Ireland have no chance a 100/1 would be more reflective of their odds. Their is a big possibility Australia with beat us with ease. We don’t seem to have a game plan at the moment, never mind one geared to winning the comp. We should give SA a scare in the 1/4’s but NZ are in wait in the semis and our dream would definitly end their.
SA realistically, their chances are very slim. Wales done everything, but beat them Sunday, and most people will tell you its far fom a vintage Wales team. The coach De Villers has picked all his buddies from the last WC, some who are out of form and they all are 4 years older and look to be way off the pace. They have only one game plan, bully teams with their forward play, if this doesn’t work, they have no plan B. I don’t think they are any value at 10/1. Again they will more than likely meet VZ in the semis and be duly put out of their misery.
Cheers Anto, that’s all i wanted…
SA - yes, take them now at that price and lay off the team that NZ blow up against.
IRL - none whatsoever.
a few thoughts on where we stand
- we don’t know what the halfback pairing is. in september. with the world cup underway. a frankly ludicrous situation to find ourselves in.
- whatever is wrong with TOL seems to be virulently spreading through the team, with sexton and d’arcy thoroughly stricken, and even BOD showing signs of infection.
-our hooker selection is being portrayed as a toss-up between best and flannery. flannery should be selected, but may not be. ignoring the fact that the few good things best has done came against the USA, flannery and POC are vital to our lineout hopes and that should be the dominant factor, particularly since Ross is holding his own. - how can we select kearney? 1.5 games of rugby under his belt since coming back from injury.
- how can we not select kearney? murphy or earls are the only viable replacements. what a mess.
- our back row, ferris aside, was a joke against the US. not one turnover.
- top three tacklers were clever, stanfill and pittman. i can live with the us tacklng themselves to a standstill, but 14 handling errors and only 3 line breaks? abysmal.
- that welsh back row is superb, i’d fancy them against just about anyone when wayne barnes isn’t the ref. (as an aside, the standard of officiating thus far is shocking, and makes a mockery of the decision to leave alain at home)
- what is the point of playing mcfadden on the wing against italy and france, and then wrapping him in cotton wool for 6 months to keep him fresh for the vital game against russia.
- our defence is top notch, les kiss has done a fine job replacing mike ford.
- smal would want to exert a little more aggression out of the pack as it’s our only undisputed advantage over the aussies. the ABs hurt them with a lot of pick-and-go, one-out stuff around the fringes and it’s as good a plan as any, mainly because we know how to do it and it’s the only thing that the aussies have been vulnerable to any time i’ve seen them.
- while we’re on the topic of the coaching staff, gaffney sticks out like a sore thumb in that group. funnily enough he’s the one guy who didn’t renew his contract. our backline play is lateral, slow, predictable and very easy to shutdown. eddie had emerick well versed on what to do. if BOD had blitzed like that we’d still be looking at the highlights.
- schmidt and nacewa are the guys who make leinster tick. unfortunately, we’ll have to make do with a creaking midfield partnership and robnoxious at 15 wondering why it isn’t all falling into place for them
- on the few occasions that we remember to implement a gameplan, we seem to be trying to imitate the leinster pack and the munster backline, when it should be the opposite.
- we are lightyears away from what the aussie backrow and their backline are doing with and without the ball. typical irish blood and thunder might mask some of these deficiencies next weekend, but it’ll be nothing more than another moral victory to reminisce over.
- we’re not ready for the aussies, or for the world cup for that matter. the lessons from 07 haven’t been learned. too many players trying to find their form out on the pitch. too many lads coming back from injury and too few games available to get them up to speed. no consistency in our squad or playing selection, and now no depth to cover injuries or for players simply out of form.
- jennings v pocock? christ above.
- elsom will have the pitch to himself cos ferris will be too busy playing inside centre.
- quade cooper should have no trouble skipping past d’arcy.
- murray is our best bet to put manners on genia, but won’t be selected, mainly from having to clean out every third ruck he got to against the USA. can’t be boss since he hasn’t played. i’m not even sure he has turned up in NZ yet, might as well be visiting the folks for all the use it was bringing him. reddan it is so.
backed the US +12.5, delighted to see D’arcy fling out that pass. it had a fcuking stamp on it, it was that obvious what was coming.
about as obvious as our performance thus far, mainly cos we’ve seen it all before.
who said put trimble full back? i just said he should play
Saying Donnacha is shite is something a 15 year old from Blackrock college might say. Not withstanding he has always had superior stats to Cullen, Donnacha has always been a better player and is younger. you are actually worse than Larry,
excellent summary treaty, couldn’t agree more.
I’m considering whatever handicap is on offer for Oz.
The way your post read made it appear you wanted to out Trimble in the centre for darcy.
Could you point me towards donnchas superior stats please?
Ah Kev, disappointed you’d give up that easily. I can only assume you don’t have any evidence to back up your claims.
assume away, i couldn’t be bothered engaging any further, i just thought there “why am i discussing sport with this retard?” so you can claim some sort of mini win if you want, it won’t mask you clear misunderstanding of many aspects of games/sports/rugby etc.
Great to see that Mac seems to think he knows far more than the likes of Gert Smal when it comes the ability of second rows
Agree with most of what Treaty has said above.
What are the short-term solutions, even all they will acquire is a moral victory?
Keeping an element of realism I’d go for:
Kearney (not impressed with Murphy’s basics, particularly his kicking. Kearney lacks gametime but should play)
Bowe (obvious choice, at least he’s had a few runs now to try and eliminate the rustiness)
O’Driscoll (obvious)
McFadden (no chance I’d say but there are no positives around D’Arcy at all anymore. McFadden would be my default choice)
Trimble (best player in the warm-up matches and consistently very good for Ireland for the past year).
