Ireland v England

[gingergenius]

Ireland should be embarrassed by the fact that they only beat us because BOD is awesome.

We're still a crap team, we deserved the sin binnings. So did Flutey, but at least his offence was worthwhile and he has shot up in my estimations again.

Tommy Bowe wins the contest of worst outfield back; slow, crap under the high ball and generally useless. Lions? get out.

Ferris beat Haskell in the battle of the sixes.

Easter was poor again.

Harry Ellis... did good for us, and importantly doesn't get charged down/ sin binned/ make crap decisions like Care does.

Still I'm yet to see anything from Kearney to make me think he's remotely close to Lee Byrne. I'll repeat, he's an equal to Armitage.

I'm going drinking.

 

[shtove]

What a weird England team - out wide they will become brilliant, but in tight they need a collective brain transplant.

ROG was dreadful. Stringer made a difference, but not as much as against Italy. BOD played like a giant. Wallace in centre is anonymous. Heaslip was ok.

Doesn't matter. Job done.

How many kicks at goal did Ireland give away? Two? Like the France game.

 

[elgringoborracho]

Not a very beautiful game, nothing like the Ireland vs France. Two things really ****** me off. The first one is that England look like they don't know how to play rugby anymore. The second one is the fact that we will still lose in twickers against them in two weeks

 

[Fa'atau82]

I still think that the old Five Nations was better. The games were real contests, with real grit and passion.. these days it seems that the teams are so unpredictably good or bad in consecutives weeks.

 

[MunsterMan]

Think you are all being a bit harsh on Paddy, don't think D'Arcy would have done any better than he did today, he didn't miss any tackles, defended aggressively and competed well at the breakdown, did nothing in attack but Ireland failed to create any thing in attack. All of our breaks Counter attacks from crappy Sasainigh kicking.

Impressed with BOD, Bowe and Fitz today, as well as Ferris and The Bull. Best did well in the loose but there is no place in our First XV for a hooker who can't throw the f***ing thing straight!

Ginger I doubt you are going to get a bite tonight so stop fishing.

 

[feicarsinn]

poppycock of the highest order. england only lost by a point sure it wasnt great but a definite contest. france vs wales was suberb, as was ireland france. Italy are having a terrible year but had been getting better prior to this season. the reason there is such little continuity is because england and france are busy being stupid and crap. 6 nations FTW!

 

[Hall]

Borthwick was improved today. He did almost as well as my twelve year old sister would have done if she'd been playing second row.

 

[An Tarbh]

well O'Driscoll certainly put his body on the line tonight, awesome, the begrdugers prior to the season can go and shite for themselves now.

Ferris and Heaslip I thought were again outstanding, nothing new there.

Ellis proved again what a worthless little turd he is, immediate improvement once Care came on, but thankfully he lost the plot as well.

England's defensive effort was awesome but so was Ireland's.

I don't know what the problem is with Paddy Wallace on here, his defence was superb, it wasn't a game where playmakers were going to prosper but he more than contributed in other departments.

O'Gara, well sweet Jesus what can you say about those place kicks, **** all really. Woeful effort.

Very intense contest, some massive hits all round, one other thing England's whingeing during the week worked as Joubert was scared shitless of giving yellow cards, how it took that long for England to get that yellow card is beyond me.

Still though we got through it, be interesting to see whether it's more of the same in 2 weeks time or will we cut lose now that the pressure is off from denying England a win at Croke Park.

 

[Hall]

Heaslip has been immense. Before the tournament I thought that Andy Powell would be a shoo-in for the Lions 8 jersey.

Not now I don't.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMan @ Feb 28 2009, 08:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Impressed with BOD, Bowe and Fitz today, as well as Ferris and The Bull.[/b]

I thought Bowe was very average today. He tackled well and looked okay in attack but dropped 2 or 3 high balls. A better team would have punished those mistakes. I'm a fan of Bowe but felt it was his weakest performance in the competition thus far.

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hall @ Feb 28 2009, 09:43 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Borthwick was improved today. He did almost as well as my twelve year old sister would have done if she'd been playing second row.[/b]

well he was still pretty anonymous today but for the last gasp effort that put off O'Driscoll when he got the intercept in the first half, saved a certain try.

