[2025 Six Nations] Scotland vs Ireland - 09/02/25

[TRF_Olyy]

ROG basically an Irish sh*tposter in the post match comments, really twisting the knife in Scotland

 

[Grizwald]

I'm going to say it. I think England will beat Scotland comfortably in 2 weeks.

Don't jinx it. They'll get up for it like they always do with a good record won't have any fear of heading south still.

I expect an uninterested France to rock up in Dublin and Ireland win a slam now.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Good win, slightly frustrating at times, don't love our 22 attack but it's a case of throwing enough **** that it'll eventually stick.

Essentially one home win away from a slam now, Italy don't look like a team that will beat a top 4 side.

Feel like Ringrose has earned his jersey now, stop messing around now.

Conan starts for me too against France.

 

[Lé Ddanno]

 

[AlRums]

Ireland have a much better squad but the repeated failure to adapt our game against them is damning on Townsend.

Don't think that's quite fair on Townsend, after all at the time he was missing Russell, Graham and vdm at the same time, although he got vdm back he was still without 2 key playmakers.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

13/14 against the other Lions nations* in the four year period is some dominance!

*sorry Wales.

 

[pagliaccio_euforico]

rugby players shooting the **** with princess Anne is always weird but cool to see

 

[Jimbo]

Don't think that's quite fair on Townsend, after all at the time he was missing Russell, Graham and vdm at the same time, although he got vdm back he was still without 2 key playmakers.

I mean sure, but at the time of the incident Scotland hadn't exactly been the better team or looked like winning.

 

[Horacito]

certainly a match for sunday afternoon, what a bore

Scotland and every other team in the six nations needs an answer to Ireland's defensive structure and sharp attack; most of the time they didn't even need to have the ball to pressure the scots

overall, they feel a tier below france, ireland and even england, the pommies can match the physicality, the scots today were completely oblitérated by the irish
however, I do expect the ancestral hate for the english to outperform and beat the english in a glorious twist for the ages

as a sidenote, I love the scottish gear: the jumpers, jackets, etc look phenomenal, especially the bomber-baseball looking one they use at the beginning, it looks sick af

 

[TommiG88]

Coming from the English moaning about referees when they lose, this is epic.

Thank you for proving my point

 

[TopTen2003]

Yeah, Scotland flatter to deceive a little bit against the absolute top sides- they have good width and ambition with the ball but if you lose the physical battle like they did today you just can't put that imprint on the game- there has to be a platform to play off.

Their 12 was a big miss today (Tuipolotu?) - forgive my spelling chaps if that's wrong. But he seems to give them a bit of what Ake gives Ireland.

 

[AlRums]

Has anyone heard an update on Graham?

 

[munstermuffin]

Scotland are shite lads. They believed their own hype that was the problem

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Scotland are shite lads. They believed their own hype that was the problem

Pretty much exactly what ROG said post game

Never seen you two in the same room...

 

[retired9]

ROG is why we love an Irish WC flop, what a c***. I thought he was ok pre match as well

 

[General Melchett]

ROG is why we love an Irish WC flop, what a c***. I thought he was ok pre match as well

Don't worry - I'm sure Duncan McRae will be waiting for him at the airport if he rocks up in Aus.

 

[g6mcg]

Scotland are shite lads. They believed their own hype that was the problem

It's the easy wind up celebration but like claiming teams have bottled games it's mostly ********.

Only element of truth here is Scotland don't adapt their game but that's a tactical choice rather than arrogance.

 

[Booboobang]

Don't jinx it. They'll get up for it like they always do with a good record won't have any fear of heading south still.

I expect an uninterested France to rock up in Dublin and Ireland win a slam now.

I dont think it is anything to do with getting up for it tbh. Scotland are just good, but not as good as ireland and england arent very good or are the epitome of mid/inconcistency if being charitable, people will feel more confidant after yesterday and its a great win but we have seen this last year with the ireland game there is no gaurentee this is the new dawn.

Plus if we are all honest, france were poor yesterday, handling errors galore, had plenty of opportunities to get out of site. Is that down to england forcing it or france having a bad day at the office? We will see, but the 2 walk ins. given away by drops arent something you force.

Will happily be proved wrong though and pray I am.

 

[Booboobang]

One thing I took from that is that ireland are levels above the rest of the 6n in terms of coaching. Their attacking and defensive structures are exceptional. France only ones close in that they have edwards, but their attack is very vibes and if dupont is having a middling day it is a abit stgnant.

Scotlands defense coach needs a bit of questioning, ireland had way to much joy with simple kicks over the top.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

One thing I took from that is that ireland are levels above the rest of the 6n in terms of coaching. Their attacking and defensive structures are exceptional. France only ones close in that they have edwards, but their attack is very vibes and if dupont is having a middling day it is a abit stgnant.

Scotlands defense coach needs a bit of questioning, ireland had way to much joy with simple kicks over the top.

I think the best thing about being an Ireland fan is that that's been the case in parts for 25 years now and consistently for 10 (looking inward rather than in comparison to other 6n sides). Ok, 2019, the coaching had become outdated and predictable and you can only say it with the benefit of hindsight about 2020 and early 2021 when we struggled to implement Farrell's new attacking and defensive approaches (I mentioned on the England thread that 14 games to get it right is Neinaber's theory of rugby coaching), which applied to a lesser extent to the autumn also. However we're now in a time of unprecidented winning percentages and achievements and it's followed times of unprecedented percentages and achievements, Andy Farrell, Joe Schmidt and Eddie O'Sullivan are Ireland's top three coaches in terms of winning % and Declan Kidney ended a 61 year grand slam drought. Even games we lose now tend to be one score games where a bounce of a ball or a refereeing interpretation could change the result, there's no team in rugby that we'd go into a game with thinking we don't have a good chance to win against. England fans will be more aware of this than we are but that is how to go deep in world cups.

The rugby world cup obviously hasn't fallen our way yet but lessons were learned in 2015 (depth is needed for International rugby), 2019 (you can never stop expanding and improving how you play the game in international rugby) and I'm sure we've picked up on things from 2023, I'd guess using our bench as a weapon rather than a tool to not let the standard drop is one thing based on this tournament. It gets harder as you get to the top, the margins are finer and games like today become can't lose rather than shouldn't lose games, but if the trend continues and we get a bit more luck come the world cup, there really is no ceiling in terms of what we can achieve in the next 6-7 years at least (everything is cyclical and predicting beyond that is a bit pointless because if France and England can start to be as efficient as us we'd begin to rely on golden generations coming through at the right time to keep up. You can't mould Johnny Sexton, Caelan Doris, Tadhg Beirne or POM, they are the way they are and were nurtured by their provinces / Ireland / Scarlets).

But equally, and this is something Ireland fans online don't seem to get which infuriates me, is that there's no way to guarantee a win v NZ, SA or France (I think England and maybe even Argentina could join this list soon). When everyone's goal is the same, everyone's effort is the same and differences in talent, fitness, tactics and performance are negligible, like the top 4 at the last world cup, a moment of inspiration / madness will generally be the difference and we saw that with Jordie Barrett holding up Kelleher over the line, Kolbe charging down Ramos and Etzebeth's charge down, and Sam Cane's red card. All the structure and coaching in the world can't factor that in.

Anyway, bit of a rant but there's been a lot of negativity about Ireland elsewhere recently and while it's not ideal at provincial level right now outside Leinster and we are at a natural advantage, the roadmap is there for everyone to reach their potential.