What a soft try to give up after all that time. Not sure if that was the planned move or not but there’s a reason you go wide off ball from 4 in the lineout and not from 2. Bizarre play.
Actually think its even worse Rocko; it was a flat pass to Wallace at the tail. FFS
Unsporting boo’s there from the crowd as Wilkinson was lining up his kick. A new low for Irish rugby
I was trying to figure out from the replay what the intention was alright. Was Wallace in the lineout originally? So was he to drop back and take the pass after a tap back and after another backwards pass? Either way it needs to go back to an outhalf or popped short to a forward on the peel or something.
The idea that Banahan had suddenly become an international class centre looks ludicrous now.
Have RTÉ got no cameras on the far side? No shots of a moody Martin Johnson, noshots of any of the replacements coming on.
O’Gara on to close this out now. Superb performance from Sexton today.
Very emphatic win to pull that out in the final game. Could have won every game but certainly should have won 4 of them.
Excellent performances throughout.
Did the wannabe English beat the real English?
Poor George hasn’t a clue. He’s saying now that Sexton should have started every game despite saying the very opposite before the game. Idiot. At least Pope is having a go at him about that.
Hook also singled out Trimble for particular criticism before the game started. And bizarrely gave a shout out to “poor Luke” sitting at home. Fucking clown.
:clap
With Wales having to win by 27 points to win the championship you’d imagine they’d come out all guns blazing and try to win.
Whereas, what do France have to play for?
Is there value in Wales 7/2?
Take that Stephen Jones you Welsh wannabe English Kunt with a capital K. Referee will get it from him tomorrow. He’s almost as big a dickhead as Tony Ward. Almost, but not quite.
Here’s to Jonny Sexton. Everytime I hear him speak he comes across as a thoroughly alright sort.
Thats as good a performance as we have had in two years.
strange decision taking off ross when we did. perhaps he was out of steam.
great stuff from bowe earls sexton donnacha and heaslip at last
He’s got moxy, that boy.
Magnificent performance by Ireland to a man. It would make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
Andrew Trimble should retain his position after that display.
What a performance by Ireland’s number one. The Kerry blood was very apparent in his beauitifully judged, curling place kicks. Bryan Sheehan and Maurice Fitzgerald-esque. A man of many names, many talents. Some call him “Man Of The Match”. Others call him “The Sex”. I call him, simply “Ireland’s number one”.
And what a performance by Brian O’Driscoll.Two tries for the fenian hero, even if the records won’t show’t.Telling the royal family to shove their wedding invitation and now this. Hero.
If I’m in a pub tonight I’ll certainly be belting this rebel song out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kNwvIEQsg0
Now let that be the end of it.
Really savage performance, and made England look as i suspected nowhere near the finished article. Whatever about Wales, i’m wondering how the fuck we lost to France, who are clearly shite.
I’m going to do ratings, cos i like doing this sort of thing after good wins, high marks all round. These are one viewing though, and as with any win like this, there will be more viewings and some more reflections.
Earls (8.5) - Brilliant in what he had to do, real Gaelic skilled kick and chase to start off and did everything pretty right. Is definitely getting more confident and is making far better decisions at this level. Not really tested under the high ball, so thats the next step.
Bowe (9) - I actually think this guy would make any team bar maybe the All-Blacks, and he wouldn’t be that far away from them either. He’s a star, simple as that and we can’t be without him. He deserves the cotton wool treatment every bit as much as BOD or anyone else now. His try ratio in the past 2 years must be excellent.
BOD (9) - Right place right time kind of performance. Led brilliantly and thought he played the ref well, not too much talking, but questioning things at the right time.
D’Arcy (8) - By far his best game this season, made some yards and tackled well. Proved me wrong anyway, and totally justified selection. I’d still like to see others brought in though before WC.
Trimble (8.5) - Unlucky to be over shadowed by the other winger, but a top performance. Showing alot more power than in the past, made good decisions too.
Sexton (9) - Class. I had a feeling he’d like the Aviva yesterday. ROG’s physicality against the massive English back row and centres could have been a problem, but as it happened they didn’t hardly get near running at No. 10. Brilliant decisions from Sexton, which at this level is absolutely crucial. Seems to have formed a bond with ROG too which is good, and is obviously decided to try and take some of ROG’s game with him. Because of the decision making and clinical aspect of the Bowe try, its my favourite try of the past few years. He rattled England.
Reddan (8.5) - Great game, has really stepped up a level since Christmas, and one very important thing about him is it doesn’t matter which No.10 is outside him. Was excellent at scrum time and Kicked better too. Basically his fundementals were top notch.
Heaslp (8.5) - Was excellent, but maybe i have come to expect too much from him. Made a couple of brilliant runs, and controlled the scrum superbly. He’s real World Class.
Wallace (9.5) - Wow. Did not think that was in him, a ridiculous performance. The speed he showed today for a 35 year old proves something i have believed about physical conditioning for a while. Brilliant decision to pass too as i think he did it knowing Youngs had to carry over. Can’t believe i’m not giving him MOTM.
O’ Brien (9) - Just fantastic again. Decision making still has to improve a little, but he is clearly a star in the making.
O’ Connell (9) - Superb, just what we expect from him, and clearly back to his best.
O’ Callaghan (9.5) - Probably his best ever game for Ireland, just got through an amazing amount of work. Again on another day would have been a clear MOTM.
Ross (8.5) - Has really done a job on the scrum, delighted Ireland have gone for someone who just an out and out scrummager. Does lack a little around the park, but that will improve. Not sure about his lifting either.
Best (8.5) Another retarded penalty and one or two sloppy things, but was very good really.
Healy (10) - My MOTM. His first job really is the scrum, and he absolute nailed it, by far his best performance in the scrum for Ireland. And then around the park :o . Astonishing work rate, and stealing of ball. Just his best yet.
Court came on and the scrum continued to dominate, thats all we ask really, good subbing.
ROG had a superb little cameo, the last kick to the corner was alomost a 2 fingers to England, it was almost like a basketball shot the way it lobbed over.
Something i mentioned on here before, ball presentation, has improved out of all proportion on yesterdays performance.
Not that I buy into ratings, but those seem ridiculously and jingoistically high to me.
I see Shaun Edwards was banned from travelling to Paris yesterday by the WRU. Story goes that he beat the living shit out of their the team shrink at some point over last weekend. Wouldnt surprise me to see Gatland and him out of there in near future, England could do worse than make a play for Edwards right about now, ignoramus and all that he is.
Well i’m not sure what you mean by that as i didn’t even rate England (negatively) and i would have to do so to be accused of Jingoism. But anyway.
I think everyone performed, its a rare day it happened, but at least 3 players had their best ever games for Ireland in my memory. And a few more weren’t that far off the same.
As i said, it was off one showing in a bar (sober i’ll add), may seem slightly different on a 2nd viewing.