Ireland vs England

[durbutter]

What a class act Irish 2nd rows are..

It's not tiddlywinks mate

 

[ckell]

Well, anybody who's trying to pick up on refereeing decisions as the reasons for England's defeat are really, really clutching at straws. Anyways, it would have served O'Callaghan right if the penalty was given. He's a brainless fool and always doing unnecessary crap like that.

 

[no-1-rugby-fan]

England were battered yesterday against a fired up Ireland side desperate to end an overall dissappointing Six Nations campaign where they've underperformed. Ireland were brilliant yesterday and completely outplayed. As a Welsh fan I'm happy England didn't win the Grand Slam and Triple Crown, suppose they'll have to settle with a rather anti-climatic Six Nations Championship!

 

[TRF_Olyy]

O'Callaghan wears far to much fake tan (the ideal amount being "0") to be a forward

 

[lucky number 7]

O'Callaghan wears far to much fake tan (the ideal amount being "0") to be a forward

Do you reckon he wears any? I always took him for just a dark skinned sort of guy ..

 

[Natasha Ward]

Say what you want about the reffing decisions but is everyone agreed that that first half performance for Ireland was the best of any side this tournament? I've just watched the highlights and if they had been able to hold that intensity for the full 80 mins they could be competing and beating the southern hemisphere sides.

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Clearly that was a school of excellent standards in language and grammar ...

Both Terry Wogan and James Joyce went there. Arguably the 2 biggest literary geniuses in history!

 

[Elzevir]

Ireland did well I was surprised England didn't step it up a gear to match the ferocity.. but without the ball, what can you do?
D'Arcy has been under the cosh but had a big game defensively.. the best defensive centre partnership in the game was back on song.
O'Brien for player of the tournament.. Pips Parisse who was quiet at Murrayfield.
Ferris will find it tough to get back in..
But I'd like to see him back all the same.. What about Ferris, Heaslip, and o'brien at 7?
I don't see why not, and that's a world class heavyweight back row right there..
My Ireland team (on full fitness):
Healy Flannery Ross
Ryan O'Callaghan
Ferris Heaslip O'Brien
O'Leary
Sexton
D'Arce
BOD
Earls
Bowe
Kearney

Cronin
Buckley
O'Connell
Wallace
Reddan
ROG
Fitzgerald

 

[coonor]

Even Stuart Barnes and Lawrence Dallaglio admitted Ireland were dominant in the scrum and that shows how dominant they really were.

Cole was binding on Healy's arm and the ref penalised Healy. He even told Cole not to bind in the arm again but didn't penalise him. Even Brian Moore said Ireland were better in the scrum and I will admit that England should have been awarded penalties when Court came on but before then Ross and Healy were very dominant. Also where is ythis idea about Ireland being dominated by Wales in the scrum. There was one penalty given for a scrum infringement in that game and it was awarded to Ireland. Lets face even the bias English media can accept England were lucky that they only lost by that much because Ireland could have won by more.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Woah, Moore said that once
You're mad if you think Ireland weren't getting battered when court came on (I think it was fairly even up to then, some going Englands way, some Irelands)

I swear Ireland were watching a different tournament to the rest of the world, all of this adoration for SOB
The amount of times I've mentioned it it sounds like I hate the guy, but I think he's fantastic for Leinster - a lot of Irish posters make out like he's been playing everyone off of the park - he hasn't. Wallace was far better than him yesterday, I think O'Briens had a fairly quiet tournament (by his and everyone elses standards)

 

[durbutter]

Woah, Moore said that once

every Irish poster makes out like he's been playing everyone off of the park

I don't.......

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Apologies:
I'll change it to "a lot of Irish posters"

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Apologies:
I'll change it to "a lot of Irish posters"

He definitely hasn't reached the form he's shown for Leinster but I think he's been very good all the same. He's been a bulldozer with ball in hand, defended well and he's been good in the breakdown. Check out his Six Nations stats on espn scrum. He's been better than you're making out.

 

[Taylo2]

Just want to say fair play to Ireland, they fully deserved the win yesterday. As good as Ireland were, England were equally as bad, especially in the first half.

We were very frustrating to watch, which once the conditions became tricky, for both sides, just multiplied.

Hopefully this will act as a real and strong wake up call for this talented England squad. We got away with a poor showing against Scotland, but Ireland punished us. At least we will have a few games this summer before the world cup to work on things, hopefully get the confidence back up.

Our young lads such as Youngs, Flood, Ashton etc will need to remember this game and move on, but not forget how shocking they must be feeling.

Kinda wished Ahston had taken O'Garas head off when i saw that wink

 

[Boomfunk91]

A truly shocking performance from England, not to take anything away from Ireland who were superb. Matt Banahan and Hape looked like one of the worst centre partnerships England have had for a while, still not sure why Banahan is in the squad, he is just big - adds very little in attack or defence, Manu Tuilagi the way forward for the world cup.

