agreed laz
That’s just nonsense talk. Sexton gave them 10 points. O’Brien gave them 6 etc. There were more things wrong than inept officials and one dodgy decision. I’d nearly argue the call wasn’t bad to keep the ball in hand and central. Still had prime possession but Healy spilled it so deserves far more criticism than Wallace.
Who is this interviewer? From the Tracey Piggott school of media training.
i wouldn’t blame healy, he lost it in contact, it happened 15 times to both sides. every player is capable of it.
i know we didn’t play well but matches are won and lost on small margins, two calls cost us 12 points.
Well if you’re not blaming Healy who gave away a ridiculous penalty in the first half and spilled a prime ball 5 metres from their line in front of the posts then it’s nonsense to blame Wallace for retaining possession instead of passing it. I think he should have passed but it was far from the worst decision of the game and still left Ireland with every chance of winning.
i was referring strictly to him spilling the ball rather than the silly penalty. o connell lost one a few minutes earlier in good position and i wouldn’t blame him.
it wasn’t far from the worst decision, five meters out almost guaranteed try if it goes to hand.
It wasn’t even close to being 5 metres out when Wallace got it. He needed to commit the defender too because cover defence would have got there if he’d just shovelled it on. I should clarify I’m not defending Wallace blindly, I’d just have plenty of players ahead of him in the queue for blame, namely Sexton, Fitzgerald, Healy and I’d blame Kidney too.
agreed on kidney, i’d usually defend him but the following decisions were ridiculous,
having wallace on the bench instead of trimble/ mcfadden
persisting with fitzgerald at fullback when there a number of better fullbacks he could have chosen.
not dropping darcy
bringing on sexton when he did.
Yep all of those were stupid and indefensible decisions.
Paddy Wallace, would he be the chap Larry is screaming for these past couple of years? A fucking indefensible decision, would have had a shot at winning the match if he passed. Tried to fuck it away in Cardiff 2years ago, succeeded today. Good man Paddy.
Sexton was crap, but the decision to bring him in was bad, dreadful in fact.
Wallace fucked up big style, and not for the first time. He’s not up to it, end of story. He nearly cost us a GS, and he did cost us a game today. Got to go.
Kidney is looking foolish now, that has to be said.
I’m not sure why I feel compelled to defend Wallace but I do.
He was brought on at full back and contributed more in his 8 minutes than Fitzgerald did in his 72. I think Fitzgerald has loads of potential but if that was an Ulster fullback you’d have crazy talk about quotas and selection bias etc. He’s miles off the required standard in that position. Not just that he’s not quite good enough, he looks like an amateur out there. Wallace came in, did a couple of things fine and then made one conservative call that I don’t think was right. But to blame him for the game is crazy for two reasons:
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It’s ignoring the fact that the chance was still on. Sexton blew a better chance earlier, Healy blew the chance later. Wallace didn’t turn the ball over or anything, he just made a conservative call. Not the first we’ve seen from an Irish player in this tournament. I cannot understand why he’d be singled out for blame considering the net impact was a big gain in yards and retained possession. Compare that to Sexton’s impact when he had an overlap earlier. Considering the dropped ball late on against France it’s not unreasonable to suggest he made the conservative decision on the back of revised instructions - Ireland have scored plenty of tries in this tournament so it’s reasonable to expect that they’re instructed to recycle the ball as much as possible in the opposition 22. In case my earlier comments are misinterpreted - I don’t blame Healy for this defeat, but I think it’s absolutely ludicrous to suggest that Wallace should carry more blame.
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I had another reason but it slips my mind now after copious amounts of alcohol. I’d guess it was something to do with the overall pattern of the game which is actually where Ireland lost the game. We were truly awful today against the most limited of Welsh sides. They were really poor in attack and generous in defence. We didn’t exploit that through widespread ineptitude. Once again (for clarification) I don’t think Wallace should escape blame but others are way ahead in the queue for blame if we’re to single out individuals.
Ya i agree with you really on all that. My view on the non-pass though was it was a very poor decision at a vital stage of a big game. ROG, BOD, Stringer, D’Arcy all would have passed as they know it was the right thing to do. Doing the right thing at the right time is what top players do. Wallace looks a real tasty player when things are going well, but when the shit hits the fan at the highest level he gets blown away or does silly things.
Generally Ireland are below par and look a bit direction less. The players seem overly concerned with the media, and i thought the reaction of Kidney & BO’D afterwards wasn’t great. There would be nothing wrong with Kidney say “Look, Johnny came on, things didn’t go well for him and maybe the decision didn’t work out, but we have to take the loss as a team, we were all at fault.” Fuck blaming the ref, we should have won that game handy.
It’s only a matter of time before the Kidney Failure headline is rolled about by the tabloids
I’m not going to try and defend the undefensible so there is no way I can defend Kidney, Fitzgerald, Healy or Sexton after that…Iin all seriousness while Wallace should have passed as rocko said others are far more to blame for yesterday than Paddy. Fact he was even brought on at fullback and not put in at 12 sums up way he has been treated by Irish management over past year or so. Bowe, Earls or even D’arcy could have been moved there (can’t remember a worse Irish performer than Fitz yesterday by the way). Fact is Wallace should either start or not be in 22.
We got what we deserved yesterday. Standard of game was pretty awful if truth be told. Big changes needed for England but in reality they should have been made long ago. My team against England Bowe Earls BO’D Spence Trimble O’Gara Reddan Heaslip Wallace O’Brien PO’C Cullen Ross Cronin Healy. Bit harsh on Best probably as he did well yesterday. I’d give Heaslip another shot as everyone can have a bad game and he has done very well for us over past year.
My only hope that Kidney might at last learn. Must say I really rated him as a top coach. Beginning to doubt that now.
you must have been watching a different match.
We won 15 lineouts from 15. Cant argue with that really. Didn’t do enough around the park really though.
I agree with Larrys team except for Spence, not ready at all. McFadden is the real loser in all this, joke he’s not involved.
his throwing was alright yesterday otherwise he contributed nothing other than being one of the main culprits for conceding penalties.
Bit more than allright in fairness fof. Thought he was right to give away penalty on our line. SOB was by far worse culprit yesterday.
Kev why don’t you think Spence is ready? He has played superbly in H Cup and for Wolfhounds already this year. If they are good enough…