Italy v Ireland

[no-1-rugby-fan]

Ireland were poor today, expected it to be a close one today but still. Ronan O'Gara JUST got them over the line but they'll have to play much better to stand any chance of making an impact in this year's Six Nations.

 

[coonor]

Positives:
-I thought Fitzgerald positioning and he was good in attack
-Sexton was good and controlled the game and his tactical kicking has improved
-If Ireland cut out the handling errors they can become a very threatening team
-O'Gara proved how he can change a match

Negatives
-ERRORS to many knock-ons, bad passes and penalties given away.
-Didn't tale our opportunities we could have scored anouther 3 tries.
-The scrum. Although I think Poite was never going to give Ireland anything even though Perugini (Spelling?) was srcumaging upwards and the Italians were buckling first. Healy still needs to improve or Court must come on as Mas is going to be really tough

 

[Peat]

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.

Game 3 at earliest.

 

[dangandan]

Game 3 at earliest.

jees that's no good.. so no bowe or heaslip (i'm guessing) against the french.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

-O'Gara proved how he can change a match

Indeed. Italy won 5-3 while O'Gara was on the pitch! More seriously though, he took his drop goal really well.

 

[dullonien]

Ireland were lucky to win this one. It ultimately came down to the fact that Italy don't have a propper kicker in the team. Burgamasco landed two kicks, but he missed the simplest of the night, and that was cruicial in the end. Italy's buggering up of half the restarts also cost them. If they'd have caught the final restart with 4mins remaining, I'm fairly confident their pack could have kept hold of the ball for those final 4mins and the match would have been theirs.

There's not alot of positives Ireland can take out of this game. Sexton wasd good and that's about it. The pack got outmuscled and the backs struggled to break down a decent defense, or made mistakes when they did. D'Arcy was horrible, dropping almost every ball thrown his way. Even O'Dricoll made a couple of uncaracteritic mistakes. I know Earls is thought of highly my many Irish fans, but I'm not atall convinced. He has a decent amount of talent, but is such a selfish player, and lacks physicallity at the highest level imo. Ireland will have to improve in just about every facet of play if they're going to challenge France. Knowing Ireland though, I'm sure they will.

 

[DorceOutSide]

ireland were a ******* disgrace !!!!

never senn D'arcy drop so many balls in my life !!!!!!!!!

 

[coonor]

Indeed. Italy won 5-3 while O'Gara was on the pitch! More seriously though, he took his drop goal really well.

I agree, I think its great to have him on the bench as he can come on and close out tight games. I do think Sexton played well, he created width, Kicked well and his tackles on the Italian No.5 was awesome. D'arcy was dreadful but he has been playing well this year and that may have just been an off day. O'leary was poor he slows down every attacking opportunity. I thought Fitzgerald was standout and I remember in the Autumn we dropped alot of high balls, today we were very good at gathering balls even under pressure. I think Ireland became very complacent when they got their try and expected Italy to crumple but when we were on the brink of losing we quickly stepped up a gear, won our own restart and got soem forward momentum to get into a position to score a drop goal. The backrow was poor and allow O'brien was good at clearing up and making ground he was closely monitored by the Italians. BOD was patchy and his passing was bad but he took his try well. I thought DOC played well but Best was anonymous. Leamy looked weak and Jennings should have came on. The scrum is still a concern but Poite did not help that. All in all we will have to take an away win and at least we tried to play with ball in hand take out the handling errors and we may have scored more tries. We seem to always have a bad first game but we usually only have to beat Italy first but this year they played the best I have seen them play in the 6 nations and made Ireland work for it. A wins a win and results are what count especially when you have more than 10 senior players injured but we need to make things click if we are to win next week.

 

[jack6161]

Good drop goal from O'Gara and a great game from Italy as no one thought they would stand a chance of winning! Shows just how far Italian rugby has come since the start of the 6 nations. Shame for the drop goal as I would of liked Italy to get the win as I felt they deserved it more! Still a good game from both sides and a nice win for Ireland!

 

[durbutter]

I missed the game but i take Ross was not our scrum panacea?

 

[monkeypigeon]

I missed the game but i take Ross was not our scrum panacea?

He did well but Cian Healy was demolished.

 

[dullonien]

Ross did alright tbh, didn't take too many backwards steps from what I could see. It was Cian Healy who took a battering from Castro. Italy were a little silly on occasion, getting pinged for goign early two or three times, when they had no reason to do so.

 

[Peat]

Only watched first half so far and I've gotta say, its quite an achievement to go so unnoticed when wearing a bright orange scrum-cap and Rory Best managed it! Even looking out for him he could only be said to be quiet. Which is why you think twice about throwing in rusty players... throwing alright though.

Will be interesting to see what if anything changes in Ireland's scrum. People mention Cullen as a scrummaging lock, I think his technique probably is better than the Munster lot but reckon Leinster's solidity from the second row has a lot more to do with Nathan Hines. Still worth trying... but dropping POC? Controversial. Dropping DOC? Hit 20 tackles according scrum.com's stats. I can see a strong argument for Court... unfortunately, this sort of thing also argues for Best, when Cronin deserves the shot.

