Ireland under 20s 6 Nations thread

[big ginger 8]

This is a stronger team IMO realised I actually know Beirne he's a rake.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

6-3 to France at half time. I've been concentrating on a couple of Ireland players, McGrath and Jackson to see how they're faring.

McGrath has made a couple of mistakes (a charged down kick and an average garryowen) but overall he's been excellent. His pass may need a bit of work as Jackson has had to reach above his head a couple of times but it's genera;;y in front of the player receiving the ball allowing them to attack. He won a great turnover, has probed well around the fringes and gets the ball away from the breakdown really quickly.

On Jackson, I still don't see the makings of a top flyhalf. France are smashing into him and making a mockery of his defense. His kicking for goal and in open play has been sloppy and he's not making any inroads when he takes the ball on himself. On a more positive not, he's thrown a couple of great skip passes to Farrell in the centre.

I've been impressed with Gilsenan and Farrell too.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Try for LN7's man crush, Ireland 10 France 6.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Feicarsinn, what have you made of Jackson's performance so far? I'm conscious that my opinion may not be fair since my views on him are well entranched at this stage.

 

[lucky number 7]

Link me to a stream there lads

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/live.html

 

[Feicarsinn]

Erm, I think he's having a better day than he did against Wales, but he hasn't really stood out from the crowd. With the hype coming out of Ulster about him you'd really expect him to be dominating this game, but he's far less impressive than the man playing inside him. It might be time to give Cathal Marsh a go.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

12-10 to France now. Ireland had a man sin binned. Jackson is just after running up another blind alley and turning the ball over. Farrell looks immense with ball in hand. French front row is getting on top since they made a couple of substitutions.

 

[big ginger 8]

Marmion on.

 

[Feicarsinn]

Ah, heartbreaking.

 

[big ginger 8]

Number 6 is watching you.

EDIT: Only watched the last 15 minutes but some very good defense and much better than the thrashing from last year. 12-13 to Ireland.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Ah, heartbreaking.

Spoke too soon! Ireland win 13-12

 

[Feicarsinn]

That was 100% a try. France robbed.


That said, it's not often we pull off an under age result in France, so I'll take it

 

[Peat]

How did Henderson go?

 

[profitius]

How did Henderson go?

He played well. Didn't carry it much but got stuck in and did the basics well. Chris Farrell was the best Ulster player. Big and fast but not 1 dimensional. Paddy JAckson had a bad game, worse than last week to be honest. McCall was good in the scrums. The Irish scrum was under pressure in the second half but they moved McCall to tighthead and he helped to steady it. Hes only 5' 9" which is unusual but good to see Ireland looking to bring through smaller props that are good at scrummaging and not pick big fellas who can't scrum.

 

[Peat]

Good to hear. Had read a lot of praise of Farrell elsewhere, a bit of McCall, and the bad news about Jackson - but seen little about Henderson. Although I hadn't heard McCall moved to TH, good to hear that - cheers fella. I do worry slightly about McCall because of his small size, but he seems to be making it work so far, so fair play to him.

 

[Jockstap]

Why wasn't this match called off?

 

[profitius]

Why wasn't this match called off?

I think the commentators said the pitch had under soil heating!

 

[lucky number 7]

How did Foster get on?

 

[Feicarsinn]

Refer to post #123.