Rare early subs for Ireland. Good to see Stringer and Cronin getting 20 minutes anyway.
I know others have given away penalties today but what is Leamy playing at there? Absolutely no need and just gives Scotland 3 points through stupidity.
Ah fuck it, poor kick from O’Gara there at the restart…Cullen on now
Sexton on now. It’s a team to play a high tempo game with those half backs. And chance for Sexton to prove he can close out a game.
Unbelievable that there is only 3 points in this.
Errors and penalties have kept the Scots in this and we could well fuck this away yet…Leamy gives away another penalty only for Parks to take the Drop Goal
No need for Stringer to kick that ball, he had the advantage for the knock on
Good kick from Sexton
Yeah that was stupid from Stringer, obviously was bored with all the waiting for scrums when he was on the sideline. Good relieving kick from Sexton there.
Presume it will be one of Heaslip, O’Brien or O’Gara for MOTM
I don’t know about that blame for Sexton from RTÉ there. There was no obvious kick on. Passing it to D’Arcy didn’t mean that D’Arcy needed to try and burn his man on the outside which he was never going to achieve. That’s the sort of situation where Paddy Wallace would be useful.
Credit where credits due that was a very important turnover from Leamy…
Brown has had a very good game in the backrow for the scots as well
Yet more shite decision making
O’Gara gets MOTM B)
Not sure why Cronin kicked that. It was a good kick but should have just held onto that. Super steal from O Connell anyway.
Poor game and that was a fairly shocking performance from Ireland again. A far superior team, no idea how that could even have been close.
A win is a win but we made hard work of it and should have had the win in the bag with 15 to go…O’Connell with a couple of big turnovers in the last 5 minutes
France coach Marc Lievremont and scrum-half Dimitri Yachvili have blasted referee George Clancy for his performance in England’s 17-9 win at Twickenham.
Lievremont conceded England had been the better side and deserved their RBS 6 Nations victory, but suggested Clancy was more lenient on Martin Johnson’s team than his own.
Asked to comment on the penalties France conceded at the scrum and breakdown, Lievremont said: ‘You’ll have to ask George Clancy because I didn’t understand any of them.’
Lievremont was angered that Nick Easter escaped a yellow card when he was penalised for hands in the ruck under England’s posts when France were building up a head of steam in the first half.
Yachvili slotted the penalty but Lievremont said: ‘I have to ask myself what would have been the referee’s decision if a French player had killed the ball in a ruck five metres away from the posts?’
Yachvili, the former Gloucester scrum-half, was more strident in his criticism of Clancy.
‘I don’t want to say it was a home-town referee, but it was almost like that,’ he said.
England did not recognise the French complaints over Clancy’s handling of the ferocious scrum battle.
The Irish official took charge of England’s defeat to South Africa in the autumn and penalised the home pack repeatedly for an early engagement.
Yesterday, hooker Dylan Hartley could be heard at every scrum reminding his pack to be ‘squeaky clean’ and not to go early.
Lievremont had created headlines in the build-up to the game by stating, with tongue in cheek, his dislike for ‘insular’ England.
The former France flanker, who is reading Winston Churchill’s autobiography, also expressed his respect for the way England are playing.
And he reiterated that after yesterday’s win saw England take a giant step towards their first Grand Slam since 2003.
‘I said it before the game and I say it again now, I think England are better than us at the moment. We’re very fragile,’ said Lievremont, who guided France to the title in 2010.
'They are the best team in the northern hemisphere and now they have won the path to the Grand Slam is wide open.
'England were fitter than us. They are a very good team, but they only won 17-9 and still have a step to go to improve their rugby.
‘I’m disappointed because we could have won, but as Mr Winston Churchill said, success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.’
Don’t know which is worse Ireland’s performance or George Hook’s punditry.
Wales team:
Davies returns at centre so Hook goes to out half and Stephen Jones drops out. Halfpenny gets in on the wing ahead of Stoddart.
L Byrne (Ospreys); L Halfpenny (Cardiff Blues), J Roberts (Cardiff Blues), J Davies (Scarlets), S Williams (Ospreys); J Hook (Ospreys), M Phillips (Ospreys); P James (Ospreys), M Rees (Scarlets, capt), C Mitchell (Ospreys), B Davies (Cardiff Blues), A-W Jones (Ospreys), D Lydiate (Newport Gwent Dragons), S Warburton (Cardiff Blues), R Jones (Ospreys).
Replacements: R Hibbard (Ospreys), J Yapp (Cardiff Blues), D Peel (Sale Sharks), S Jones (Scarlets), M Stoddart (Scarlets), plus two from R McCusker (Scarlets), A Powell (Wasps) and J Thomas (Ospreys).
They have more of a running threat with that backline so probably expecting to target O’Gara a bit (assuming he is picked).
Ireland are unchanged. Trimble in particular is unlucky not to be on the bench at least. Not sure what positions Wallace is covering at this stage as Kidney doesn’t seem to trust him to actually bring him on anywhere.
15 - Luke Fitzgerald (Blackrock College/Leinster)
14 - Tommy Bowe (Ospreys)
13 - Brian O’Driscoll (UCD/Leinster) (capt)
12 - Gordon D’Arcy (Lansdowne/Leinster)
11 - Keith Earls (Thomond/Munster)
10 - Ronan O’Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
9 - Eoin Reddan (Lansdowne/Leinster)
1 - Cian Healy (Clontarf/Leinster)
2 - Rory Best (Banbridge/Ulster)
3 - Mike Ross (Clontarf/Leinster)
4 - Donncha O’Callaghan (Cork Constitution/Munster)
5 - Paul O’Connell (Young Munster/Munster)
6 - Sean O’Brien (Clontarf/Leinster)
7 - David Wallace (Garryowen/Munster)
8 - Jamie Heaslip (Naas/Leinster)
Replacements:
16 - Sean Cronin (Buccaneers/Connacht)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Leo Cullen (Blackrock College/Leinster)
19 - Denis Leamy (Cork Constitution/Munster)
20 - Peter Stringer (Shannon/Munster)
21 - Jonathan Sexton (St. Mary’s College/Leinster)
22 - Paddy Wallace (Ballymena/Ulster)
The Wallace thing is a bit farcical now alright.