RBS 6 Nations - France vs Ireland (11-02-2012, 20:00)

[ZeFrenchy]

Yachvili out and Dupuy called is like the best news ever. Now we need somehow to get Fritz in the squad...


Anyway, I always feel a bit nervous when we are the favorites...

 

[munstermuffin]

Not a lot of change on Irish team it seems. Reports are Earls in for McFadden who replaces Kearney Jr. on bench and Jennings replaces POM on bench according to 3 reports I've seen.

 

[lynam1104]

Not a lot of change on Irish team it seems. Reports are Earls in for McFadden who replaces Kearney Jr. on bench and Jennings replaces POM on bench according to 3 reports I've seen.

Kill me now, words cannot describe how f*cking stupid kidney is.

 

[Luimneach18]

dont get me wrong everyone i do like kidney because of the success he brought to the munster team tho im not liking his stance on younger players within ireland we need to start blooding some in like wales have i reckon we should start with 13 with o'malley because bod isnt finished and he will be a great person to learn from personallly i hope the new coach is joe schmidt only because he brings younger players through but then again if kidney can pull something off this six nations fair play to him

 

[munstermuffin]

Reminds me of Eddies last few weeks. Too stubborn to change and well stick to his way and it basically his way or no way

 

[Erin Go Bragh]

To a man they have to defend better,as in the game last week, Wales got to much go forward and to quickly. If we don't start well as seen last week, we will be handed a new one.

France looked positively creative albeit against a poor Italy side in transition. But i can guarentee if we don't start well, and put France on the back foot...forget about it!

Also just watched the highlights from last week and I'm totally disgusted with liners call for Barnes to give a yellow card!!! Not taking away from Wales and their display, but the fact it happened right in front of Pearson, play 15 metres further on, and then to see Ferris' tackle, completely beggars believe!!! It's referring and ******** like that turns me of football!!!

 

[Chris Ward]

15 - Rob Kearney (UCD/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Keith Earls (Young Munster/Munster)
12 - Gordon D'Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Andrew Trimble (Ballymena/Ulster)
10 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
9 - Conor Murray (Garryowen/Munster) 1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O'Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O'Connell (Young Munster/Munster) Captain
6 - Stephen Ferris (Dungannon/Ulster)
7 - Sean O'Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Replacements:
16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Donnacha Ryan (Shannon/Munster)
19 - Peter O'Mahony (Cork Constitution/Munster)*
20 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)


Why am I not suprised?

 

[profitius]

Form not rewarded, game plan is to kick it up in the air as much as possible which is the opposite of how they play for their provinces, players underperforming and making silly errors, lack of confidence, players confused, conservative tactics and selections, central contracts handed out to over the hill players, the whole thing is going downhill since 2009 but in sure sign of madness Deccie keeps doing the same thing. The whole thing is a mess at the moment.

It all looks familiar to the last days of EOS reign. Team performing badly, players unhappy, players trying to put a positive spin on things, same players being picked no matter what their form is. No wonder people are laughing at the Irish rugby team.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

Well, for Ireland, only 4,12,13 and 15 look debatable (and even dropping Kearney would be nonsense after the Wales game)... What do the irish think?

 

[Feicarsinn]

They're not debatable, they're all the wrong calls.

Bah.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

They're not debatable, they're all the wrong calls.

Bah.

Yes, 4, 12 & 13 look wrong. The rest seems first choice in most people's minds.

 

[Feicarsinn]

The decisions shed light on a deeper problem in the Irish management's mindset though, an inability to change. It's been clear to everyone that our style of rugby hasn't been working for the past two seasons at the very minimum. Everyone except Declan O'Sullivan that is. Expect Ireland to kick everything away on Saturday and be clueless with the ball.

 

[profitius]

The decisions shed light on a deeper problem in the Irish management's mindset though, an inability to change. It's been clear to everyone that our style of rugby hasn't been working for the past two seasons at the very minimum. Everyone except Declan O'Sullivan that is. Expect Ireland to kick everything away on Saturday and be clueless with the ball.

Stone age rugby. Ireland were good with the ball at the weekends when they attacked. They have to start keeping possession and have the balls to attack from deep sometimes. But it will be a miracle if they changed tactics at this stage. They'll continue to kick the leather off the ball. Also the pick and go tactic needs to be quicker.

 

[coonor]

Ryan should be in for DOC.
I would have liked to have seen McFadden at 12 and O'Malley at 13 but was that ever going to happen?

At the end of the day what ever team we pick, if France play to their usual standard we're not going to beat them unless we use the right defence and have a more expansive and hard hitting attacking game plan.

