Thoughts on first round matches (results discussed)

Hairy Homer

Well the Eyeties gave our pack a right chasing and they were unlucky. With a tad more fortune they would have scored a try while only six points down and Stringer's try shouldn't have been allowed. Horgan was yards in touch when he passed inside.

That being said, Italy's consolation try shouldn;t have been allowed either. He didn't ground it, but what the hell. They deserved it.

The thing about this Irish team is, like the Welsh in the 1970s, there are so many good players in the backs that you've always got a chance one of them is going to turn it on. And you can't mark them all.

But if, as looks likely, both D'Arcy and O'Driscoll are out for the Scottish match with damaged hamstrings, then our lack of strength in depth will become apparent. What could Eddie do? Put Horgan and Maggs in the centre, move Murphy to teh wing and play Dempsey at full back? Or is it time to take a punt on someone like Bowe?

Main worry is the pack though. The others will take note and try to play the game against us there.

Great to see Wales stick it to England. And Scotland did well, though MAtt Williams' whinging was a bit OTT. Still, you've got to expect that from an Aussie.


Odds on an Irish Grand Slam must surely have lengthened.

Sangre

Shane Horgan wasn't in touch. However at the ruck I think Malcolm OK popped up the ball with a forward pass to Stringer whose pass setup the try....meh.

Dont know about Italian try though.

dubal

I thought the back row were letargic all round. I'd consider 3 from miller, o'connor, wallace and quinlan now
Dubal

xern

Horgan wasn't in touch lucky pass though.
The Back row needs to be seriously worked on, O'connor, Miller, Wallace and quinlan will be looking to be in next week.
BOD was our saving grace, only for him it would have been a lot worse.

BOD and Darcy injured...who will be in the centre for the scotland match if they are both out???
Maggs and Horgan?
Mullins and Maggs?

Hats off to Italy they put in a great performance, they would have beaten England had they played them yesterday.

The scots were robbed, they sould have had that try allowed, he wasn't in touch IMO.

Fair play to Wales good to see them beating England.

Its shaping up to be a very interesting 6 Nations, Wide open.

nl

After that display today I dont think unreasonable to say its between Wales and France( if they get it together) for the title. England are no threat without Wilkinson and Johnson.
The Irish pack were a disaster, why Miller was not on earlier is beyond me.

hallelujajordan

Most wide open start to a six-nations I can remember . . . Dissapointing performance from Ireland today, but you have to hope that we can only get better from here . . I thought Horgans pass was OK . . . not in touch, but incredibly lucky to find Stringer . . could just as easily have gone to someone like Bergamasco who would've gone tearing down the wing . . .

Need to sort out the pack urgently if we are to hold out any hope of GS . . But for Foley, we'd have been pushed over for a try on our own scrum late in the second half !!

kazzer

Horgan was yards in touch when he passed inside.

He got chalk on his boots at most.

Looks like Horgan will be in the centre with Maggs for Scotland alright.

Hugh_C

Sangre wrote:

Shane Horgan wasn't in touch. However at the ruck I think Malcolm OK popped up the ball with a forward pass to Stringer whose pass setup the try....meh.

Dont know about Italian try though.

The RTE post-match replays showed Horgan in touch as the pass was made, definitely in touch, the try shouldn't have been awarded. Neither should the Italian try by the prop however, so maybe there's justice after all.

Jilm

hughchal wrote:

The RTE post-match replays showed Horgan in touch as the pass was made, definitely in touch, the try shouldn't have been awarded. Neither should the Italian try by the prop however, so maybe there's justice after all.

Not true.



People (including Hook) just confused the edge of the dugout with the sideline.

Downtime

Touche Jilm, touche.

Downtime

Sangre wrote:

I think Malcolm OK popped up the ball with a forward pass to Stringer

There is no forward pass in rugby therefore it was OK. Although the pass did go forward, it was due to momentum which is fine - Mal did not throw it forward.

Hugh_C

Jilm wrote:

Not true.



