Italy V Ireland Match thread

We need to remember that Italian forwards were stalling our backrow constantly. They were lying on VDF or gabbing him somehow throughout the first half. Same for Doris and Conan. That's why we looked slow and scattered at times. Their rucking was clever but illegal and we should have got more penalties. Other teams will do the same if they can't get away with it.

What's people's thoughts on the current Ireland team and their improved fortunes? Going into world cup number 1 in the world having beaten all the other top 10 in the year before is a great place to be. But got me thinking why that is....

Is it

Better individual players than any time going into world cup? Personally I don't think so, lots of players since the year 2000 Id have way before current starters and have probably seen better starting 15s at times. Although debatable.

Better 23 and squad depth? Very possibly, we do have depth now.

Better coaching? I believe this is a big thing, Farrells Ireland play better brand of rugby than Schmidt/Kidney/O Sullivans Ireland. Very few mistakes and we don't lose games we should be winning any more by the looks of it, even the 50/50 games we are coming out on top by the odd point now. Great mindset by the looks of things.

Opposition dropping away? England in disarray, Wales in a mess, New Zealand being at their weakest over last 2 years since I've ever watched them (they've just come off 25 years or so of golden generations though, some of the best players we will ever see) Australia not being vintage side but still decent, although to be fair Scotland and France are as good at the moment as they have been. South Africa reigning champions and sometimes politics/economics gets in their way. Dangerous animals though.

Didn't anyone else notice how close Choo Choo Stu was defending to Ross Byrne. It might have been a called tactic, but it did give Aki and Lowe a lot of ground to cover.

In fairness, for the interception, Aki wasn't "primarily" at fault. He was entirely and exclusively at fault.

If you're going to throw a no-look pass under zero pressure and with no cover in the back field, you'd damn well better get it to a team-mate.

Lowe bit in on defence at least 3 times that led directly to Italian line breaks and 1 try. He was good in attack but his defense could have cost us in a tighter game

We were doing the same too tbf.

In this instance the Italian was lying on the ball trying to roll away but Conan was holding him in. Casey had to dig it out, we slowed our own ball down and it almost prevented us from scoring a try a few seconds after this

What did the

"Sigh, plus ca change"

Refer to?

Almost all of the changes were injury enforced. We can't look at this as a lesson that we should only ever play the same 23 in the big games.

Selection should reward form over fitness. When Bealham went off, Tom O Tool performed better imo.

We learned Aki isn't a good 13 and playing 2 12s doesn't work. Farrell should have picked Osbourne at 13 instead of trying to force cohesion by playing players out of position.

Only watched game today. I think a lot of very negative views here.

of course a last minute change to 13 would cause issues. Especially with Aki who is not an out and out 13. Yes Aki should do better but the team didn’t have him in place all week.

also thought Byrne did very well in a mismatch team. Attacking shape looked great. On another day there was 2 or 3 more tries out there. Credit to Italian defence

standouts for me were VDF, keenan, Doris. Vdf was probably my motm. Thought kelleher showed signs of his old self too.

Not too labour the point but I’m surprised no team has been able to make our relative lack of pace in the backline a more serious liability. Hansen, in particular, is vulnerable to the chip as the Italians demonstrated. Once he’s passed that’s it. Aki is the same. I guess it’s a tribute to how well organized we are these days.

Keenan gets credit from pundits but not enough of it considering how great he has been.

I am fully aware that we do it and we get away with it too. It's an art form. The point is when both teams are doing it, our plays look more ponderous and it's why our backrow looked ineffective (compared to France/Wales/NZ games) and we didn't convert more opportunities in the scoring zone. We have never seen an Italian pack ruck and counter-ruck so well.

Just on pace - three times in two games Lowe should have finished a try that I'd back nearly any other winger in the 6N (or from our other options) to convert.

To be fair to him he's great for an offload from the tackle and rarely gives up the ball, and has that big boot, but his lack of pace can frustrate.

The interception was poor but it also looked like Byrne hadn't hit his mark to receive in time.

He was great in attack, but woeful on defense. There was a semi permanent dog leg between him and Lowe. Farrell should've played JOB or Osbourne, who've both shown a high ability to play 13

I'll just leave this here.