Pool D - State of the Nations

[shazbooger]

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">My prediction after Week 1: France to win the group, Argentina second, Ireland on the early plane home No need to panic lads, sure hasnt Eddie O'Sullivan got another 5 years to get it right!</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma">*Just to clarify, I'm not predicting Argentina will collapse in anyway. I just think the Irish will be hammered by the French and France will probably get their 4 try bonus point. On the reverse of that loss, Ireland will be playing for their pride (and some of them their final match for Ireland) against Argentina, and may do an Argentina on ............. Argentina. :blink: It will be too little too late, and we'll be left with another year of what if's. Its the Irish way.

 

[stormmaster1]

Are you predicting Ireland to beat Argentina or not? If not the Argies will finish top, France second..

 

[An Tarbh]

Well that's what it reads like, the pessimism has taken hold of me, although it had done that before our performance on Sunday. The early plane does look a distinct possibility although it did so before the tournament as well, so it would hardly be a shock.

Ireland and France though are in a sorry state so the pressure to perform will be immense when both teams face off in St Denis. In a way the pressure is off Argentina regardless of the result in the Ireland match as even if Ireland lose they'll be the ones with the pressure on them facing the Pumas in Paris while if France lose then Argentina will be through, so things are rosy in their garden at the moment.

 

[shtove]

The pressure is on all these teams.

I see Arg are leading by 3 at half time, and on that display they'll find it hard to score tries against Namibia.

The group will come down to tries, because that's how you get the bonus points. The winners in the two remaining big matches will go through, because Arg's three wins up to that point won't be enough.

Anyway, we have a new top performer from the NH to put along side Portugal, Canada and USA - Georgia!

 

[Eternal Idol]

The pressure is on all these teams.

I see Arg are leading by 3 at half time, and on that display they'll find it hard to score tries against Namibia. [/b]

That should be a totally different match, just for start we will have 10 instead of 4 days of rest to face a weaker team than Georgia. Thank's god Pichot would be back in the team ...

The group will come down to tries, because that's how you get the bonus points. The winners in the two remaining big matches will go through, because Arg's three wins up to that point won't be enough.[/b]

For and against tries? The only way to reach the last match already qualified is Ireland beating France

 

[puma]

Hello to everybody,

With all my respect; you should understand Argentina is playing with their heart; guts and balls; to show the rugby world how unfairly they have been treated in the last few years.
We all think here; that by far we have earned the right of playing the six nations (seven) or at least (more difficult because of logistics of moving players around) the Tri Nations (four). And if you look in carefully; the referees haven't been to fair with our guys lately.

 

[feicarsinn]

<span style="font-family:Tahoma">My prediction after Week 1: France to win the group, Argentina second, Ireland on the early plane home No need to panic lads, sure hasnt Eddie O'Sullivan got another 5 years to get it right!</span><span style="font-family:Tahoma">*Just to clarify, I'm not predicting Argentina will collapse in anyway. I just think the Irish will be hammered by the French and France will probably get their 4 try bonus point. On the reverse of that loss, Ireland will be playing for their pride (and some of them their final match for Ireland) against Argentina, and may do an Argentina on ............. Argentina. :blink: It will be too little too late, and we'll be left with another year of what if's. Its the Irish way.


[/b]

thats ridiculous so according to what you say ireland can in no way play much better thatn they did against namibia which they obviously can. we have the ability to beat both and to me after hearing the feedback from the camp it seems like they have really coped on since the namibia game and got their heads right (i think) we can beat both. france inexperianced outhalf or one with no balls? argentina poor second row and a lack of cohesiveness in the backline( the talent is there no doubt). of course we have serious problems to resolve but to say we cant improve on the namibia performance really isnt a statement that bears any weight if you have watched irish rugby over the last 1-2 years

 

[el_tk]

The group is Argentina's to lose at this stage and I can't really see it happening. Unfortunately I think France will recover and power past Ireland who at this stage look in no position to mount any sort of challenge.

 

[stevemagoo]

Franno mentioned it the other night - Ireland NEVER put it to the little teams and get caught up in their way of playing....it's in our mindset! 2-2 against slovakia - i bet we'll beat the czechs! - 32-17 against Namibia - i bet we won't do a convincing job against the Georgians as well - but we'll all-of-a-sudden pull a huge performance out of the bag for France and Argentina....The standard will be upped for the bigger teams.

 

[shazbooger]

but to say we cant improve on the namibia performance really isnt a statement that bears any weight if you have watched irish rugby over the last 1-2 years [/b]

First of all I said we cant turn it round. To turn it round we need to find form. Its not about improving on the Namibia game, its about returning to the levels of performance we had against Australia, S.Africa, England and Italy. Maybe we will do it. Maybe the Georgia game could see a return to some sort of form.

The facts are (at this time), our lineout is iffy, our maul is ineffective, we cant clear out the rucks, and our supposedly creative backline isnt firing either. But they seem to know what they are doing, and are saying the right things so its all okay? You dont really believe that do you?

France inexperianced outhalf or one with no balls? Argentina poor second row and a lack of cohesiveness in the backline [/b]

I cant believe there are Irish posters on this forum that still think they can just ignore the problems within the Irish team.

Have you sat back and actually looked at our problems? Our form? Jesus I wish the only problems we had were related to a second row or cohesive backline but for Ireland you need to add, ineffective backrow, ineffective front five, zero go forward ball, too many unforced errors.

Bahhhh look ..... I fully expect Ireland to put in at least one big performance, and (off the record) I still fully expect Ireland to qualify from the group. At this moment though, I've seen nothing that could lead me to believe its actually going to happen.

 

[feicarsinn]

did i not mention there are serious problems in the irish team im pretty sure i did. all im saying is we never hammer shite teams and apart from the AB's i cant find one team on top form so far they have all played poorley a few times at least over their warm up games yet most seem to come good for the big ones. i think people are really over reacting

 

[shazbooger]

did i not mention there are serious problems in the irish team im pretty sure i did. all im saying is we never hammer shite teams and apart from the AB's i cant find one team on top form so far they have all played poorley a few times at least over their warm up games yet most seem to come good for the big ones. i think people are really over reacting [/b]

The NH teams are playing crap, the SH are on top form. We usually do hit form about 2-3 matches into a season so I kinda agree but, and its a huge but, ............ at the moment (and thats what this post was about) I cant see it happening.

I do however, reserve the right to change my prediction at least once or twice a week.