Ireland - England @ New Landsdowne Road, Dublin (27-08-2011, 14:30 GMT)

[Aout]

Couldn't watch the game, we played a friendly. How were Wilkinson and O'Gara ?

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

I thought Wilkinson was very good, him at 60% is better than Flood in my opinion. And O'Gara was decent in spells and ran well but I think he's given the 10 shirt to Sexton after his performance.

 

[irelandfan123]

Ireland will do well to get out of their group at this stage. At this stage I will take us being destroyed by Aus, narrowly beating Italy and being knocked out by SA in the quarters... That looks like the best we can do by the way we're playing at the moment.​

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Couldn't watch the game, we played a friendly. How were Wilkinson and O'Gara ?

Wilkinson was solid in defence and his kicking was good in some poor conditions - it wasn't his best game distribution wise, and he seemed to slip deeper at 1st reciever as the game went on
Would start him over Flood in the next match - Flood did well in the short amount of time he was on for Tindall, stealing a ball at the breakdown and generally trying to win the 10 shirt back
As long as Flood is on the bench he's trying harder and being a better player for it

 

[j-dawg]

Hopefully this will put to bed the whole 'weak scrummager' myth on my beloved Sheridan. Got the better of his man far more than his man got the better of him today, and his first touch was pretty destructive.

 

[DorceOutSide]

england fully deserved the win but ireland were disgracefull bacisally a full team out apart from drico..manu tuilagi is dirty what he did to wallace was horribleended his world cup that f***er

 

[shtove]

Earls was awful for 80 minutes. Kidney has a lot to loyalty for some players Tomas O'Leary was an example it wasn't until he was*regularly*losing matches for Ireland that he was finally dropped, Earls is another example he's been awful for all the warm up matches and Kidney didn't give McFadden who is a much better centre and IMO, winger and there is almost no chance McFadden will play in one of the more important in the world cup while Earls is liable to give away tries as we saw today.

Ooh. Not a great fan of Earls, but did you miss McFadden's howler against Scotland?

In the past four matches Ireland have let in three soft tries from defensive mistakes at 13 - McFadden/BOD/Earls - something not right there.

 

[Aout]

Outside center is the hardest position to defend.

 

[gingergenius]

Hopefully this will put to bed the whole 'weak scrummager' myth on my beloved Sheridan. Got the better of his man far more than his man got the better of him today, and his first touch was pretty destructive.

he was only playing ireland though...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Yes & No:

I'm still not sure whether Dan Cole is over his patch of poor form yet, because he was only agaisnt Cian Healy
However I rate Mike Ross, so for Sheridan to hold his own against him, I'd say it's a good showing by him (and I don't rate Sheridan's scrummaging at all)

 

[McTallshort]

Apart from the errors and the penalty count I was mildly pleased with England today, the front 5 apart from Lawes all played well I particuly impressed with Deacon how really bossed the breakdown very well. The back row had a good game with Flourie really suprising me and it was a shame he got injured. Croft and Haskell both put in workman like performances with Croft showing some good needle at times. The half backs were ok....Wigglesworth still crabs far to much in my opinion and Wilkinson in attack at least is still slightly unconvincing.The centres were great with Manu rightly taking the plaudits, as for his tackle on Wallace I cannot believe someone on here suggested it was dangerous play, more like you are finding a reason to hate and cannot excepting you were beaten.The back 3 were fairly quiet apart from Armitage scoring his try.

Let us not forget though that this was Ireland who apart from that one win in Dublin against England have had a faily forgettable season in terms of International rugby (great club season) they were also missing BOD and SOB so lets not get carried away.

 

[gingergenius]

Test of whether Johnson might have learnt a lesson:

If Cueto is out of the Argentina game, whether it is Banahan or Armitage who starts.

PS: Am I the only one who would still start Flood over Wilko if it came down to it? We're not playing knockout rugby just yet...

 

[TRF_Olyy]

I can't believe that we don't have anyone else for the bench going into a world cup

If Cueto's injured then it's got to be Armitage starting, but then that's Banahan on the bench (or Hape) - Basically, we lose one player to injury and we have to start shoveling sh*t into the squad

Is there a South African waitress we can get serving Banahan and Hape so we can call up Flutey and Sharples in their place?

