Ire v Samoa 19:45pm - On RTÉ Two

26-08-2023 9:42pm

Right on to the WC!

Send Healy, Kilcoyne, O'Brien, Sheehan and Kelleher to Lourdes when down in Southern France.

mun1 · 26-08-2023 9:43pm

Heaslip is talking a lot of sense tonight on RTE (something i thought i would never say) about nothing beats matches for rugby players

Akrasia · 26-08-2023 9:45pm

In the 2nd half he was playing Full back cause Byrne is too damn slow to play there

26-08-2023 9:45pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031522#Comment_121031522

Byrne did fanny all when we were losing and looking second best before he and the rest of the bench came on. Ok.

Today was not a day for throwing the ball around, we had no territory or possession in the first half and we were ultimately lucky to win thanks to that first half. Set piece was the major factor in turning around our fortunes - but we were much better in possession full stop. You can cry nonsense because if that's the only reality you allow yourself to be exposed to - but we all saw the same game.

And I won't indulge in pages and pages of finger pointing about failing to chase back, dropping a pass, getting charged down (in an international), and our inability to dictate the game in anyway against Samoa. I'm not vindictive like that and honestly I don't care whether Byrne or Crowley is no.2 - I'm merely pointing out how daft it is to choose one based on their province and then ignore or refute everything else.

mun1 · 26-08-2023 9:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031509#Comment_121031509

Who cares !!

26-08-2023 9:46pm

I think the big 3 of NZ, FRA, SA have greater reserves to us. We need serious injury luck to do well.

AbusesToilets · 26-08-2023 9:46pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031488#Comment_121031488

Bryne generally manages to have more time on the ball when he's passing. Crowley is obviously more athletic, but Bryne better at building an attack, he is more effective setting up the deception in our patterns.

Paul Smeenus · 26-08-2023 9:46pm

Samoa are a serious team, however. No cards (which has been their Achilles' heel) and with the game nous of Lima, they're at another level.

26-08-2023 9:47pm

If Zebo had selected Murray mom that would have been seriously funny😂

26-08-2023 9:47pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031521#Comment_121031521

I can't read this as any other way than:

When Crowley was in the driving seat - the entire rest of the team shat the bed

When Byrne was in the driving seat - the rest of the team are good now

Do you not see how daft that looks? Look, if people want to ignore all the mistakes that's fine.

mangobob · 26-08-2023 9:48pm

Well....that was a pile of shite.

Take the win, move on and let's pretend this never happened.

lawrencesummers · 26-08-2023 9:49pm

So who are the 5 that are getting cut?

Cian Healy might unfortunately be one of them.

Sheehans situation might keep the hookers in it.

Killer?

Prendergast?

Jimmy OBrien?

Tom otoole?

26-08-2023 9:49pm

I agree with the poster who said Crowley started well, good touches, but game management went as the game wore on. A little inexperienced still. Byrne has more at this stage.

Paul Smeenus · 26-08-2023 9:49pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031584#Comment_121031584

Not the first time Zebo has "highlighted" Murray.

All_in_Flynn · 26-08-2023 9:50pm

Very messy game not helped by the fact that Barnes (I genuinely believe he doesn't like us) let it be a free for all at the ruck. I lost count of the side entries and clearing beyond the tackler by Samoa but fair play to them. You give a side like that a sniff and they will run at you all day. Thought we actually defended really well which will be lost in noise.

Conditions were shocking and just called for more structure. Murray had a mare I thought. Donal Lenihan is some boyo.

26-08-2023 9:52pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031558#Comment_121031558

Far from all down to Byrne and certainly not remotely what I'm implying. I was merely pointing out that announcing one player as massively better than the other when the game showed many, many reasons to the contrary should open some people's eyes.

We actually built phases with Byrne, even if that was just keeping distribution tight and accurate. You know, that thing we badly needed all game.

fitz · 26-08-2023 9:55pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031597#Comment_121031597

Crowley had a mixed game, and showed his inexperience. Most notably, imo, by not demanding better service from Murray.

I think people also aren't giving Samoa enough credit. They were good.

26-08-2023 9:57pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031580#Comment_121031580

Byrne does those things now. Crowley will marry his athleticism with better game management and he'll be that better player people on here are craving.

In the meantime I didn't take a lot of confidence from his performance today. I hope he had the same blip some of the others clearly suffered from.

CIARAN_BOYLE · 26-08-2023 9:58pm

There was talk during the week that the Irish team was struggling training in 40 degrees temperatures. Hopefully they were all pushing a little too hard during the week and that resulted in the performance we saw today.

Hopefully things are better managed during the actual tournament with more emphasis on being ready for games. Also temperatures are likely to drop down a little before the tournament as we push into september.

26-08-2023 10:02pm

That steal at the end - did Ryan get lifted or was that a jump? He was maybe a little lucky not to be pinged for that.

typhoony · 26-08-2023 10:03pm

Beirnes form hasn't been great, no reason to beleive he can't get it back in time for the WC, also I thought Vdf was playing within himself played cautiously. McCloskey and Stockdale didn't do themselves any favors, in fact quite a few poor performances even Doris couldn't lift the side. By the time our subs came on the Samoans were starting to look tired

Paul Smeenus · 26-08-2023 10:04pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031590#Comment_121031590

Stockdale's gone. I love rhim but he's temperamental.

Why the hell would O'Toole be gone? Who's our third choice TH otherwise?

Loughman did nothing to show why he should be ahead of Killer.

O'Brien was awful tonight but we're not coming down with FBs - I'd expect him to continue to be 2nd choice.

fitz · 26-08-2023 10:05pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031638#Comment_121031638

On the last replay they showed there it actually looked like he jumped, and got his hand in front of the Samoan jumper, just enough to put them off and miss gathering it. Fantastic work.

salmocab · 26-08-2023 10:06pm

Meh both teams made an extraordinary amount of errors, conditions were really bad. Got the win and finished intelligently. I don’t think anyone will have changed Farrells mind on selection either way.

26-08-2023 10:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031594#Comment_121031594

Come again?😜

All_in_Flynn · 26-08-2023 10:06pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031624#Comment_121031624

Take this with a grain of salt but work colleague who works with a former player told him yesterday that the team were purposely worked really hard this week.

26-08-2023 10:09pm

Stockdale for a big man is poor under high ball. The 2018 Stockdale didn't develop as he should have.

I'd love to see Iain Henderson have a big tournament. He's been the Paul O'Connell great white hope for a decade but never really lived up to it. Some big games here and there.

Paul Smeenus · 26-08-2023 10:10pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031654#Comment_121031654

See that's it - I thought we made a many more errors - i thought we made multiple times their number of knock-ons, for example. That's possibly just my knee-jerk reaction, but at one stage I was seriously wondering why we were struggling with wet weather and the Samoans weren't.

26-08-2023 10:11pm

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121031657#Comment_121031657

Nobody dare go there...

26-08-2023 10:12pm

I think injury and red card wise we have to be reasonably happy over the warm ups. Given the injury attrition rate I'd say we're below average over 3 games. If we got one of Sheehan or Kelleher. Would be ok.

Ire v Samoa 19:45pm - On RTÉ Two

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