Ireland v Samoa - 26 August 2023

[Smurfy]

What concerns me about Saturday, and the previous week against England, was our setpiece. I can understand why we would not show our hand at the lineout, but our timing, in addition to the throwing, was absolute mince. Yes, Stewart is a novice, if a very promising one, but Herring seems to go to pieces when we get within ten of the line, and we continue to concede stupid penalties by getting ahead of catcher. I am trying to be confident that we'll have it sorted by the SA game, but even at our best these have been recurring issues.

I'm confident of our scrum when Porter and Furlong are on the field, but we shouldn't be getting destroyed by Samoa regardless of who we have in there. SA in particular will have taken notice, and their bomb squad strategy could see them destroying us in the second half of the game.

Lots of work ons, but I don't think we've become a poor side in 6 months, and hopefully we are holding a lot back. Fingers crossed.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Only thing that would stress me about yesterday is knocks and injuries. The performance is obviously not great, but as long as we win I don't really care. This combo of players realistically won't play in a world cup.

A few lads played their way down the pecking order, which is never what you want.

Big Joe should overtake Henderson.
I reckon Stewart had a chance to be the last hooker on the plane, that's gone.
McCloskey has probably fallen behind Aki again.
Crowley will stay behind Ross.
Jimmy won't threaten the 23 jersey.

What concerns me about Saturday, and the previous week against England, was our setpiece. I can understand why we would not show our hand at the lineout, but our timing, in addition to the throwing, was absolute mince. Yes, Stewart is a novice, if a very promising one, but Herring seems to go to pieces when we get within ten of the line, and we continue to concede stupid penalties by getting ahead of catcher. I am trying to be confident that we'll have it sorted by the SA game, but even at our best these have been recurring issues.

I'm confident of our scrum when Porter and Furlong are on the field, but we shouldn't be getting destroyed by Samoa regardless of who we have in there. SA in particular will have taken notice, and their bomb squad strategy could see them destroying us in the second half of the game.

Lots of work ons, but I don't think we've become a poor side in 6 months, and hopefully we are holding a lot back. Fingers crossed.

Yeah, I'm pretty happy that our attacking structure still looks good and is effective when there's no unforced errors (which have admittedly been through the roof). And defence still looks incredibly solid the four tries we conceded were a fluke and three when the game was dead and buried and changes off the bench had come in.

I'm confident we'll have a solid set piece come the 23rd.

 

[Smurfy]

Yes, our defence is consistently excellent, and it's strange how it is overlooked in analysis in the media. Looking at stats in, I think, the Guardian we have the best tries conceded since the start of this years 6ns across the international game, and about half of those games have been without Ringrose who is our defensive lynchpin. As Aus proved for years, defence is the key to success and its one area where we have continued to be strong.

Agree about Henderson, who seems to be trading on reputation rather than performance. He is at a point where he offers little impact off the bench, and McCarthy, for all his rawness, is a monster. Not sure McCloskey has ever been ahead of Aki, and to to be honest I'd prefer if Frisch had been looked at earlier.

PS. I'm a fan of O'Brien's, and not sure if one ropy performance in difficult conditions should disqualify him, and I'd prefer him at 23 than Earls, much and all as I love him.