Jacques Brunel has taken Italy so much further than the overrated Nick Mallett ever did. Great result for the hosts and the tournament. No need to talk down Italy's achievement by criticizing Ireland.
One positive for Ireland was Ian Madigan. Paddy Jackson is a passenger at 10 who cedes responsibility to others- Conor Murray is playing both the scrum half and outhalf roles at present. Madigan by contrast wants the ball in his hands at every opportunity.
Bye bye Declan Kidney. Take Les Kiss (good defence coach but out of his depth on attack), Mark Tainton and Gert Smal with you. Anthony Foley is the only member of the coaching staff who did a good job in this tournament which is hard for me to say because I really don't want to like him!
Mike Ruddock and Anthony Foley will take Ireland to North America in the summer in my opinion.
Might have a bigger job closer to home
But agree with regards Madigan he looked hungry and was always looking for work. Jackson's problem is he didn't use head in terms of he tried to use backs outside when he had a mickey mouse centre partnership and POM on wing. None of them knew roles and well I'd also love to know how Marshall was cleared. He was poor from start but that was simply because it was clear he didn't seem 100% well barely 50% even.
Few points I'd say:
- At least we got young guys in and future isn't bleak ie. Henderson, Kilcoyne, O'Mahony, Gilroy, Madigan, Jackson, Zebo, Marshall x2 and Archer got time add in Murray, Earls, Healy, O'Brien are all young enough so there is a very strong spine of players good enough and young enough there to really keep us challenging.
- Injuries did hinder our tournament in a big way
- Mike Sherry has been a top player this season and by far the best darts in Ireland. Today Best had poor day and Cronin is terrible at darts so would it not make more sense to have Sherry on bench as I think his form warranted it too. I know Strauss would've been there if all fit.
- Still worries me about our back play as we do seem clueless and I think we need to get a world class operator (ie Schmidt) on the coaching ticket as we just seem to be awful with attacking patterns
Can I finally say too Italy were a delight this tournament.
They beat France and Ireland, Rattled Wales and Enngland and were poor to Scotland but gone are the days of them being a team that play well for 55mins and fall away. They were the most attacking team of the tournament and well even like today it wasn't a "flukey" win as they were the better team for 70-75 mins.
