I'm not disagreeing with this, and by no means do I think that we need to go back to the drawing board. But our game plan is quite two dimensional and when our opposition manage to neutralise it (which admittedly doesn't happen often) we can look a bit lost. I'd just like to see us expand our game plan, and come up with some X factor. England played really well today and were going to be tough to beat regardless, but it's important to learn lessons from defeat. Some of our players didn't have their best games today, but man on man I'd still fancy that Ireland team the majority of the time. So the coaching has to take a decent share of the blame here.
We did beat everyone there is to beat over the last 15 months. But we almost lost to France last year when we should have beaten them comfortably. Scotland could have beaten us in Dublin last year if not for some bad wasted chances. We weren't as dominant last year as our win/loss record suggests. Most of those games were tight. Which is a fair reflection of tier one rugby at the moment; I just don't think we can rest on our laurels.
My worry with the current team is that they might not handle adversity well. When things start falling apart they often don't have a response. That's not something that anyone would ever say about the All Blacks for example. Ireland like to smother the opposition by controlling every aspect of the game, but over the course of a World Cup we aren't going to be able to maintain that kind of control. It's just not realistic.
I don't know man, it just seems like a bit of a negative attitude to me, I understand it after earlier but its not my style. X factor has become a bit of a buzzword around this team, we have or we don't depending on the result, Stockdale had it against NZ, we had it in spades in Twickers last year, we didn't today or in Australia, its more about being opportunistic, we just didn't take our chances to make a game of it in the second half, it happens.
Last year four of our 12 games had less than a score in them with the clock in the red, we won all four*, I wouldn't really lament that as us not being dominant, it shows this team knows how to win when given the opportunity. NZ are always praised because they win games that other teams wouldn't and that you have to go for the jugular for 80 minutes to beat them, England did that to us today and Aus did it to us last year and we weren't quite at it either time, it happens from time to time and Schmidt and Ireland do have to make it harder for teams to be able to dominate them but that's about it and I doubt you'll see us dominated like that again this year.
*I think that alone more or less dismisses the adversity point.
This team won't rest on their laurels, they were never going to, there was definitely a lack of focus there today and that'll be addressed but hard work isn't an issue.
What a load of ********. It was errors from your wingers that cost you the first 2 tries, not the full-back, so unless Kearney was going to be playing both left and right wing as well as, presumably, full-back, he wouldn't have stopped either.
Kearney is lauded for his organisational work and positioning from 15, Henshaw was nowhere in sight for the second try and Earls took a gamble for the first that I don't think he would have when more comfortable with Kearney behind him and barking orders. The 1st try is questionable but good fullback play 100% could stop the second, you rarely get much change with grubbers outside the 22 with Kearney around.
England fans are loving this win because it's the first time the team has played to its potential in recent memory, with most of our best players fit - showing how good we can be. Ireland weren't bad through mistakes today, they were bad because England dominated them and there is nothing the players you had on that pitch today could have done to stop that happening.
People (myself included) were calling an England win on here before the game, which means we expected to win - I think your suggestion that it means "so much" is a little delusional - you guys are a very good team, but you don't have the same aura of invincibility that the All Blacks do, it's not even close. They are the only team we expect to lose to and rightly so given the quality and size of our player pool.
Chin up, England will never be able to maintain this consistency for more than a couple of games, so I'm sure you'll take the bragging rights next time!
You =/= We and Expecting a win =/= thinking you could. Most English here were expecting/predicting to lose that game and a lot of the hullabaloo is because you beat a great team in their backyard, I don't think you speak for your country here pal.
I find the inference that there was nothing Ireland could have done to beat England today a little delusional. And the last sentence there is saturated with hubris, it comes across as "Ireland can only beat England if England get it wrong", that's clearly not the case.
Enjoy your win, it was a great one but I think you're overrating England's general prowess here, which is fine, I'm 100% like that with Leinster, but its coupled with being very dismissive of Ireland, which is a bit strange to put it delicately.
