Ireland v Wales

[Rocket Singh]

I could imagine the team talk given from Shaun Edwards at half time:


"C'mon lads, we're only 10'point behind, like! WE GOT THE BUGGERS WHERE WE WANT THEM!"

Cue loud groans and facepalms from most of the Wales team as Edwards launches into one of his characteristic yet utterly insane and baffling choruses of "THEY DON'T RESPECT US! THEY DON'T LIKE US! THEY DON'T RESPECT US!"

 

[dullonien]

It was dissapointing to see such a poor performance from Wales. Here's my assesment of the players performances:

Paul James - Reverted back to his mediocre self. Can't believe he allowed Heyes to push him back in that scrum!
Mathew Rees - Lineout throwing was poor. Rushed back to quickly.
Adam Jones - Hasn't returned from injury all that well. Did all he could.
Bradley Davies - Wales' standout player. Great ball carrying. However didn't offer anything in the lineout.
Charteris - Still isn't dominating in the lineout, although he worked hard around the field.
Jonathan Thomas - Good performance, carried well and took it upon himself To sort out the lineout woes in the second half.
Martyn Williams - Was he playing? Hardly noticed him, worst performance for a long long time. Is his time over?
Gareth Delve - Didn't do what he was brought in to do. Made very little yards, and went missing for large parts.

Richie Rees - Had an ok game behind a poor pack. Not much more he could do.
Stephen Jones - Mixed bag. Poor kicking from hand, but did all he could otherwise. Couldnt unlock the blitz defence though.
Shane Williams - Another that tried his best. Performed miricles under the high ball, but got caught behind the gainline too often.
Jamie Roberts - One of his better perfoemances in attack, really carried well, always got over the gainline. However he was guilty of missing a few tackles.
James Hook - Very poor. Got caught in two minds almost every time he got the ball.
Leigh Halfpenny - Tried his best. A few decent runs, and did his best mopping up ball behind the gainline.
Lee Byrne - Excellent in many facets of play. Dominated the air (even against Kearney), but gave away that stupid yellow card, and was generally acting like a tw*t.

Dwayne Peel - Terrible. Passing was atrocious, however tried to get things moving a bit quicker.
None of the other replacments made a mark.

 

[MunsterMan]

Geordan Murphy - Very clever player, did all that was asked of him and kept the defenders guessing with his footwork - 7
Tommy Bowe - He is just Tommy Bowe, good game, although didn't have as much impact on the game as he usually does - 7
BOD - Not his best game, solid in defense, and did well to set up Earls, but he is capable of much more - 6.5
D'arcy - Not on long enough
Earls - Superb, did nothing wrong really, can't fault him - 8
Sexton - Average enough performance, shocking goalkicking, must do better - 6
O'Leary - Excellent, involved in all the tries, can't fault him really - 8

Heaslip - Another good day, really becoming a key part of the team - 7
Wallace - Awesome, he was everywhere. Unstoppable with the ball in hand, never misses a tackle, and a menace at the breakdown - 9
Ferris - A monster, one of the top blindesides in the world - 7
O'Connell - Good in the lineout, good around the park, good hands, good at the breakdown, just good in general - 7
O'Callaghan - Solid display, outplayed by Davies apart from in the lineout - 6
Hayes - Apart from one scrum he was in trouble, his time is nearly up it seems - 5
Best - Can't fault him, good lineout throwing, put plenty of work in - 6.5
Healy - Was always busy, hope to see him continue to grow in to international rugby - 6

Replacements - Buckley good, Kearney solid, rest a bit meh. Glad to see Cronin get onto the field.

 

[munstermuffin]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (MunsterMan @ Mar 14 2010, 12:18 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Geordan Murphy - Very clever player, did all that was asked of him and kept the defenders guessing with his footwork - 7
Tommy Bowe - He is just Tommy Bowe, good game, although didn't have as much impact on the game as he usually does - 7
BOD - Not his best game, solid in defense, and did well to set up Earls, but he is capable of much more - 6.5
D'arcy - Not on long enough
Earls - Superb, did nothing wrong really, can't fault him - 8
Sexton - Average enough performance, shocking goalkicking, must do better - 6
O'Leary - Excellent, involved in all the tries, can't fault him really - 8

Heaslip - Another good day, really becoming a key part of the team - 7
Wallace - Awesome, he was everywhere. Unstoppable with the ball in hand, never misses a tackle, and a menace at the breakdown - 9
Ferris - A monster, one of the top blindesides in the world - 7
O'Connell - Good in the lineout, good around the park, good hands, good at the breakdown, just good in general - 7
O'Callaghan - Solid display, outplayed by Davies apart from in the lineout - 6
Hayes - Apart from one scrum he was in trouble, his time is nearly up it seems - 5
Best - Can't fault him, good lineout throwing, put plenty of work in - 6.5
Healy - Was always busy, hope to see him continue to grow in to international rugby - 6

Replacements - Buckley good, Kearney solid, rest a bit meh. Glad to see Cronin get onto the field.[/b]

Must say accurate enough ratings. And lads is something up as Buckley isn't doing badly in his 2 appearance this season in 6Nations.

