Italy v Ireland

[King_D'Arcy]

Earls was alright too

 

[dangandan]

ITALY WERE ROBBED. i actually wish they won.

healy, o'leary, d'arcy = ****

best, o'callaghan, o'connell, leamy = less ****

ross, wallace, mcfadden, earls = anonymous

o'brien, sexton, o'driscoll, fitzgerald = did what they could but 4 against 15 was always going to make things difficult

kidney was too busy playin with his willy to bring on substitutes long enough to rate except for o'gara for the match winning droppie

well done italy, they did the basics and played to their strengths. just keep getting better and really should have won that game. parisse was immense.

 

[shtove]

Dammit! Had to miss the second half.

I was whinging about O'Leary, then at about 25 mins he speeded things up and Fitzgerald & Sexton almost got through on the left. But I still put alot of the stuttering in the backline down to the scrumhalf.

Was it a case of Reddan and ROG demonstrating how to play the game in the end?

p.s. Ireland have a real problem at loosehead. I think that sideways pressure comes from the Italian hooker, but all frontrow opposition will do the same thing now.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Was very impressed with Fitz
Was a big fan of him before/during/after the Lions but after his injury/ies(?) he hasn't hit form (until today, apparently)

 

[dangandan]

i think reddan's service was quicker and made the right decisions where to pass but o'gara was only good for the drop goal.. sexton got the backs moving as well as possible but u can't finish off tries when people can't pass or catch outside u.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

There's one easy solution for Ireland. Bye bye Declan Kidney, Alan Gaffney and Gert Smal. Hello Joe Schmidt, Richie Murphy and Jono Gibbes (maybe I'm going slightly over the top!). The team is falling apart yet the coach waits until 64 minutes are gone before making a change. That's amateurish.

Ireland were awful. Italy deserved to win by 10+ and it would have been brilliant for the tournament if they did.

I thought Fitzgerald, O'Brien, Sexton and O'Callaghan were good. If players are being scapegoated, it should be Healy, D'arcy and O'Leary who lose their place in the team. On that evidence, Heinke van der Merwe will be Leinster's loosehead against Leicester because Castrogiovanni made Healy his ***** today.

 

[dangandan]

if d'arcy was to be dropped i'd like to see mcfadden have a go at 12 when bowe gets back. we know what p.wallace can do already so keep him on the bench and bring him on if mcfadden doesn't too well. i think he'd do well though as he's shown quite a few times now for leinster.

 

[Jockstap]

No new injuries though that's a plus. Man of the match anybody?

 

[Jack Weedon]

perecce

i dunno how to spell it lol

 

[TRF_Olyy]

No new injuries though that's a plus. Man of the match anybody?

According to someone on Twitter it was Sean O'Brien =S

 

[Jockstap]

I THOUGHT I heard his name called out at the end of the match, he was wearing a medal thing, but I couldn't believe it, that's why I asked on here. Way hey Scotland just scored.

 

[Jockstap]

So Ireland 15 for France next week based on this performance and injuries

15 Fitzgerald
14 McFadden
13 O'Driscoll
12 Wallace
11 Earls
10 Sexton
9 Reddan
8 O'Brien
7 Jennings
6 Wallace
5 O'Connell
4 O'Callaghan(had a good game today)
3 Ross
2 Cronin
1 Court

Watching the Scottish scrum getting destroyed(the one that destroyed us last year) I've opted for Court at Loosehead. Rory Best was anonymous so give Cronin a go. Leamy was utter cack today and Jennings is on fire for Leinster plus has a established partnership with O'Brien. D'Arcy awful, as for the rest there's no one else really.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Cullen for POC, I'd say (as an outsider)
He wasn't good in the loose, offloading was unaccurate, same with passing, and considering he's supposed to be the best lineout lock in the NH he wasn't that impressive at all in that aspect

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Cullen for POC, I'd say (as an outsider)
He wasn't good in the loose, offloading was unaccurate, same with passing, and considering he's supposed to be the best lineout lock in the NH he wasn't that impressive at all in that aspect

This may be akin to heresy but I understand where you're coming from. Based on today alone, Donncha O'Callaghan was better than Paul O'Connell.

Going slightly off track, Leinster's scrum has been rock solid all season. Cian Healy and Mike Ross are both in the Ireland team while Leinster's excellent scrum coach Greg Feek is also now involved with Ireland. Could it be that the second rows are just shite scrummagers when compared with Leinster's Leo Cullen and Nathan Hines?

I'd change 3 of the tight 5. Court in for Healy, Cronin in for Best and Cullen in for O'Callaghan with the three players dropped to the bench coming on after 50-60 minutes as impact subs.

 

[lucky number 7]

You may be onto something I think
I recall Leo coming in a while back for either Paulie or Donnocha and the scrum did not budge for the rest of the match ...it may be the reason or that may have been coincedence

 

[TRF_Olyy]

You may be onto something I think
I recall Leo coming in a while back for either Paulie or Donnocha and the scrum did not budge for the rest of the match ...it may be the reason or that may have been coincedence

Ditto, think it was last year,
Commentators picked up on it too

 

[Feicarsinn]

'Leo is the best Lock in the country.'


Discuss.

 

[TRF_Olyy]

'Leo is the best Lock in the country.'


Discuss.

"Yup."

 

[Peat]

Only just back in so didn't watch, but how was Rory's throwing?

 

[dangandan]

when will bowe be back?? really need someone like him to straighten up the line as a strike runner.. also the scrum isn't just down to one man. it's how they scrummage as a unit. the tighter the scrum the better and from what i saw today it crumpled so the problem could well be in the second row, not disregarding the fact that healy was also plain awful.