Sexton (not playing well but if we’re going to beat Australia we’ll need Sexton playing and playing well)
Reddan (I haven’t seen anything in Murray to convince me he’s better. He may well be and he will surely improve but I don’t see it yet anyway)
Heaslip (would want to start carrying some fucking ball but has the talent anyway)
O’Brien (his game is definitely more limited at 7 but a limited O’Brien is miles ahead of Jennings on top form. Can’t afford not to have ballcarriers in the back row)
Ferris (fairly impressive on his return from injury. Wallace’s injury means he has to play)
O’Connell (obvious)
O’Callaghan (preferred partner for O’Connell anyway and he’s been ok)
Ross (obvious)
Best (I would have been screaming for Flannery before the weekend but Best was good against the US and I think Flannery is better suited to coming off the bench)
Healy (badly needed)
Feel free to point out where I claimed to know more than the likes of Gert Smal when you have some time.
Don’t see it as a victory at all Kev, you must have me mixed up with another poster. Was just disappointed you couldn’t back up your statement with facts. Presume most Aussies think that all they have to do is to turn up and beat us?
Good summary Treaty, agree with nearly all of it.
My team
1 Healy
2 Flannery
3 Ross
4 DOC
5 POC
6 Ferris
7 Jennings
8 SOB
9 Reddan
10 O’Gara
11 Trimble
12 McFadden
13 BOD
14 Bowe
15 Murphy
Healy and Ross go without saying, getting the better of the Aus scrum will be a big boast and they should be able to achieve that. I know Best played well against USA, but he was throwing into uncontested lineouts. I’d much prefer Flannery for his accuracy. Aus will contest nearly every ball in the lineout and we need to win nearly every one of them.
DOC has came in for criticism in some quarters, but he hit a lot of rucks and cleared out good ball, someone has to do that. He is the best at the choke tackle as well, something i’d say we will be seen quiet al ot against Aus. Ferris was brilliant i taught against USA so has to start, same with SOB has to start. I’d give Jennings another go at 7, we need someone to compete with Pocock, even if he just got 30% of the contested ball. Jennings was our top tackler against USA which was crazy, not his job. Someone tell him he should be the 2nd man in after the tackle is made. Hopefully the management sort this out. Dropping Heaslip might seem crazy to some, but he hasn’t produced it over the last 5 or 6 games, being anomoynous in a few of them, putting on the bench might be the kick up the arse in needs.
Murray was awful against USA which is a pity, Reddan has to start. I thnk Sexton is lacking in a bit of confidence at the moment and shouldn’t start against Aus. O’Gara seems to be back to his old self and defense shouldn’t be an issue as he won’t get targeted as much in this game. I just hope he is told to mix it a bit more. Trimble deserves his place back, and Bowe should have the rustiness out of his system after the Aus game.
Darcy has to go, but will Kidney make the big decision, McFadden has to come in and i think himself and BOD will complement each other. Darcy is not able to give BOD that extra yard he needs in attack anymore. McFadden can offer this and more. I’d still go with Murphy at 15 at least he will run the ball and can see a line break if one appears. Kearney will more than likely kick the ball aimlessly down field or just stutter into tackle rather than at full speed. His lack of no how what to do with the ball, has to be a major worry with a team like AUS with potent backs. I just couldn’t take the chance with him.
Saying all that I can only see Kidney bringing in Healy and SOB for sure. After that you just never know with Kidney.
What’s the thinking behind O’Gara not getting targeted in defence? They may not run over him that much but because he’s not a great tackler he stands deep and isn’t aggressive in moving forward in the line. Australia will murder that if he hangs back and leaves room around 10/12.
I think Aus will bypass this nearly altogether Rocko, they will be far more interested in getting the ball out wide, where they can do the damage. They pick and go around the fringes a lot, to punch the holes, rather than send their big men down the 10/12 channel. It’s just not their style and I can’t see them changing it for Ireland, even with O’Gara playing.
But you can attack that channel without big men. Cooper’s game is based on being creative in that area and they have wingers who love coming in off the blindside wing and running at that channel. They’re not going to physically dominate O’Gara but they’ll ask questions of his defence and if he’s hesitant he will be exposed.
I understand that, but O’Gara is most exposed with a big man like Nonu or Read running at him from a set piece for example. I just can’t see Aus employing this tactic. I’d have no problem with Mitchell or JOC running down his channel as in those instances Ferris should be their covering with him. I think his defense as improved considerably and very rarely you see him fall of tackles now. In fact i think his opposite number Cooper is a lot worse, i’ve seen him run away from making tackles not so long ago.
Jaysus Anto i don’t think Murray was awful, not great, but not awful. The ball presentation (as usual) was shite, Ireland are terrible at protecting their own ball.
The Aussies use Samo and others big men at centre quite alot (well not quite centre in a structured way, but in that general area/channel) and he either breaks himself or creates gaps elsewhere. He is an improvement on HIggenbottom and while he can be out witted and turned in defense, he adds great attacking balance to that back row.
One thing i noticed last weekend, players getting culled for bad mistakes, Skrela got pulled as did Fanigna for the Aussies, would like to see a bit of that ruthlessness in DK. I fear he has been left behind by other managers and doesn’t seemed to have moved with the times.
Jennings will get eaten by Pocock, SO’B has to move there, then we have an excellent back row in theory, but while fellas are calling for the obvious dropping of D’Arcy, the less obvious of murphy & even Earls and the ridiculous calling for Donnacha, Heaslip needs to play well against Oz or he should be getting some bench time too. He’s been poor to average for a while now.