A Corkman had sons playing for Ireland, England, Cyprus and the RAF?
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Nothing surprising there surely?
Uh oh.
Murray is a twat
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Isn’t that Daithi Reagan’s son ?
Tis
Irish man touches ball in challenge match. The rugby crowd are a fair needy shower.
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Has there been any real criticism of Farrell/Nucifora/IRFU anywhere in the media regarding all the foreigners playing and the shite results?
The rugby media need a Tony O Donoghue figure to rile them up in interviews.
That Kinsella is an especially needy dose
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Neil Francis gave both Andy Farrell and Nucifora criticism in his Sunday Indo article anyway. Said JGP and Burns weren’t of international standard.
If you were a coach in any of the provincial academies it must be incredibly disheartening seeing those lads.
Any link to that chief?
Pretty much all the analysis of the Irish rugby team boils down to Munster v leinster bitterness or lads like o Driscoll batting for their friends like sexton. Even Andrew Trimble suggests it would be mad to drop billy burns and rob herring.
Pretty much all of them only really care about their province.
I like Gordon Darcy, not afraid to dish out criticism.
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I don’t have a Sunday Indo subscription unfortunately. Just saw the paper version of it. Francis was the only one with a tone which questioned Farrell. Implied he doesn’t think he’ll make it to the 2023 World Cup as coach.
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Like for example there’s a clip of a massive over lap and Ireland kick it away.
That’s not Mike catts fault or Andy Farrells fault. That’s down to the players.
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Catty and Faz have to go
Coach’s baffling half-back calls leave us without much of a shout
Neil Francis
February 14 2021 02:30 AM
Since the great rugby year of 2018 we have all been wanting a little more. It has been a bleak period since. How long does it take to bed down your ideas and your philosophy? There is every chance that Ireland could turn the French over this afternoon. That would be a turn-up. Ireland would have to be very good, something that only three or four of them managed to be last week in Cardiff and again only on an individual basis. How come Joe got everyone to play well at the same time?
What did you detect from Wayne Pivac’s body language after the final whistle last Sunday? Triumph or relief? It is interesting to note that Pivac has a break option in his contract at the end of the year. I am not sure that his employers will be too convinced about the bona fides of that win over Ireland. It was a gimme.
Ian Foster, the All Blacks coach, also had a break option inserted into his employment contract by the NZRFU. They definitely are not sure about the man in situ and after his poor season in 2020 I have a funny feeling he might have to grin and bear what’s coming his way.
Andy Farrell? His contract runs up to the end of the 2023 World Cup in France. There might be a six-month pay-off instead of the whole contract but at the current rate of trajectory that is coming.
My old buddy Matt Williams has made the journey all the way from Australia to say a few bon mots for Virgin One during their coverage of the Six Nations Championship. Meanwhile, David Nucifora, the IRFU’s high performance director, has been enjoying the summer out in Australia and there is still no sign of him returning to Ireland even though they are currently in the middle of the most important months of the year.
I am not sure that Zoom meetings can impress upon Nucifora’s head coach the importance of getting his team to start playing some recognisable rugby if he is going to see out his contract to October 2023 — which is longer away than you think.
The call on Ireland’s half-backs today shows to me a lack of judgement that is hard to quantify. I asked during the week in relation to Billy Burns and his head coach if it is “weakness to retain him or strength to drop him?” Or vice versa. Due to the enforced absence of Ireland’s starting half-backs, it seems that the call was made as ‘batter up’ — that is, they were the next in line without the slightest conception that neither starting half-back today is close to being good enough to play at this level now or indeed in the future. It is hard to say it but I have being watching and playing rugby for over 50 years and I cannot remember a worse half-back pairing being selected to play for Ireland.
Both players are handy footballers, dinky even, but what evidence was used to assess that they were even good enough to get into the squad? Luke McGrath is the out-and-out starting scrumhalf for Leinster. McGrath has had the misfortune to have performed poorly in one or two matches per season, with the Saracens game in the Heineken Cup quarter-final being particularly prominent. Generally, though, McGrath plays to a good standard in the vast majority of his games.
The body of work stored in the bank, it seems, doesn’t have much face with the current management, yet he would do a far better job today for Ireland even if his face doesn’t fit. He is a very important player for Leinster.
His understudy?