 

[durbutter]

A general mess then. I'll iplayer it tomorrow, and depress myself for a treat.

I know its easy to say after the fact but italy are at their best at their start of the 6N.....

 

[TRF_Olyy]

Still worth trying... but dropping POC? Controversial.

Maybe so, but Ireland need to stop picking players based on reputation (so do a lot of national teams, for that matter)

 

[Curls]

Well.....

It was the typical labourious 1st day in Rome that we see each year...but Ireland were rubbish. The pairing all over the pitch looked loose. Darcy seemed to forget what his hands were for! Our backrow looked a bit...cobbled together(wonder why) and why O'Leary is in the team still escapes me!!

Now I must admit I'm not an expert on the dark art of the scrum but to my mind on a few occasions the Italian scrum buckled and they got a penalty for it! Ireland put a lot of pressure on and Perrugini just folded. Time after time the italian props slipped under and down or dropped binds and were rewarded! To my mind Poite had a nightmare and all this letter writing talk held a lot of water. He gave Italy the benifit of the doubt all the time and held them in the game in the opening 20 of the 2nd half. For Italy's 2nd penalty to go 6-3 up it was clearly shown. He gave it for hands in the ruck but Ireland CLEARLY did not compete and the Italian 9 had clean ball to play. Poite looked very much as if he had been caught out when he came over and saw the ball at the 9's feet and the touch judge seemed to suggest it was the wrong call as they exchanged a brief glance. In the lead up t their try italy had a maul that stopped 4 times. Reddan pointed this out and was told to "sush" by the ref. Finally I noticed that on the scrums in the 1st half(italy playing left to right) poite held his whistle mostly in his right hand leaving the other arm free to give penalties to Italy. In the 2nd half the whistle was in the other hand...

Overall anyhow Ireland will need to up it for France next week. Changes will be needed both in mindset, tactics and maybe team. For me O'Leary should be out, Reddan in with Sexton too. I hope that Heaslip(i know people who are mumbling that he may rise from the ashes to catch the french on the hop) will be available and if so you then could have the 6,7,8,9 and 10 axis of Leinster there as I think Jennings is worth a go. Wallace is out of form and looked it today, as is Leamy!

One thing today was obvious..with the exception of Earls and POC Munster are dead...they are a dead end at this time and place for Irish rugby...Leinster are the trailblazers in Europe and so the team should be picked around that structure. God knows when Munster were at the height of their powers Ireland played the Munster way as much as possible!
On another note Best is just not good enough at the moment but be it political, loyalty of mistrust of the other hookers Kidney seems to want to play him all the time. Cronin however has no throwing game and so putting him in could be as bad! Varley for me is the coming man, but as it stand I suppose Best is all we can expect to see....

PS: McFadden had a solid start to his international test career, would have scored a try had BOD not put the pass into row Z..

My dream team for France

1.Healy
2. Best(the pain of it)
3. Ross
4. Cullen(Forget what POC says for scrum and line-out V France we'll need him)
5. POC
6. O'Brien
7. Jennings
8. Heaslip(like I said he could be there)
9. Reddan
10. Sexton
11. Earls
12. Darcy
13. BOD
14. McFadden
15. Fitzgerald

16. Varley
17. Court
18. DOC
19. Wallace
20. ROG
21. Stringer
22. Wallace

 

[lucky number 7]

Irelands main problem was that the backs tried so hard to force the big plays and score of first phase from stagnating or very slow ball from O'Leary had Stringer been picked then that scoreline could have looked rather impressive instead the backs were treated to slow clunky ball and as a result were dogshite.

 

[King_D'Arcy]

ireland were a ******* disgrace !!!!

never senn D'arcy drop so many balls in my life !!!!!!!!!

He was an embarrassment!
You must feel a fool with a name like that

 

[King_D'Arcy]

Someone please do me a favour and tell me that either Ferris or Heaslip will be fit for next week. Please! Cause we will definitely definitely lose without at least one of them. And tell me Bowe will be fit too. Just be sound!! I would actually start a one armed Ferris ahead of Leamy.

My lovely nice team for next week

1. Court
2. Varley
3. ROSS
4. Cullen
5. DOC (FOCK POC)
6. Ferris (or O'Brien or Wallace depending on injury)
7. O'Brien (Or Jennings depending on injury)
8. Heaslip (Or O'Brien DOI)
9. Reddan
10. Sexton
11. Earls
12. McFadden (or Arsey DOI)
13. BOD
14. Bowe (Or McFabulous DOI)
15. Lukey Fitz

 

[Amobokoboko]

Ok, both teams played poor but for Italian standards Italy played quiet well. They nearly scored a second try and after the first penalty I was the only one cheering in the bar. Didn't like the O' Gara dropgoal in the last minute but at least Italy is standing on the 4th spot now

Ireland played really messy and when facing teams like France, England this could be lethal.