He was our man of the match against both Maori and Oz was he not so hardly ridiculous to call for him to come in. Also played very well for Ulster in H Cup in big games this season. Gives us an option which we are badly lacking and is clear Sexton enjoys playing with him.
I agree with you regarding limited options it gives us pointing him on the bench. I’d either start him or wouldn’t have him in the 22. Same goes for D’arcy.
A lot of people are stupidly discarding James Downey’s claims for the inside centre slot amidst this D’Arcy/Wallace debate. But I’m not and neither was the respected rugby football journalist Stephen Jones in The Sunday Times today.
Who respects that fucking clown?
bandage and tipptops*, after tipptops* found out he was a journalist and not the welsh fly half
His family and employers probably/possibly respect him too.
I doubt it, i heard he has no friends and his amily don’t talk to him.
well said.
:lol:
we gave away a walkover try and 6 penalties, d’arcy will be replaying that missed tackle in his head for a long time.
might as well throw wallace in and see if it improves sexton.
having watched it a second time i don’t think he was any great shakes yesterday at all, that loop is getting a tad predictable, and running it 5 yards from the touchline is just plain dumb.
threw a few wild passes off his left also.
TOL was his usual infuriating self.
pack were immense, with the exception of best. their decision to restrict the supply of ball to the backline was justified given what was going on at 9 and 10.
earls looked all over the place defensively, not sure of his position or who to mark.
luke was a little slow to come up when rougerie walked over d’arcy too.
quick look at the stats: gave away 9 penalties (vs 8 for france) but 7 of ours were in our own half.
won ridiculous amounts of ball in their 22, presumably this stat is skewed by the amount of pick-and-go, i’d prefer to see the turnover count.
despite the fact that france had an inside centre who’s not fit to lace jauzion’s boots, the fact that we outscored them 3 tries to 1 and they only made 2 clean line breaks and as many visits to our 22 all day, the ridiculous number of unforced errors handed them a game that they had to do very little to win.
Well done Gerry Thornley. Fooking clown.
From an Irish perspective, there was courage, physical intensity and ambition aplenty, but this was a slightly maddening defeat, and so a credible chance of a Grand Slam – or at any rate a shot at one – has been forfeited.
Quelle domage.
Despite the fillip of an early try, despite ultimately outscoring a French side by three tries to one, and laying much of the platform for a victory, Ireland lost an eminently winnable match 25-22. Regrets? Ireland will have a few, in both tactical approach and in execution, and again in discipline.
Thornley had another go at yesterdays ref. Any time an Irish team lose a Heineken or international match he seems to lay the blame at the officials
Sure it’s well known in Rugby circles that the refs hate Ireland
Rocko, just reading your ratings there. Good work. Would agree about 90%, dont think Fitz deserved his mark, maybe a 5 I thought. Was exposed for his lack of positional sense big time and thought that cost Ireland dearly in terms of territory and possession. Also re the props. You felt Healy was in trouble and Ross held his own. I was talking to a v experienced prop last night who is involved in coaching, he had watched all the scrums in the game a few times and he felt the opposite. Healy was struggling but had a good ding dong battle with Mas and ended up holind his own. he felt Ross was in trouble all day and had to drop it on several occasions to retain possession. He was quite positive though that at least Ross was tuned in enough to do it, and get away with it. He reckoned another ref on another day though could have penalised him off the pitch.
Thornley made a point about the Cullen subbing that maybe it was done to stop the clock and ensure the French had to scrum down again. Not sure if there is anything in that really.
I was driving up from Lovely Leitrim yesterday and some fella on RTE Radio 1 said that the scoring system in rugby has to be looked at because when a team outscores their opponents 3 tries to 1 and lose the game, there is something wrong.
He was also blaming the referee so maybe it was this Thornley lad that Fagan mentioned above.
Was going to mark Fitzgerald down but he had a couple of linebreaks early on which I might have been a bit generous about. I think the main point is that he’s a way off being an international full back at the moment. His lines of running are good enough, he’s quick enough obviously, but his positioning, catching and kicking need lots of work.
I’ll take your mate’s words on the props. It’s hard to tell anyway when camera angles don’t show you both sides. Larry used to prop a bit, we might get his opinion.
Heard that Cullen point alright but I think Kidney would have mentioned it if that was the case. I imagine he had Cullen ready to go whenever the last stoppage came when they were just recycling it. It didn’t happen in time.
Ireland coach Declan Kidney has bolstered his squad ahead of Sunday’s RBS 6 Nations clash with Scotland by calling up eight players
The selections join the match-day 22 who were on duty for the defeat to France on 13 February, and include backs Andrew Trimble and Tommy Bowe.
Trimble returned from a broken hand to represent Ulster in their victory over Scarlets on Friday, while Bowe has recovered from a knee injury and lined up for Ospreys in their win against Treviso on Saturday.
The return of Bowe, who turns 27 tomorrow, will be particularly welcomed, given he has emerged as a key player for the Irish over the last two seasons.
Kidney has also called in Denis Hurley and Gavin Duffy to bolster the backs division, and added to his forwards options by bringing in prop Tony Buckley, second rows Mick O’Driscoll and Donnacha Ryan, and back-rower Rhys Ruddock.
Eight days on from their narrow loss to France, which followed a slender win in Italy, the Ireland squad gather this evening to begin their preparation for the weekend trip to Edinburgh.
Ireland squad additions:
Andrew Trimble
Mick O’Driscoll
Donnacha Ryan
Gavin Duffy
Denis Hurley
Tony Buckley
Rhys Ruddock
Tommy Bowe
Presume Bowe will start and Trimble will get a place on the bench at least
it was shocking that trimble didn’t get place on bench d last day
:rolleyes:
Some savage pricking around being done with Peter Stringer lately, I see he’s back in the squad now. The man deserves a little better imo.
Keith Wood is on offtheball talking about the 2000 game V Scotland…Was trying to think back to the team
Demsey
Horgan
O’Driscoll
Maggs
Hickie
O’Gara
Stringer
Foley
???
Costelloe/Easterby???
O’Kelly???
Galway
Hayes
Woods
Clohessey
Anyone fill in the gaps? Would Gleeson have been openside…Not sure if Costello or Easterby started at 6, Costello could well have been at 8 even… nearly certain O’Kelly started or was Paddy Johns stil knocking about
Try Google, mate.