Ireland needed a try against New Zealand and had no idea what to do.
It’s the Leinster hyperbole taking over again. Schidmt teams played some fantastic games.
Schmidtball involved aerial bombardment. A Sexton crossfield kick in the 22 was the go to attacking move. Even when we didn’t have an advantage. In fairness to Farrell you’d have to admit that the handling skills and variety of attacking play has been enhanced during his tenure.
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Ok we’re largely on the same page. And yes all teams have offered days. This Ireland rugby team’s off days consistently seem to come on big days in games they are expected to win. Until they start coming out with wins in games like that England game then there’s serious question marks about them. And on top of that they need to win a world cup quarter final.
Overall I like Farrell’s approach and the team plays to the strengths of the group of players we have. I think he was right to maintain consistency this six nations. I presume he’ll mix it up and develop the team a bit more on the summer tour.
They played at least as many and probably more shit games.
Between the Premiership and Championship they must have about 24 professional clubs. We have 4.
Can we count the New Zealand Super teams as well?
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This seems like a bit of a tautology? Ireland are a top 3 team at the very least for the last couple of years - they are expected to win pretty much every game.
It’s only going to be against another top team that an Irish off day risks being exposed
POM is a warrior and a leader, but the first time I heard his name on Saturday was when he picked up the absolutely stupidest yellow card you’d see.
The chicken winging (
) incident at least had the aim of doing something.
He was I suspect carrying an injury.
That English lad earls is a freak. He’s absolutely mighty. The English second and backrow combined size, brute force, speed and skill. Three out of four and we’d have taken them. All four is hard to counter, yet , like you say we could have won, and should have from where we were. Ireland are an absolutely brilliant team. They are decent folk from what I see,humble ,and tough as boots. They do the country proud. They did on Saturday.
I was nodding along in agreement up til this bit 
I think they do. It’s a brutal game and they are game as you like.
They died with their boots on while been carried out on their shields
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Massive physicality.
You can admire the team and the players and still find the Gerry inspired bolloxogy highly entertaining
“Honey potting” and the like
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Heroic in defeat once again.
I wouldn’t buy into that at all. The issue with schidmt is he lost all his ball carriers. When Leinster were at their pomp under him they’d Healy, Cronin and o Brien a long with other players who could just run over
Lads.
He never really had that with Ireland at the end. It’s the same with Ireland again now. The likes of van der flier or Pom won’t make a break like Sean o Brien would.
Or piss down your leg in ranelagh.
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That’s mostly rubbish anyway. When did Cronin ever run over anyone at international level? Schmidt hardly picked him. Anyway, by the end Schmidt wouldn’t pick anyone that could make a line break, in case they became isolated and turned the ball over. Also, you must not be watching van Der flier.
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My point was his style was brilliant at Leinster but didn’t quite work at Ireland because national teams were bigger.
There is little or no difference in style now. Only Gibson park isn’t as good a kicker and Ireland have no trick plays.
Ireland will put 50+ points up v Scotland on Saturday. 60+ on Friday.
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Schmidt was a good coach overall and you can’t argue with Two Heineken Cups, an Amlin Challenge Cup and 3 (three) 6 Nations titles with one being a grand slam. His Leinster team played a swashbuckling brand of rugby but with Ireland it always felt a little too structured. The likes of SOB and Church that you mention there were in their prime when we regularly played that formulated style. The 19-9 victory over England in 2015 was a classic of the genre. A day when commentators were waxing lyrical about our high fielding as if it was a Gaelic match. The zenith of the Conor Murray box kick era.
Although having said that it was a lovely team try that we scored against Italy in 2016. Jamie Heaslip on the end of it. But it was against Italy after all…….
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