EOYT: Ireland v South Africa, 11/10/2012

[Andy_K]

Good win for south africa who were poor in first half and must have got a good talking too at half time, I thought Ireland with all players missing dug deep and came out of the game with some credit.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Right let's not get carried away. First of all the performance from Ireland was dogged and matched SA upfront for the most part. The breakdown was good, as was the scrum. Unfortunately we missed our carriers today.

The problem is within the backs. I don't understand where this miss pass is coming from. We saw it in the Wales game and Ireland wre doing it aswell. It you have an overlap, don't through a miss pass! Darcy and Earls don't work well together. Honestly think that had BOD been playing, we would have won that match. Bowe and Zebo were he only attacking threat, a lot of our play was very predictable.

We really need a scrum half of international quality. Murray was slow as usual, but Reddan came on and was even worse!

I thought Reddan was better than Murray but he was playing with O'Gara which made him look worse. Ireland need Paul Marshall he is exactly the sort of player who will bring speed and life in the backing, we saw the best scrum half in Ireland today and he was a saffa.
A few players just need to be dropped out of the international picture after this series because they're just not upto it.
Trimble because he's just not a threat and liable for ridiculous errors.
D'Arcy hasn't been at international standard for a few years now.
O'gara pointless inclusion to the team.
I would also like a law to be passed making it illegal for Keith Earls to play centre, class winger and a decent fullback but he can't supply ball at centre.

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

How do Wales, with roughly the same player pool, produce fecking massive centers, yet the best inside centre we can produce is D'arcy who is bloody smaller than Phillips - a scrum half..
Exception for BOD of course, but he'll be gone soon. Cave I don't think is international standard, same with McFadden. Earls's performance speaks for itself really.

I know size isn't everything - but it sure does help.

 

[irelandfan123]

I'm soooo confused by O'Garas decision at the end has put me in utter shock......... that god I live close to a pub
Placed my first bet as well....... My scottish girlfriend was more ****** about the fact we both lost tenners

 

[Tribesmen-ce-123]

How do Wales, with roughly the same player pool, produce fecking massive centers, yet the best inside centre we can produce is D'arcy who is bloody smaller than Phillips - a scrum half..
Exception for BOD of course, but he'll be gone soon. Cave I don't think is international standard, same with McFadden. Earls's performance speaks for itself really.

I know size isn't everything - but it sure does help.

That's something ive been wondering myself, I swear half of their centre's and wingers must be converted back rowers judging by the size of them haha. Id like to see us make make a bit of a switch from the average 14 odd stone centre that we persist with here, and made try out, larger mobile players in backline from school boy upwards.

 

[profitius]

How do Wales, with roughly the same player pool, produce fecking massive centers, yet the best inside centre we can produce is D'arcy who is bloody smaller than Phillips - a scrum half..
Exception for BOD of course, but he'll be gone soon. Cave I don't think is international standard, same with McFadden. Earls's performance speaks for itself really.

I know size isn't everything - but it sure does help.

Bad coaching. We put the big fellas in the forwards. Things will be different in a year or two with some big centers coming along. Ones to watch are Eamonn Sheridan (playing on Rotherham at the moment), Chris Farrell (Injured but with Ireland U20s this year again) and Harrison Brewer (only 17 but the potential is there). Theres also James Downey who isn't in Kidneys plans.

Btw, I wouldn't go overboard in picking big players. BOD isn't the biggest.

 

[lucky number 7]

Good first half , stood up and out muscled SA
poor second half.

biggest issue was the lack of any real penetration in attack , our reliance on obrien and ferris to carry and break the line was really on show today. Because frankly our backs have all the penetrative qualities of a flaccid dick.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Bad coaching. We put the big fellas in the forwards. Things will be different in a year or two with some big centers coming along. Ones to watch are Eamonn Sheridan (playing on Rotherham at the moment), Chris Farrell (Injured but with Ireland U20s this year again) and Harrison Brewer (only 17 but the potential is there). Theres also James Downey who isn't in Kidneys plans.

You can keep watching Sheridan if you want but he'll never amount to an international player. He was quite poor in his limited opportunities for Leinster and never stood out at underage level in my opinion.

Farrell I'll give you. Good player.

Brewer is too early to tell but signs are promising.

Downey isn't in Kidney's plans because he's a journeyman. Can do a job at club level but he's not international standard.

McSharry, Hanrahan and Marshall are the future of Irish inside centres in my opinion.

 

[UlsterRugby2012]

Good first half , stood up and out muscled SA
poor second half.

biggest issue was the lack of any real penetration in attack , our reliance on obrien and ferris to carry and break the line was really on show today. Because frankly our backs have all the penetrative qualities of a flaccid dick.