People (including Hook) just confused the edge of the dugout with the sideline.

Looks convincing.

Hippo

Lowest-quality opening weekend in the 5 or 6 nations in living memory, everyone looked poor except the Italian pack and Irish backs. Maggs and Horgan in the centre should still be enough for Scotland, but Leamy will have to go....

BolBill

hughchal wrote:

The RTE post-match replays showed Horgan in touch as the pass was made, definitely in touch, the try shouldn't have been awarded. Neither should the Italian try by the prop however, so maybe there's justice after all.

So if RTE said it was ok to put your hand in the fire, you would do it? :rolleyes:

We were made look awful, the Munster players especially O'Gara and Leamy were muck.

Nukem

What do ya reckon he will do - a severe tongue lashing has to be on the cards.
Front row were cr*p - reggie was all over the place and Bryne was unimpressive and Hayes looked tired. Leamy what the hell was he doin. Easterby - who? Locks and no.8 were good.
Stringer and ROG - pull the thumb out big time,on that display it could be G.Easterby,Humps for a few matches.
The backs were good pity about the injuries - life goes on.
Would love to see T.Bowe come into the side now and put Shaggy and Maggs in the middle - hence ya would need a bus to get through the middle.
Need Murphy @ fb or we have no runners in the middle!!!!!

hallelujajordan

yeah, I agree re: Easterby and Leamy . . Was amazed that it took so long to bring on Miller . . imo he has to start against Scotland . .

O'Gara had a poor enough start but I thought he was pretty solid once he got goin' and I actually thought Stringer did well . . Our biggest problem were that the tight 5 were getting pushed around the park and we didn't seem able to secure ball at the breakdown . .

Also, whats the story with the new ball ? ?

hallelujajordan

Also, whatever about Reggie, Horan was annihalated when he came on . . Our biggest problems are in the front row !

[Jackass]

Horgan will defenatly go to center, but i really hope Maggs isn't brought in, he's no good imo. But i suppose one thing we've got going for us is that we have the best coach in the tournement, so EOS will be able to sort out our poor performance better than the french or English..i think scotland played as well as they can play, and were still $hite.

We've 2 weeks without match after scotland game, then two weeks again after England game....so hopefully we'll be back to full strength for French game....just hope it's not to late..ie get the right result against England.....

Hugh_C

Nukem wrote:

Front row were cr*p - reggie was all over the place and Bryne was unimpressive!

Byrne looks fat, body armour notwithstanding. He's fond of the pies...

kollegeknight

the scots will be beaten without the two lads. it was good to see wales win ut now england have nothing to loose. as guys said on BBC at half time, "hope italy wins" they'd hate to see ireland get the grand slam.

daveirl

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Nukem

Have to agree on this - love Hooks quotes but my god i was so sick of it and as for Ryle Nugget and his comentating *switches to BBC* utter sh!te

daveirl

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Third_Echelon

Ryle is not a bad commentator IMO. He is getting better and this is his first full 6N as the main man.

I was watching the wales england game on RTE and George Hamilton went into some weird rant that made absolutely no sense at all. It was during a break in play for an injury i think. The few of us that were watching the game all looked at each other after his little spiel and wondered what the hell he was blabbering on about. He's not a rugby commentator and he should NEVER commentate on it...

I do usually like george hook. I listen to his radio show as well, but i do have to agree with dave, he was just being controversial just for the sake of it.
I couldn't believe it when he called shaggy in touch for the try in the post match analysis. He was clearly in play when he passed the ball....

Perhaps hooky was in a bit of a bad mood....

Nukem

Third_Echelon wrote:

Ryle is not a bad commentator IMO...

Alright il be fare - he was just a bit slow telling people what happened. Mixed people up and all sorts.Not the worst i suppose.
Your right about GH ,what was that about.

Jak

Ryle and Ward need to get some new catch phrases, if I hear one more "Questions being asked...." "Answers were ... " line I will mute the bloody match.