 

[McTallshort]

I can't believe that we don't have anyone else for the bench going into a world cup

If Cueto's injured then it's got to be Armitage starting, but then that's Banahan on the bench (or Hape) - Basically, we lose one player to injury and we have to start shoveling sh*t into the squad

Is there a South African waitress we can get serving Banahan and Hape so we can call up Flutey and Sharples in their place?

Thats what really annoys me, a back 3 of Ashton, Foden and Armitage is great but when you have Banahan or Hape on the bench as the only replacments it doesnt really add anything special does it? imagine Sharples coming of the bench with 20 minutes to go tearing round the pitch with his pace running support lines of Manu and Tindell?

Big ****ing shame

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Let us not forget though that this was Ireland who apart from that one win in Dublin against England have had a faily forgettable season in terms of International rugby (great club season) they were also missing BOD and SOB so lets not get carried away.

You're absolutely right. Since the start of 2010, Ireland have won 8 and lost 12 games. Their only wins have been against Italy twice, England twice, Wales, Scotland, Argentina and Samoa. It's a **** poor record and I'm surprised that the coach hasn't been taken to task on why the team has gone backwards so quickly. Compare for example the fluency with which the Leinster backline play with Ireland's staid approach.

 

[Mrs. Peter Quinn]

Test of whether Johnson might have learnt a lesson:

If Cueto is out of the Argentina game, whether it is Banahan or Armitage who starts.

PS: Am I the only one who would still start Flood over Wilko if it came down to it? We're not playing knockout rugby just yet...

I'm with you on this one. It's too early too lose confidence in Flood at 10, we shouldn't forget how he began turning england's backs around against france in the last game of the 2010 six nations and how he guided us (albeit less well in the last few games) through this last tournament sucessfully.

For me, although we played far better yesterday it was not down to wilkinson, and the fact that he didn't have his best game yesterday shows there's not a huge gulf in the form of the them both. we're still not quite where we need to be in the way we distribute ball through our backs and I think an on-form flood is the best answer to that. I think i'd start flood against Argentina. On the other hand, Johnson probably won't because he will be in for a ton of criticism if he 'fixes what wasn't broke' by changing it around too much, especially if we then play less well. Flood was poor against wales but then the makeup of the whole team was abit **** so he can only take so much blame.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Start Wilko vs Arg, Flood vs Georgia and Romania, then flip a coin for Scotland?

To be fair, Wilko and Flood are going to be in the 22 for every match, because we've only got two FHs - so if the one starting isn't doing well then replace him: Simples

 

[j-dawg]

Yes & No:

I'm still not sure whether Dan Cole is over his patch of poor form yet, because he was only agaisnt Cian Healy
However I rate Mike Ross, so for Sheridan to hold his own against him, I'd say it's a good showing by him (and I don't rate Sheridan's scrummaging at all)

More than held his own. Has to be noted the power Thompson brings to the front row also. When Hartley came on the front row seemed that much weaker and so we couldn't really see what Matt Stevens could do there.

Another note on Sheridan, I'm quite suprised how well he did after being out for so long. It usually takes him a few consecutive games to get in form. Happy with Cole, he was showing up all over the park making tackles. I'd give the front row a 7 in the scrum and 8 in the loose.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Agree on Thompson - should be our first choice hooker, his work in the tight outweighs Hartley's work in the loose

Also agree on Sheridan's fitness - for a guy who hasn't played a game of rugby since February/March he didn't miss a beat

 

[calculon]

Ireland will do well to get out of their group at this stage. At this stage I will take us being destroyed by Aus, narrowly beating Italy and being knocked out by SA in the quarters... That looks like the best we can do by the way we're playing at the moment.

I'm sorry but that's a little OTT. It was a grueling test schedule. Scotland are underrated, and England and France are always going to be there or thereabouts. Ireland were missing big names. Italy are not the same kind of opposition. Ireland can only make things worse for themselves by heeding the naysayers.