I must admit I laughed out loud at that last sentence!

Profitius: Sorry if I worded that wrong, I wasn't suggesting BOD, Earls, Cave or McFadden are big players.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

What did O'Gara do at the death?

 

[lucky number 7]

What did O'Gara do at the death?

What Ogara does best .. **** everything up and endup looking like a giant aged ******

 

[lucky number 7]

I must admit I laughed out loud at that
.

Because its true and I'm fantastic

 

[TRF_Olyy]

What Ogara does best .. **** everything up and endup looking like a giant aged ******

Standard.

Anything in particular, though?

 

[lucky number 7]

Last play Irish possession 4 PTs down decides to chip it.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

"Lads, I've got a great idea. I'm pretty sure it worked really well against the Boks a few years ago too."

 

[Tribesmen-ce-123]

Poor old ROG takes an unmerciful amount of **** these day's doesn't he, how times have changed over the last few years haha. Naturally after well over a decade of rugby behind him and approaching his late 30's, hes way past it. And bviously he shouldn't be any where near an Irish shirt anymore, but you can't really blame him for taking the opportunities afforded to him by Kidney. As i saw discussed on another forum earlier, Kidney's selection of him seem to be leaving a negative impression of ROG on the fan's. Lets hope his final days of rugby don't taint his legacy as one of the ATG Irish players, would hate to see him remembered as nothing more than a liability!

 

[Sker]

Richardt Strauss constantly looked like he was going down on the girl from Twilishit, I think Adriaan smacked him each time they scrummed.

 

[Senan]

How do Wales, with roughly the same player pool, produce fecking massive centers, yet the best inside centre we can produce is D'arcy who is bloody smaller than Phillips - a scrum half..
Exception for BOD of course, but he'll be gone soon. Cave I don't think is international standard, same with McFadden. Earls's performance speaks for itself really.

I know size isn't everything - but it sure does help.

Mcsharry and Bowe is the answer there. Mcsharry is 98 kilos and bulking up, another 10 kilos and he is Chris Henrys size, which is exactly what we want. Bowe only got ball and looked good with it when he switched it into the centre, so just play him there. Earls passing means he cannot play centre, that pass to Bowe, brutal even Zebo was laughing at it. Trimble is not an international aswell, cannot attack, has no feet and im afraid you need that to play wing, which is what Earls has, so he has to play wing only, Zebo too, did nothing wrong at FB but when Bob is back, Zebo to the wing.
On the forwards, Bent and Strauss great debuts, looking forward to them, Bents first scrum, smash! Macca at 32 played like he was 22, MOTM

 

[Peat]

Two decent packs, two close to anonymous backlines. Main difference between the backlines was the South African one could generate yards simply by running hard at the centres, D'Arcy missed three tackles that I saw, and that Pienaar is a far cleverer player than Murray. Zebo looks a talent at this level but he needs to learn that you won't get anything out of anyone by drifting across the field at their outside shoulder, killed a lot of attacks like that. Not sure how anyone could take anything about Trimble away from that match, fair enough if you'd already made your mind up, but he was given sod all to work with.

I don't think Bowe is the answer to your problems at centre, think he loses something in attack and for all his size he's not the greatest defender. If you want someone to ensure defensive solidity at least, give Cave a try. Certainly someone like him should be ahead of D'Arcy who is just brutally poor. But, much as Ireland's backline looked poor, judging them on a day when the team's great attacking idea was static one out runners isn't completely fair imo. I think a better coaching team could get far more out of those players.


How many forwards were South Africa missing? That wasn't a bad Ireland pack by any means, but nowhere near their best and with several players you'd have to question over their power in terms of international rugby. Should never have been allowed to make such a mess of the breakdown - just like Ireland should never have allowed that maul I suppose - and I'd have expected a bit more from them.

 

[coonor]

It's quie simple, Darcy is being used wrong. He's not a crash ball runner but we that's how we use him. How many forwards were in the wider Channels? None!

This has always been Ireland's problem in then last 2 years, we play off 9 when it should be 10.

The Backrow was great at the breakdown, as expected but I lacked ball carriers.

Positives:
- The breakdown went very well but mainly in defence
- The line out improved throughout the game, which was good to see
- I thought Zebo and Bowe worked well together
- Strauss and Bent had good debuts
- Sexton looked good in the first half
- The scrum was mostly solid
- McCarthy was impressive and POM had a good game


Negatives:
- No attacking penetration or creativity
- Poor centre combination
- Ball was far to slow
- Not scoring anything in the second half
- O'Gara showed how poor he is
- Poor maul defence
- Ten minutes of powerful SA play was all that was needed to win the game