Poor performance generally by the Irish in my view. Yes Italy played well, but with our back line, a little more effort and urgency in the Irish forwards would have gone a long way to putting the Italians away. I'll reserve judgement on Italy till I see their form against another pack. The apparent lack of power in the Irish front row is astonishing though. Granted modern scrums are becoming difficult to police, but if we do not get a decent front row unit together we will be targetted in every match on that front. If the pack can't hold it together, then the entire Irish line is on the backfoot.

Anyhows ROG will be fine, no need for Humphries yet. O'Driscoll was phenomenal even outside of his great breaks. Most of all I am just disappointed that on getting that back line together for this 6 Nations, it's all taken away in the 1st match.

JAK.

[Jackass]

RTE need an entertainer on every panel to make up for the dryness of RTE broadcasting in general...hook is just the dumphy of Irish Rugby...sure even their radio shows are right after each other..going out to the same audience!!

Disagreed with Dave on a couple of points...i think it's a solid munster point of view

Italy are a good side, and under rated...no doubt about it, and well played to them....
But Corrigan is essential to the Irish scrum...it falls apart with Horan, who's excellent in the loose, but an awfull scrumager....corrigan had a poor game, but i'd stick with him ahead of horan. Hayes, as always, gave 110%, invaluable to the Irish team, no other player on this island comes within a mile of him, we're screwed if we loose him. Byrne is better than sheehan, scrumaging, throwing and in the loose. Sheehans not far behind though...O'Kelly, excellent as usual...O'Connell was quiet, but still unquestionably best second row in the world imo.
Back row..appauling! Completely played off the pitch..they might aswell have not been there...so many times O'Driscoll (got injured doing it), D'Arcy, O'Kelly, Hayes were doing their job for them...non-existent in the match, never once even came close to even being the third or fourth player to the break down.....all 3 should be dropped for Scotland game...O'Connor is a break down specialist, no question he should have started ahead of leamy, i even said it on here before, and no question he'll get his game ahead of leamy for the rest of the 6N. Wallace and Quinlan to came in, foley to the bench.

I thought Stringer had a good game considering the season he's had, but i'd still be open to giving campbell a start against the scots to see how he does.
O'Gara, worst game, probably of his professional career, but would give him the benefit of the doubt ahead of humphrys for the scot game, as we all know O'Gara's world class, hopefully an off game, and he'll bounce back.
O'Driscoll leads by example as always, but this game once again showed imo that he is not captain material, he didnt calm the team after the shakey start, and he wasn't able to influence the team to stay true to the game plan, and not get dragged into trench warfare with the italians, which they did, almost cost us the game, and played into their hands...Anyone who doubts the importance of having a good captain should remember that a cool head amongst the pack won England the world cup, and was the difference between the aussies and england in a nerve recking extra time world cup final, O'Connell to captain against Scotland, and he'd keep it after O'Driscoll comes back if it was my call. If EOS ever plans to change captain perminantly, nows the time to do it.

tHE vAGGABOND

whatever about Reggie, Horan was annihalated when he came on

Thats our biggest problem looking at the next world cup. We dont have any good props coming thru (and we have 400 second rows and 400 back rows )

Munster and Leinster make up the huge percentage of our pack and both their front rows get bitch slapped in the european cup by the top teams. If we had a 21 or 22 year old prop for either side with great potential he would be in the squad right now, maybe not starting - but he would be in the training squads, but we dont..

There is talk in the IRFU of hiring someone full time just to search out, coach and nurture front row talent; right now its just a part time post; only when the squad is together..

Trojan

Are there any more idiots who still can't tell the difference between white grass and a bloody fence?

Trojan

Right, got that off my chest. About 47 times I've had to say that today...

--

There's no panic here, this is exactly the kind of game we expected. It was fast and furious (as we expected), the new rules had their influence, and we didn't play so well. Surely we don't need to again repeat the cliche about a good team winning even when they're playing well? Ok, I guess we do

As for the commentary... well it was extreme on both stations. Woody was about the only guy with any sense of proportion.

