[RWC2019][Pool A] Round 1 - Ireland vs. Scotland (22/09/2019)

[General Melchett]

Congrats to Ireland. Scots were outplayed, outfought and out thought.
Replacing Cotter with Townsend has now been proved to have been a big mistake. Townsend not international head coach material, club coaching is his level. Not sure what Danny Wilson has brought as defence coach, well not very much.
Schmidt has shown how to take the cream of Leinster, Munster and Connacht, build them into a machine and take them to a higher level.

 

[Groundhog]

Ole. Great result to start us out. Scots were poor but limiting them to three points is an achievement. Pack were genuinely dominant across the park.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

Ireland v SA QF it is then. Well, it was always likely to be.

 

[BobbyM]

- Irish forward have utterly dominated at the breakdown, creating turnovers or slowing the ball down
- Murray has been excellent, his kicking has put us under a lot of pressure
- line speed has been very fast (and sometimes onside ) from Ireland
- Scotland have made a number of handling errors but they've been forced in a lot of cases
- Ireland must be considered one of the 3-4 favourites to win the thing
- slightly displeased by the injury to Watson but appreciate ruck infringements have not been called well this World Cup so far
- overall poor from Scotland but for the most part forced on Scotland by Ireland quality play

 

[JonoCymru]

Are you like 10 years old? Serious question, as Scotland have only become semi decent in the last 4 years or so.

What are you like 5? Scotland have played far far far worse than this. The Scottish side of the late 2000's/early 2010's would have a genuine question if they could beat Italy...

Either way, they were awful. Certainly in recent years at least, can't remember such a poor performance.

 

[bushytop]

So obvs a big win for the World number 1's, not too sure how much it says as Scotland were just so (SO) poor but you can only beat what is in front of you and they did that well.

Best put a few things to bed, as did Murray. Liked Farrell when he came on... oh and the Irish break down looked SOLID. About as happy as an Oirish man could get from that first game I'd imagine.

Scotland, well what can you say... worst performance of this World Cup so far! Don't know if the pressure got to them, if they didn't prepare right or if Ireland were just that good but they got a lot of work to do. I'd still back them to do enough to earn a QF against the All Blacks but they need some serious souls-searching.

 

[Umaga's Witness]

Why was Murray taking the high balls? he missed 3. his kicking was very good though.

 

[Groundhog]

Stephen Ferris and the RTE panel absolutely savaging Scotland.

 

[General Melchett]

Stephen Ferris and the RTE panel absolutely savaging Scotland.

And rightly so.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

Heaslip and Ferris are going to scrap Eddie O'Sullivan.

 

[bushytop]

Heaslip and Ferris are going to scrap Eddie O'Sullivan.

 

[snoopy snoopy dog dog]

Heaslip and Ferris are going to scrap Eddie O'Sullivan.

Heaslip rolling his eyes at comments from O'Sullivan about Jordan Larmour and backing it up with facts was priceless.

Great win but lots of room for improvement.

Chris Farrell is pushing his case for inclusion later in the tournament. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Ireland went with a Farrell/Henshaw centre partnership in the knockouts should they make it that far.

 

[Jockstap]

I think 07 might have mentally broken Eddie, would be hard pressed to find a more catastrophizing individual.

 

[Bruce_ma gooshvili]

I think Scotlands issues are primarily tactical, but also due to Huw (creative) and Dunbar (defensive solidity) both seemingly failing to recover from injury that have possibly ended their international careers. I can't rag on Taylor as he has been away on a long term injury too. As had Bennet. Basically a main strength for the Scots in the centres gave Finn options and made it hard for teams to tee off on Finn and Hogg like Ireland did today.

Now centre is a bit of a mess for Scotland and I think they are firmly down with France and Argentina unless they can resolve that.

I think Ireland would have benefitted from a stiffer challenge here, but it is a big deal that Farrell looked decent and huge that Murray was way better than earlier than the year because he is critical to Schmidt's preferred tactics. I'm still concerned about Sexton though. I'd rest him until the QF if there is any doubts on fitness. I think Ireland will match up very well against the Boks as their pack can stand up to them, but I'm not ready to say we have seen the return of peak Ireland. They didn't have to go anywhere near full tilt here.

And finally, what a loss Wayne Barnes is going to be.

 

[Leonormous Boozer]

New Zealand go number 1... Rankings are bogus, what have they don't to deserve it... Smh

 

[General Melchett]

New Zealand go number 1... Rankings are bogus, what have they don't to deserve it... Smh

Perhaps not so bogus. Beating a team of powderpuff chokers rightly doesn't count for very much. Ireland are better off without the no.1 tag

 

[Groundhog]

Ireland will be number 1 forever in my heart. We will punish the usurpers by ole'ing every haka they ever do and taking the Gary Ringrose World Cup home.

 

[bushytop]

Ireland will be number 1 forever in my heart. We will punish the usurpers by ole'ing every haka they ever do and taking the Garry Ring-rot World Cup home.

Fify

 

[TRF_Olyy]

https://twitter.com/rugbyworldcup/status/1175731135416078336

Incredible

 

[Leinster Fan]

Hard not be happy with that for Ireland. Scotland were utter rubbish but you can only beat what's in front of you and we did in about as satisfying a way as you could imagine.

Huge credit to Conway and Larmour for coming in and doing a great job. Both should be very happy with their performances. Farrell is the clear fourth favourite in the centre but did a lot to put himself into the mix today off the bench. Ringrose didn't do anything amazing but kept the Scottish centres very quiet, good game from him.

It goes without saying but our props are class and deserve even more appreciation than they get (which is a lot). Best went the full 80 and did well the whole time, deserves a lot of credit.

Wouldn't trade Ryan and Henderson for any other second row pairing in the tournament except maybe a fully fit Retallick and Whitelock (the English are stacked there as well tbf). Back row functioned well throughout, both before and after Conan came on. CJ was very good again, I think there's a strong argument he should stay at 6.

Sexton could do with another game but the main takeaway is that Conor Murray is back. The imposter scuttling around in the Six Nations is gone and has been replaced by our best ever 9. He had an easier job than most behind an utterly dominant pack but for my money it was easily the best performance from any scrumhalf so far, he put in an absolute kicking masterclass.

Hope Aki and POM are okay but other than that the game really couldn't have gone much better from an Ireland perspective.