Stringer and O Gara, yes please. Men for the occasion.
Munster written all over these moves. ROG and Stringer running the show now.
Like I said 20 odd minutes ago South Africa are very much here for the takingâŚHow is Best still on the field
You can see South Africa are taking this deadly serious, exmplified by their taking off of Steyn.
Nigel Owens has given us everything todayâŚ
Once again the utterly baffling omission of Bob Casey is shown up for the folly it is. The North Kildare folk hero and legend of the diaspora must come back as pack leader. The conservatism in Kidneyâs selections and gameplan is unsurprising considering his history as coach of a team with a sizeable right-wing, Thatcher-admiring support.
MOD, FFS. Dont think thereâs one Irish player who came out of that with any credit. Kearney again poor, as said before theres no player that needs regular kicks up the hole quite like that lad. As for Cian Healy and the knock on, fucking mortifying, this lad is a pro athlete and canât even take a quick tap? Get to fuck.
The empty seats, for the first ever game at the redeveloped Lansdowne was an embarassment of epic proportions for the IRFu.
Shite game, looked a shite atmosphere and the performance was dreadful.
Tactics were all wrong too. Canât believe there werenât more front of the line calls for lineouts. Never mauled them once which allowed them to bully the pack all day. Theyâre big powerful bastards alright but you have to engage them at some stage and this Irish team is well capable of mauling a bit.
Big debate on RTĂ was about OâGara for Sexton and OâGara was certainly very accurate and positive when he came on but Stringer probably made as much of an impact. Reddan is a fraud of a scrumhalf. There are no circumstances in which he should be starting ahead of Stringer.
Used to have a lot of time for Reddan but the more i see of him the more I believe that he honestly isnât up to it at this levelâŚSexton didnât have the worst of games in fairness to himâŚCullen will have to start v Samoa and New Zealand
My team for Samoa
Geordan Murphy
Bowe
OâDriscoll
Wallace
Fitzgerald
Sexton
Stringer
Heaslip
OâBrien
Muldoon
Cullen
Ryan
Court
Cronin
Ross
donât think he will a team pick anything like that though
Just to mention, any cunt seen wearing one of those âonce offâ edition jerseys deserves to be struck hard and repeatedly for a level of mongness previously unseen in Irish history.
Kearney 5 - Hook was ridiculously harsh on him for try where he made a decent effot. Looks to avoid getting hurt too often for a rugby player.
Bowe 4.5 - Basic skills are usually good but they let him down today. Worst performance for Ireland in many a year
BOD 5.5 - Nice hands at time and good aggression but didnât contribute enough
Darcy 5 - Canât pass the ball or kick but sure we knew that before the game. Should have offloaded quicker at times when he had support but did what he does best for last quarter and took defenders on
Fitzgerald 6 - Made the best out of scraps that came his way
Sexton 4.5 - Very quiet for an outhalf for first half. Needed to impose himself on game more
Reddan 3.5- Looked slow at everything he did. Bit of a nightmare
Heaslip 5.5 - Carried well in second half. Too quiet for large parts
Wallace 4.5 - For guy under pressure probably didnât do enough. Canât afford to get tackled into touch from a restart
Ferris 6 - Probably the pick of our pack. Good aggression and at least put it up to them. Should have held onto the ball from Best pass however
MOD 4 - Not up to it unfortuntately. Picked as supposedly he is a good lienout leader. No signs of that today
DOC 4.5 - Posted missing against a top sign yet again
Buckley 4.5 - Appeared to get a bit of a doing in the scrum and not as good around the park as normal
Best 4 - Actually had a very good game in everything but the lineout but his throwing wasnât good enough and is his key job
Healy 5 - Think he held up a bit better in the scrum than Buckley. Skill levels let him down
Court 6 - Scrum improved significantly when he came on. Hit rucks decently too
Stringer 6.5 - So much quicker not just at passing but in his decision making. Would have him ahead of any other Irish scrumhalf
OâGara 6.5 - Courageous performance where he made brave decisions that paid off and really took it to them. Beautiful kick for Boweâs try
Other points
- Despite fact that they arenât provincial teammates all of Sextonâs good performances for Ireland that I can remember have come when he has had Wallace outside him. Wallaceâs omission yesterday was bemusing but I hope Sexton will be retained with Wallace outside him for NZ. Changes at hooker, lock and scrumhalf essential also.
Donât disagree with any of those points. The pack were outmuscled yesterday which was critical but not unexpected really. The backline were atrocious though with the basic skill level being so far short of what was required. Most of the outside backs will probably get a deserved stay of execution because of the faults of those inside them but the chances of that ball going past first centre yesterday were remote thanks to the three people (mis)handling it first.
Thought Kearney was shite for the first try myself. You were never going to stop a player running at pace by going for the ankles - particularly that close to the line. He needed to be taken much higher up. It definitely struck me as the actions of someone not wanting to get hurt.
He wasnât near enough to take him high up. He was closing the gap but by the time he got near enough to take him above the waist then Smith would have been at the line and is obviously a bigger and stronger player than Kearney.
Fact. Boss is far better. They were on radio yesterday going on about how Reddan still runs when passing the ball, and it slows it down. I remember fellas on about that when he was at Munster, that must be 6 years ago.WTF!?! Is he retarded, too stubborn or everyone of his coaches just ignore it.
TOâL was murder for it as well, but he changed his pass.
Agree with much of what has been said here. Kidney may not be the man to bring this team on, there i said it. I just donât think we are improving, and i donât believe we play to our strengths either. Selection and subs used and when all have to be questioned yesterday. Thats a poor SA team going on recent years, Ireland should have beaten them. I fear its only going to get worse against the Blacks, cos he wonât change much.
Utterly shit SA backline. Aplon, the full back all 5 foot 9 and 11 stone of him was as bad an international full back as Iâve ever seen. Basson the no 14 touched the ball a total of once when he knocked on chasing a high kick. Kirchner hadnât a clue how to play centre. And Lambie the replacement outhalf looked like a Communion candidate and kicked like one too. And still they hosed Ireland.
Ireland are fucked.
When you compare how Muliana (sp) was it who made a try saving tackle in the corner against England at the death and Kearnys piss poor attempt there was a world of diference. I realise it wasnt an identical situation but he put his body on the line, got good and low and nailed him. Kearney sometimes looks like hes not bothering his hole for games at a time and then can put in greats showings for a string of games, incredibly frustrating to watch when he goes bad.
If Kearney did that he could lose his good looks and then he wouldnt be able to pull women. You canât have it every way MBB
It was Toeva I think.
I agree with everything about Kearney and his reluctance to hit hard in the tackle and his infuriating lack of commitment and consistency but I donât think he had any opportunity to make any other sort of tackle yesterday. Toeva came at Ashton from the side and was able to barge him. He also had the touchline to use. Kearney was from a diagonal behind, making up an awful lot of ground and had no toucline. All he could do was take him low and hope that stopped him short of the line. He had no time to get in position for a bigger hit. Not saying he would have made that tackle if he could have, just saying he didnât have the opportunity.
Certainly donât think Geordan Murphy is an improvement on Kearney in terms of bravity anyway.