 

[Sir Speedy]

Somebody, probably Feicarsinn, said after the France game that it must be brilliant to be a Wales supporter. No, it is frustrating.

Competitively we were in that game for about 60 or so minutes. We are not clinical, our lineout is **** and our defence is diabolical. An Ireland player should have been carded at least once during the course of the game, but that wouldn't have affected the result ultimately.

 

[feicarsinn]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Sir. Speedy @ Mar 14 2010, 04:34 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Somebody, probably Feicarsinn, said after the France game that it must be brilliant to be a Wales supporter. No, it is frustrating.

Competitively we were in that game for about 60 or so minutes. We are not clinical, our lineout is **** and our defence is diabolical. An Ireland player should have been carded at least once during the course of the game, but that wouldn't have affected the result ultimately.[/b]

Yep that was me, thanks for remembering. Irish people would probably enjoy supporting Wales. Misery sits well with us.

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

Byrne- 4. Largely down to limping through everything for most of the game and the stupid Yellow. Took highballs, but didn't do a lot more
Halfpenny- 6. He went alright, but he's a finisher, and wasn't given anything to finish.
Hook- 4. He did very little. Threw too many miracle passes, such as the one in the last play, that didn't work.
Roberts- 7. The stand-out back. Got over the gain line fairly frequently and almost got a try for his troubles. One of his better games.
Shaney- 5. Tried the best he could, although he seems to be suffering away from home this season, for one reason or another.
Jones- 5. Didn't do a lot. A few good kicks, a few bad kicks.
Rees- 6. Got the ball in and out quickly and made a few good breaks. Did everything required of him.

James- 5. He was alright. Did his job in the tight until he switched off from about 50 minutes in.
Rees- 5. A few decent carries, but poor throwing and average scrummaging.
Adam- 6. Had a big effect on the scrum, and his placement and clearing out around the ruck was good as usual.
Davies- 8. Wales' Man of the Match again. Great carries, big hits, and a few good lineout takes when O'Connell wasn't in the way.
Charteris- 5. Good work around the field, but he should be doing more in the lineout.
Thomas- 6. Tided up many mistakes from others and made a few carries. Better than Powell, anyday.
Martyn- 4. He played really well for about 5 acculmative minutes in total. For the other 75, he might as well have not been on the pitch. Didn't turn up.
Delve- 6. Didn't make those big carries, but was essentially the same as JT. Tided up and turned up around the field a fair bit.

Peel- 4. Made one good break. Besides that, he made a few poor passes and constantly threw it at Stephen's head. Perhaps he won't be such a loss when Sale are relegated.
Bishop- 6. Good tackles as usual and one or two decent runs. Didn't make any mistakes, so he can have another mark for that.
Congratulations to Gill on his first cap.

 

[coonor]

good point

looked good in attack. the backs made some fantstic breaks. we seemed to make the gain line every phase
defence was great again especially when we were under preasure
lineout good again
scrum was better especially the one on our tryline
handling was good barely any knock ons
we are starting to score quite a few tries and were not letting the opposition score anything
we are starting to actully be CLINICAL (seems like the word of the tournemant)

bad points

need more possesion and territory
goal kicking was quite poor but fare play to Sexton he did well in open play and he had guts to pull of that drop goal even though his kicks werent going well
scrum could still do with a bit of work but it's getting better

 

[erwanseb]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (dullonien @ Mar 14 2010, 06:55 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

It was dissapointing to see such a poor performance from Wales. Here's my assesment of the players performances:[/b]

One thing to remember, if Scotland had settled for the draw, Wales would be sitting last in the table behind Italy and Scotland.

Wales was awfully disappointing. If you want to play heads or tail, you are sometimes bound to guess correctly five times in a row but that's no rugby.

It's always much easier to score a try when you are already trailing by 20, no credit for that, than if the game was on the line. Miracle by definition only happen once.

How many minutes has Wales played trailing on the scoreboard ??
How many minutes have they played leading on the scoreboard ??