When England send their team announcements by email they always very quaintly refer to their bench as ‘finishers’. This is what Jamison Gibson-Park is for Leinster. In the meaningful games in the Heineken Cup and PRO14, Leinster’s pack and their productive systems have normally done the job.
When Gibson-Park comes on it is the equivalent of walking onto the battle field and bayonetting the injured or dying on the field. Bit of zip, an injection of pace. That wristy pass on the run and the odd dart around the side of the ruck when the damage has already been done and the fatigue has set in to the opposition.
Gibson-Park started against Wales in the Autumn Nations series and Ireland won very handy as the Welsh ran out the gate. The real test arrived in Twickenham the following week as Gibson-Park started again. A bit of spark and zip to move that big English pack around. Ireland got stuffed and the scrumhalf was hauled off with 32 minutes left to play. The Kiwi was nowhere to be seen and put flesh onto the bone — if any evidence was required — that he only looks good when the guys in front have the upper hand. Leinster’s pack dominate in 95 per cent of their outings. Ireland don’t come close to that percentage.
Who so is making the call to persist with the Kiwi? When does it become obvious that he isn’t good enough for the standard that is required in the Six Nations? Does it take a year or so to work it out?
The French have uncovered a 24-year-old gem who could play in another two or three World Cups for them. Fabien Galthie doesn’t have to make a call on Antoine Dupont — he knew after five minutes that Dupont was not just good enough but was the gold standard in scrumhalves in the northern hemisphere. If you asked for Galthie’s advice on who to replace Sexton and Murray with, he would be more than happy to say that picking Gibson-Park and Billy Burns as starters was a really good idea. Really good!
The French can scarcely believe their luck. Ireland shorn of four quality players in Sexton, Murray, Ryan and O’Mahony, or that Ireland have replaced their game controllers with a pair of flakes who even if you give them 70 caps each will never gravitate or graduate to the required standard.
I have watched Ulster a good bit over the last season. I get the impression that Dan McFarland doesn’t know who his best outhalf is yet. That is why Ian Madigan has started a lot of games for Ulster. If the provincial coach can’t decide who his best outhalf is what on earth is he doing starting a Test match against a heavyweight side like France?
Burns starts ahead of Ross Byrne because possibly the Ulster flyhalf takes the ball marginally flatter to the line than Byrne does. Burns is probably a better broken-field runner but that’s where it ends. In all areas of a flyhalf’s craft Byrne is superior to Burns (and Ross Byrne is not by any means an international standard flyhalf). How is it possible that Billy Burns is getting picked ahead of him?
Who is making this call? Is it Farrell or Mike Catt? What happens if Sexton and Murray are out for the rest of the Championship and only then realise that it was a mistake, an error of judgement, but ‘we’ll kick on and be better next time’.
We are not far away from the Night of the Long Knives. Remember back in February 2000 when Wazza took Ireland over to Twickenham and lost 50-18? Wazza had great instinct and realised that some of his experienced players no longer had it and some of the players he had in the side never had it in the first place. Gatland took out his scalpel and started cutting the throats of players he loved and respected.
Ronan O’Gara for David Humphreys, Peter Stringer for Tom Tierney, John Hayes for Paul Wallace, Bob Casey gone, Dion O’Cuinneagain gone, Justin Bishop gone, Kevin Maggs gone, Conor O’Shea gone. Nine players dispatched in a ruthless fashion. The next Saturday they saw off Scotland 44-22, Italy 60-13 and a first win in Paris in years (27-25).
Experience is only of value to a team if those who have it use it. Some of Ireland’s experienced players in Cardiff were pale shadows of their former selves. A lot of them won’t make it to 2023 and, right now, that is today; if there is a loss and or a bad performance Andy Farrell must make the necessary changes and show the correct instinct to pick players who may not be quite good enough now but you are certain will be in maybe a year’s time. This is to be done before this becomes a death by a thousand cuts.
“Wisdom is oft-times nearer when we stoop than when we soar,” said Wordsworth. So if there is a loss today but with the conditions and a bounce expected from Ireland you can never be absolutely sure that Ireland may rollover then the Championship is gone and the clear-out starts or else the management go – if Nucifora would take the time to come home to do it.
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Read it Sunday, he called the 9 and 10 dinky, and that’s what they are, nice handy club players that can do a job for a province.
Thanks for that. Franno just phoning it in. No references to battles of the past. He didn’t stick the knife in anyone there. He just kind of reminded them where it was kept.