 

[killer08]

after this game ireland need to try new combinations like finally getting mcfadden in at 12 and ryan at 4

 

[Darwin]

I'm picking France to win this one, largely because they have the home ground advantage. Ireland, despite a few 'questionable' selections still have a pretty good experienced team. I personally think it is a mistake to stick with so many players that are close to (or past) their used by date at the expense of talented youngsters, but with their experience they should still compete well in every game.

The scrum battle should be interesting, and pretty evenly matched in my opinion. Ross and Best are quality scrummagers, and I think Healy is improving a lot in this department. I really rate both Poux and Mas at scrum-time, but I've noticed that the French scrum can struggle a lot when Szarzewski is at hooker (or perhaps equally important, Servat not at hooker). I think Ireland may have a slight edge in the locks - probably because I know so little about Maestri (which is admittedly poor logic!). I thought O'Callaghan, despite being talked down a lot before the match had a pretty good game against Wales (though Ryan did add something when he came on too). There is a lot of quality on display in the loose-forwards: I thought Heaslip and Picamoles were two of the standouts for their respective teams last weekend.

I see France having a slight edge in the halves (largely as I rate Frances two 9's - Yachvili and Parra - very highly); I think the Sexton vs Trinh-Duc is a key matchup. France look to have an edge in the centres, as I thought Fofona looked promising on debut last weekend. A couple of good matchups in the outside backs too: Bowe vs Malzieu, Trimble vs Clerc (whose scored 8 tries in 9 matches vs Ireland), and Kearney (who was outstanding last weekend) vs Medard.

 

[big ginger 8]

I'm picking France to win this one, largely because they have the home ground advantage. Ireland, despite a few 'questionable' selections still have a pretty good experienced team. I personally think it is a mistake to stick with so many players that are close to (or past) their used by date at the expense of talented youngsters, but with their experience they should still compete well in every game.

The scrum battle should be interesting, and pretty evenly matched in my opinion. Ross and Best are quality scrummagers, and I think Healy is improving a lot in this department. I really rate both Poux and Mas at scrum-time, but I've noticed that the French scrum can struggle a lot when Szarzewski is at hooker (or perhaps equally important, Servat not at hooker). I think Ireland may have a slight edge in the locks - probably because I know so little about Maestri (which is admittedly poor logic!). I thought O'Callaghan, despite being talked down a lot before the match had a pretty good game against Wales (though Ryan did add something when he came on too). There is a lot of quality on display in the loose-forwards: I thought Heaslip and Picamoles were two of the standouts for their respective teams last weekend.

I see France having a slight edge in the halves (largely as I rate Frances two 9's - Yachvili and Parra - very highly); I think the Sexton vs Trinh-Duc is a key matchup. France look to have an edge in the centres, as I thought Fofona looked promising on debut last weekend. A couple of good matchups in the outside backs too: Bowe vs Malzieu, Trimble vs Clerc (whose scored 8 tries in 9 matches vs Ireland), and Kearney (who was outstanding last weekend) vs Medard.

Thats a pretty good write up and probably pretty fair. It's about time someone did a match up between the teams so hear it goes:

1. Healy vs Poux = I'm always gonna go for Healy
2. Best vs Szarzewskwi = Best
3. Ross vs Mas = Mas
4. O'Callaghan vs Pape = Pape
5. O'Connell vs Maserti = O'Connell
6. Ferris vs Dusautoir = draw
7. O'Brien vs Harinordoquy = draw
8. Heaslip vs Picamoles = draw
9. Murray vs Parra = Parra
10. Sexton vs Trinh-Duc = draw
11. Trimble vs Malzieu = Malzieu
12. D'arcy vs Fofana = Fofana
13. Earls vs Rougerie = Rougerie
14. Bowe vs Clerc = I'll go with my gut and say Bowe
15. Kearney vs Medard = Kearney

Ireland 5, France 6 and 4 draws very close over all but Rougerie vs Earls is a match up of horrible proportions for us.

 

[Luimneach18]

doesnt any1 agree with me that you would like to see joe schmidt as the next ireland manager because i think he would be the obvious choice if we dont get anything outta this six nations because we have gone downhill since 09 like someone stated earlier bar some 1 off wins no consistenty at all.

 

[ZeFrenchy]

doesnt any1 agree with me that you would like to see joe schmidt as the next ireland manager because i think he would be the obvious choice if we dont get anything outta this six nations because we have gone downhill since 09 like someone stated earlier bar some 1 off wins no consistenty at all.

I don't know him, so I couldn't answer. In the future, though, try using some commas, your post is a bit hard to understand.

 

[big ginger 8]

doesnt any1 agree with me that you would like to see joe schmidt as the next ireland manager because i think he would be the obvious choice if we dont get anything outta this six nations because we have gone downhill since 09 like someone stated earlier bar some 1 off wins no consistenty at all.

Many would like it but no one knows if he'd take it or even if the IRFU would be willing to offer it.