_120204535

I think what Dickson was referring to was Johnny wandering around aimlessly as if he was confused. Johhny was in nomansland at that point with the next play setting up. We already know the force of the hit doesn’t have to be massive. I think they should have at least pulled him to check at that point. Farrell said he passed the HIA, don’t know if means while on the field or after he came off. I just think if someone is acting odd after any head contact, they should be airing on the side of caution.

cuttingtimber22

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204616#Comment_120204616

Absolutely. And no excuse with the game won.

sydthebeat

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204616#Comment_120204616

He wasn't in no man's land??

There was about 3 minutes of play after the Williams card. Johnny kicked a decent touch finder immediately after the incident ( most importantly, AFTER bring checked by the Irish medical staff). He also hit the ruck where wakes won the pen to kick to the line, when at that stage sexton was taken off. As I've said already, both biggar and sexton went off in the very same stoppage in play, so there was some confusion as to who was being hauled ashore , the ref was being told 10 by boths so he had to be sure what the substitution call was

You are blowing this way out of proportion. Sexton was checked, he was fine. He didn't have to do a hia when he went off. Hopefully he's good for next week

All_in_Flynn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204616#Comment_120204616

I think you've really misread the situation and are making it sound like Sexton didn't know where he was. Surely Sexton's own words have cleared the matter up?

sydthebeat

Hopefully this puts it to bed

Cosmo Kramer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204616#Comment_120204616

To be fair, I think you'd have a better grasp of the situation here if you managed to resist from inventing stuff that didn't happen to fit with your initial incorrect assumption that there was any HIA issue involving Sexton.

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120204671#Comment_120204671

“He didn't have to do a hia when he went off.”

But he said he did do a HIA and passed it.