Best fans in the world. 
Have Ireland never really won a game at the World Cup then?
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Was there a falling out there before or does O Sullivan just think he is a fanny?
Ooooft
Lads ye hardly would want this team peaking at this early stageâŠthe worrying things for me is we donât play wide enough and get our forwars to n the ball in those positions from open play.
Were great at cross kicking and trying to sneak over in the corner and were great and bursting up the middle.we wonât get away with that against the top teams.
Maybe Smit is holding off until the quarters to change this
Checkmate
Cat got you tongue Dan? You too Dan?
youâd never see that at a soccer game
I havent seen him posting in this thread at all?
Eddie left him out of 07 WC squad telling him he was too small. And that he shouldnât wear coloured boots. Heaslip fucking despises him since.
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Schmidtball
Or overrun the pass. Earls made a lovely break and couldnt fault Kearney for overrunning it but McGrath had run miles ahead with no fucking reason to. Earls looking to him had to hold on whereas, had McGrath held his line, heâd be in under the posts from 40 out.
Same with a Sexton halfbreak at one point, someone had gone past the point of where a pop out of the tackle could have set themn away
Joe has had them playing conservative rugby for ages. I think the card up his sleeve hees looked to play was introduce the offloading game during the cup. Too little too late and of course the humidityâŠ
Could we see a players revolt similar to Paris 2009 World Cup Qualifier? Where they decide to âgo for itâ?
Would Schmidt really try a brand new expansive game plan without having tested it in any meaningful games?
It might be the only thing that saves them. A lot of people think that thereâs one big performance in this team, and they could be right, but a lot of the signs are not encouraging.
Teams have worked Ireland out. Even Russia today hardly bothered committing bodies to the breakdown. They let Ireland have the ball and were all standing up defending when Ireland inevitably tried to bash down the middle. Aki was badly found out in this regard, plus his handling was atrocious.
Schmidt is noted for attention to detail but what did he think Japan were going to do last Saturday. They did what theyâre best at and Ireland enabled them time and again. Teams like Russia have only one chance against a Tier 1 team and thatâs to keep it in the tight as much as possible and kick behind afterward. What happened? - Ireland again got sucked in to playing the game on the opponentâs terms.
If youâre going to try a trick, coaches like Schmidt will road test them in warm-up games. He didnât. As you alluded to, the players look pissed off and lacking in belief - fatal for tournament play. Schmidt is out the door in a few weeks, it might just be ripe for a little mutiny. Pound-for-pound these players actually stack up very well against the other leading teams in the competition. A little bit of variation could make all the difference.
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Mate, I am assured that Joe Schmidt is the best coach in the world and his record with Ireland is amazingly good and we couldnât possibly have a better coach.
Maybe he is and his record is indeed very good, but there is something not right within that squad.
Iâm on an actual sincerity buzz this evening. Itâs unlikely to last long, though.
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