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Hall @ Feb 28 2009, 09:50 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Heaslip has been immense. Before the tournament I thought that Andy Powell would be a shoo-in for the Lions 8 jersey.

Not now I don't.[/b]

well after this weekend Heaslip is the man in pole position.

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 28 2009, 09:51 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMan @ Feb 28 2009, 08:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Impressed with BOD, Bowe and Fitz today, as well as Ferris and The Bull.[/b]

I thought Bowe was very average today. He tackled well and looked okay in attack but dropped 2 or 3 high balls. A better team would have punished those mistakes. I'm a fan of Bowe but felt it was his weakest performance in the competition thus far.
[/b][/quote]

I think weakest relatively speaking to his other performances, he wasn't off form by any stretch of the imagination but still looked threatening.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 28 2009, 08:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

I think weakest relatively speaking to his other performances, he wasn't off form by any stretch of the imagination but still looked threatening.[/b]

I'd rate his performance as 6/10. He wasn't a liability but there's plenty of room for improvement. He's deservedly a fixture in the team. Bowe, Fitzgerald and Kearney has the potential to be an excellent back three; easily the best back three I've seen play for Ireland in terms of providing an attacking threat.

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 28 2009, 09:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 28 2009, 08:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think weakest relatively speaking to his other performances, he wasn't off form by any stretch of the imagination but still looked threatening.[/b]

I'd rate his performance as 6/10. He wasn't a liability but there's plenty of room for improvement. He's deservedly a fixture in the team. Bowe, Fitzgerald and Kearney has the potential to be an excellent back three; easily the best back three I've seen play for Ireland in terms of providing an attacking threat.
[/b][/quote]

I'd probably stretch it to a 7 but you're right there's no danger of him being dropped, to think Brendan Cole called for Horgan to start ahead of him at the start of the season.

 

[An Tarbh]

yeah there was one other thing I forgot, again John the Bull giving his all, even well into the last 10 minutes popping up at crucial times but again no major issues with the scrum, bar the ref not pinging Vickery for his illegal binding all the way through, don't know how he was only pinged once throughout the match.

 

[monkeypigeon]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 28 2009, 09:03 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (snoopy snoopy dog dog @ Feb 28 2009, 09:58 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 28 2009, 08:54 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I think weakest relatively speaking to his other performances, he wasn't off form by any stretch of the imagination but still looked threatening.[/b]

I'd rate his performance as 6/10. He wasn't a liability but there's plenty of room for improvement. He's deservedly a fixture in the team. Bowe, Fitzgerald and Kearney has the potential to be an excellent back three; easily the best back three I've seen play for Ireland in terms of providing an attacking threat.
[/b][/quote]

I'd probably stretch it to a 7 but you're right there's no danger of him being dropped, to think Brendan Cole called for Horgan to start ahead of him at the start of the season.
[/b][/quote]

Main problem is that he dropped two catches under the high ball.

 

[Sir Speedy]

Judging by Johnson's reaction to the Care sin-binning, I imagine he mortally wounded Danny in the changing room.

And here he looked like he wanted to tear Sonya's face off.

 

[An Tarbh]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sir. Speedy @ Feb 28 2009, 10:22 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Judging by Johnson's reaction to the Care sin-binning, I imagine he mortally wounded Danny in the changing room.

And here he looked like he wanted to tear Sonya's face off.[/b]

yeah I saw that and clicked on it half expecting to have a Johnson whinge but there was Jiffy babbling away.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (An Tarbh @ Feb 28 2009, 09:05 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

yeah there was one other thing I forgot, again John the Bull giving his all, even well into the last 10 minutes popping up at crucial times but again no major issues with the scrum, bar the ref not pinging Vickery for his illegal binding all the way through, don't know how he was only pinged once throughout the match.[/b]

Hayes has been an excellent servant to Irish rugby. He may be 35 but he consistently puts in 80 minute shifts for both Munster and Ireland in one of the most physically demanding positions on the field. He easily has another year in him and perhaps more if he's looked after properly.

While I'm at it, Marcus Horan has been a target of much criticism from me in the past. Given the way he's played over the last three games, I think it's only fair that I applaud his form. He's playing damn well at the moment. Perhaps he feels Court and Healy breathing down his neck and has upped his game accordingly.