 

[TrueSlawter]

O'Brien for player of the tournament.. Pips Parisse who was quiet at Murrayfield.

Umm why should O'Brien be player of the tournament? I havent really seen much of him had a strong run or two against Wales and England otherwise I dont see how he can be player of the tournament he hasn't really done much..

 

[madflyhalf]

Just a few thoughts...

Yesterday England had great problem between the two midfield, after an anonymous Hape showed (IMO) he's not an international, and Banahan not even a centre.
Ok, surely they didn't have the best "clients" in front of them: D'Arcy finally played at his best (especially in defence), and well... "How to play outside centre" could be BOD's game abstract (Banahan, take notes!)!

But anyway, after watching Autumn Internationals and 2011 now Six Nations, I feel that Mike Tindall is not the solution to the midfield problem.
Against SH sides, he looked a bit out of pace, and even if England won against Australia 4 months ago, I'm not sure they can repeat it without being outplayed by the opponents midfields: they could find themselves short of pace and skill, like Traille, Jauzion and Rougerie found themselves in that nightmare in November, against a young, talented, rocket-legged backline, who jokingly ran around them!

And I think that Tindall didn't shine in this Six Nations, it seems he shone just due to his good performance against the worst Italian side seen in these last 4 years!
He did nothing special against France, Rougerie played better than him, Canale (I'm not a big fan of him) and Hook did it the same day in Rome...
Tindall could be a good leader, in a team who's playing without his designed (and true) leader - Moody. He could fix for a while some depth problems, but...

...I don't think England could afford to go to the RWC without a smart and skilled 12 and a well-paced 13!


Maybe I will belied, but that's what I've seen in the last 5 months...

 

[Peat]

Random comments on the last four pages...

DOC is naturally that colour. And in his illegal tackle on Foden, applied the pressure that forced a poor kick from which Ireland scored pretty soon afterwards. So pretty clever really.

David Wallace was the best back-rower on the pitch yesterday and the second best was David Wallace's testicles. Absolutely monumental. I like SOB as a player, he's grown this tournament and has generally been rather good, but I do think Irish people have been hyperbolic about him. Kidney really needs to adjust his team to let him take more second phase ball, he's been wasted on running first phase ball into brick walls. Ireland could use a few more carriers in the pack and a few more big runners in the backline, Trimble offers that (glad you agree with me he did well MM, finally!) taking that responsibility off of SOB (and Ferris when there) and allow him to do what he does best. Also, they need to provide him with runners so he can offload when he does break.

Youngs and Flood were given a plate of **** by their forwards, not that surprising they struggled a little with it.

 

[Jockstap]

Umm why should O'Brien be player of the tournament? I havent really seen much of him had a strong run or two against Wales and England otherwise I dont see how he can be player of the tournament he hasn't really done much..

He's been absolutely everywhere, and involved in everything good we've been doing all tournament. He was man of the match against Italy and has already been picked in two team of the weeks by planetrugby.com and scrum.com and I'll eat my hat if he isn't in the team of the week again this week.

Am I right in saying we're now the top ranked NH nation by the IRB?

 

[TRF_Olyy]

The word has been thrown around a lot this Six Nations but one thing Tindall does bring is experience.
With the exception of Cueto (who is off to the side anyway) from 9-15 in that match everyone was young and/or newish to the game/international - there was no-one there to boss the backs around. Banahan's not going to be bollocking people and/or encouraging them because he's only played 13 a handful of times - Hape's not going to boss people because he's got to remember not to play the ball - Flood looked off colour from the moment his kick didn't go 10 - looked to lose confidence, he either needed someone to give him a kick up the arse or have a word in his ear, or got Wilkinson on earlier (though Wilko isn't the best for organising the backs either, that was Greenwoods job)
Tindall would tell who he wants to do what - It's something Flood should've done more. I remember when Cipriani started against Ireland a few years back his arrogance actually helped in this aspect - He had no problems shouting at the backs if they weren't doing what he wanted them to do - I can't imagine Youngs or Flood really bossing everyone around,
Hape and Banahan are too inexperienced to really organise it either
If Johnson really wants a Kiwi in there then bring Flutey back - he brings everything Hape brings (apart from maybe the offloading game) but can actually play rugby union - something your 12 really needs to be able to do at International level - he's got a lot of experience and has played 10 as well as 12 so has the distribution as well


Basically, England need someone with either: a) Experience or b) Confidence in the centres, something neither of them had last night



Edit: apologies if none of that made sense, I was just typing whatever popped in to my head :lol:

Am I right in saying we're now the top ranked NH nation by the IRB?

I believe so, the IRB site says that if Ireland won by 15 or more they'd overtake France even if France won by a lot against Wales