I am even more disappointed by Wales than by England.

 

[erwanseb]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codorniou @ Mar 15 2010, 09:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

How many minutes has Wales played trailing on the scoreboard ??
How many minutes have they played leading on the scoreboard ??[/b]

Answer: Wales lead on the scoreboard about 8 minutes against Ireland, there was no restart against Scotland after the last try.
8 minutes in 4 games.!!!!!!

 

[DuncTheDoodle]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codorniou @ Mar 15 2010, 03:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codorniou @ Mar 15 2010, 09:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How many minutes has Wales played trailing on the scoreboard ??
How many minutes have they played leading on the scoreboard ??[/b]

Answer: Wales lead on the scoreboard about 8 minutes against Ireland, there was no restart against Scotland after the last try.
8 minutes in 4 games.!!!!!!
[/b][/quote]
Didn't Stevo kick a penalty before Wilkinson? I'm not 100%, though.

 

[bristol-iain]

First time back since the game. 1 word describes Wales "effort"

ATROCIOUS.

I actually disposed of my Wales shirt after they scored the third, it was that bad. When it mattered we couldn't defend and couldn't attack. Ireland were good, not great but they didn't need to be.

Thats all I will say.

 

[erwanseb]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DuncTheDoodle @ Mar 15 2010, 11:23 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codorniou @ Mar 15 2010, 03:11 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (Codorniou @ Mar 15 2010, 09:52 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How many minutes has Wales played trailing on the scoreboard ??
How many minutes have they played leading on the scoreboard ??[/b]

Answer: Wales lead on the scoreboard about 8 minutes against Ireland, there was no restart against Scotland after the last try.
8 minutes in 4 games.!!!!!!
[/b][/quote]
Didn't Stevo kick a penalty before Wilkinson? I'm not 100%, though.
[/b][/quote]
No Wilko scored on 11th minute, Jones on 30th.

 

[cyRil]

Iain's right, the 3 teams that have beaten us have had to do f*** all to actually win the game. Warren Gatland is actually out on the streets selling games for free, just a shame for Scotland that their ticket expired 5 minutes early.

 

[feicarsinn]

Big questions have to be asked of Gatland and Edwards now. Are they the right men to lead Wales to 2011? Very debatable. Fact is they've failed to develop any real depth save a few positions. The backrow is weak, centre remains a problem and Dan Biggar hasn't recieved any substantial gametime at 10. Perhaps it's time to look for another man to take charge of the reins?

 

[dullonien]

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (feicarsinn @ Mar 16 2010, 06:19 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}></div>

Big questions have to be asked of Gatland and Edwards now. Are they the right men to lead Wales to 2011? Very debatable. Fact is they've failed to develop any real depth save a few positions. The backrow is weak, centre remains a problem and Dan Biggar hasn't recieved any substantial gametime at 10. Perhaps it's time to look for another man to take charge of the reins?[/b]

No thanks, sacking another coach before a world cup is not what we need. We did that before the '03 and '07 world cup's and look where that got us. Although some critisism should be aimed at Gatland and Edwards, I think the majority of our problems are caused by the players.

It's the players who are indiciplined and getting yellow carded. It's the players who are missing simple first up tackles. The only thing I really blame the coaching staff for is the lineout, as it's obvious there's something deeply wrong there.

I agree that a couple of players haven't been given the gametime they probably deserve, namely Biggar and Owens, but they'll continue to improve at club level. Gatland has blodded quite a few youngsters in his short time in charge, including Halfpenny, Roberts, Bradley Davies, Warberton, Jon Davies and Biggar, so it's not something he's refused point blank to do. I'm sure Owens will be handed his debut in the summer.

 

[Jockstap]

Quick question, when Earls came into the centre for D'Arcy, did he play inside or outside centre?

 

[dullonien]

Pretty sure he slotted in at 13 with O'Driscoll moving over to 12.

 

[coonor]

ye he did and I thought it worked out quite well as I think o'driscoll is a great person to release the speed of earls and sometimes I find o'driscoll is getting enough ball in hand atm

 

[Jockstap]

Does anybody else think O'Driscoll could make an excellent inside centre in the kiwi second five-eight mould, he doesn't have that pace anymore but he has excellent defense, distribution, godd kicking, decent ball carrying skills but most important of all he has the brain for it. A BOD/Earls combo could be excellent. When Luke comes back the backline coul be

15 Kearney
14 Bowe
13 Earls
12 BOD
11 Fitzgerald
10 Sexton
9 O'Learry

looks decent.