There are only 2 things to worry about here: Messrs D'Arcy and O'Driscoll. Let's hope we have good news tomorrow.

Besides that, well I don't see what all the fuss is about. But hey, it sells papers.

[Jackass]

was glad to see them both walking (with only a slight limp) out of Dublin Airport today on the news...if it was serious hamstring damage, i imagine they would be on crutches...certainly they'll both be rested for the Scotland game...but i would be optimistic they'll both be back for the English game onwards...not just by seeing the condition they were in on the news, but also by EOS comments, he seemed a lot more upbeat todat about the whole situation...fingers crossed.

Trojan

O'Driscoll and D'Arcy in line-up

O'Driscoll receiving treatment during the bruising battle with Italy
Report: Italy 17-28 Ireland
Geordan Murphy's view
Brian O'Driscoll and Gordon D'Arcy have been named in the Ireland team for Saturday's RBS Six Nations game against Scotland at Murrayfield.

However, the Leinster centres remain doubtful after sustaining hamstring injuries in Sunday's win over Italy.

Scans on Monday evening suggested that the injuries were not as serious as first suspected although they will have further fitness tests later this week.

The only change sees Wasps flanker Johnny O'Connor replacing Denis Leamy.

"Brian and Gordon both had scans on Monday night, and things were not as bad as we thought," O'Sullivan told BBC Sport.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/rugby_union/international/4246803.stm for full report.

Trojan

Damn eircom. Did anyone save a copy of that image?

hannable80

Leamy had a very poor preformance in my opion. done nothing , and looked altogether out of his depth. JOC may or may not be the answer. but he doesn't have to do much to out preform Leamy ......



MUC

Jilm

Trojan wrote:

Damn eircom. Did anyone save a copy of that image?

I updated the image location, so you should be able to see it again.

Hairy Homer

Third_Echelon wrote:

Ryle is not a bad commentator IMO. He is getting better

I wouldn't know because I turn over whenever he comes on. I just can't stand that south Dublin voice and accent. Royle Nyeegint......Yurgggh!!! It goes through me. And I live in Dublin 4. (Bleedin' rapi' irriz too.)

Jim Neilly on the Beeb isn't too bad, but I switch straight back over to Hook and Popey for the analysis. It's a funny thing that despite having great post match analysis RTE has rarely produced good match callers (Nugent has a great voice for sign language, Jim Sherwin doesn't know the game and Fred Cogley was almost as irritating as Nugent)

I love George Hook and I want to have his babies.

And Ted Walsh can **** right off!!!!!


Mind you, I think it was Nugent who was responsible for one of the funniest rugby cameos on RTE ever. It was the day that Ulster won the Heineken Cup and RTE turned over the entire day to coverage of the big event. One of the things they did was send some poor unfortunate south Dublin git (I think it was Nugent but as he wasn't so well known back then I can't be sure) to cover the exodus of Northern fans from Belfast on the morning of the match, which was held at Lansdowne Road.

Greenhorn RTE hack sticks microphone into face of big Ulster rugby fan climbing on to a coach in the early morning gloom and says: 'Wow. This must be, like, the biggest exodus of people from Nawrthern Oireland since the Pope came to Drogheda?'

Big Ulster rugby fan looks at RTE hack as if he was something nasty that had just attached itself to his shoe. 'Well now sonny. We weren't at that one'

I bet it was Tom McGurk who put him up to it.

evilhomer

i would have to say that leamy had a really bad game, i watched the BBC and didn't hear hook slate him, but he was late to every ruck, gave away a couple of stupid penalty's and had a couple of knock-ons, we need a faster number 7 then Leamy, i lost count of how many times we broke through the italian line and there was no one there to support the runner.

As regards the props, when corrigan went off we got hammered in the scrums!
Horan is a good player with ball in hand but not a good prop.

Easterby and Foley both played well below there standard but should probably be given another go, otherwise i would pick miller/quinlan at 6.