Joe Schmidt

[All Blacks nil]

A flaw was that we were committing people to breakdowns that were already won and then going around the corner to single runners who were outnumbered.

We needed to be better to trouble such an organised defence.

There was one instance on Saturday where someone took the ball into contact and had two players right on his back as he went to ground. No English player joined the ruck, the only English player there was the tackler and he was pretty much pinned down by the two supporting Irish players yet Toner still joined in after that.

Four of our players out of the game plus the scrumhalf,and only because of one Englishman.

Check out my analysis elsewhere of McFaddens contribution. McFadden's case was only one but it happened on several occasions throughout the match

[ronk]

A flaw was that we were committing people to breakdowns that were already won and then going around the corner to single runners who were outnumbered.

We needed to be better to trouble such an organised defence.

There was one instance on Saturday where someone took the ball into contact and had two players right on his back as he went to ground. No English player joined the ruck, the only English player there was the tackler and he was pretty much pinned down by the two supporting Irish players yet Toner still joined in after that.

Four of our players out of the game plus the scrumhalf,and only because of one Englishman.

Definitely, that's not normally an issue with Schmidt-coached teams so I'd expect to see some improvement.

[offshorerules]

If Joe Schmidt got the sack today from the Irish gig is there any Leinster supporter that wouldn't welcome him back to Leinster? I don't think so. Wonder could the same be said of Declan Kidney and Munster?

[ronk]

Even in 2012 I'd guess that a majority of Munster fans would have jumped at the chance to get Kidney.

[TrapperChamonix]

He may not have started as many on the 1st 15 as we would have guessed (or he would have hoped) but there has been significant development in a number of players during this campaign
Bench
McGrath, Moore, Cronin, Touhy, and Henderson have all progressed to the point of being viable starters (without necessarily being 1st pick)
Murphy, Ruddock, TOD (I thought deserved more time) and Jackson have benefited from more time on the field. Maybe Jackson is getting closer to being the viable starter.
Starting 15
POM has jumped to the top of the rankings, Toner has been excellent and is likely to hold his place even without injures to other players. Marshall had another good start under his belt. Trimble has taken his club form back to international level and looks to have benefited most from Schmidtball. I have reservations about DK but he has performed very well.

So while we can get caught up in (reasonable) discussions around what other candidates should be or shouldn't be included there are 10 to 12 players who definitely will have progressed during this tournament.

[ronk]

2007 was the last time we were in a position to run up a score against Italy on the 2nd last game. That time we fell apart after BOD went off. This time we stepped up.

[offshorerules]

Even in 2012 I'd guess that a majority of Munster fans would have jumped at the chance to get Kidney.

I suppose I was referring to the here and now when the vast majority of munsterfans appeared to want foley. I don't think they would take kidney now under most conditions. Personally I still rate him as a coach but I prefer Schmidt and that's the point I was trying to make albeit not very well.

[paddyor]

2007 was the last time we were in a position to run up a score against Italy on the 2nd last game. That time we fell apart after BOD went off. This time we stepped up.

In 2007 We ran up a huge score against Italy, conceded an intercept try in the last play of the game and lost the championship by 4pts.

[Oldschool]

2007 was the last time we were in a position to run up a score against Italy on the 2nd last game. That time we fell apart after BOD went off. This time we stepped up.

In 2007 We ran up a huge score against Italy, conceded an intercept try in the last play of the game and lost the championship by 4pts.

I always felt that France would have got another score if they'd needed it. They had the advantage of playing after us.
England are capable of closing the gap against Italy so we'll need to beat France with a few points in hand I suspect.

[Xanthippe]

2007 was the last time we were in a position to run up a score against Italy on the 2nd last game. That time we fell apart after BOD went off. This time we stepped up.

In 2007 We ran up a huge score against Italy, conceded an intercept try in the last play of the game and lost the championship by 4pts.

I always felt that France would have got another score if they'd needed it. They had the advantage of playing after us.
England are capable of closing the gap against Italy so we'll need to beat France with a few points in hand I suspect.

I'm not so sure - didn't they only win on a TMO decision in injury time (and an Irish TMO if I'm remembering correctly)

[Morf]

I'm not so sure - didn't they only win on a TMO decision in injury time (and an Irish TMO if I'm remembering correctly)

Maul flopped over line and TMO gave benefit of doubt without evidence of grounding as I remember.

[Made Of Ale]

I'm not so sure - didn't they only win on a TMO decision in injury time (and an Irish TMO if I'm remembering correctly)

Maul flopped over line and TMO gave benefit of doubt without evidence of grounding as I remember.

Exactly. Ref asked if there was any reason the try could not be awarded. If he'd asked 'try yes or no?' then it wouldn't have been given and we would have won the title. Irish TMO. Frenchman called Elvis scored.

[nc6000]

The TMO that day was Simon McDowell.

[simonokeeffe]

The TMO that day was Simon McDowell.

I believe Matt Williams still makes voodoo dolls of him for denying a legitimate try that would have given Scotland a win (over France)(at all)

[ronk]

2007 was the last time we were in a position to run up a score against Italy on the 2nd last game. That time we fell apart after BOD went off. This time we stepped up.

In 2007 We ran up a huge score against Italy, conceded an intercept try in the last play of the game and lost the championship by 4pts.

I always felt that France would have got another score if they'd needed it. They had the advantage of playing after us.
England are capable of closing the gap against Italy so we'll need to beat France with a few points in hand I suspect.

We ran up a solid score but IIRC Italy outscored us after BOD went off.

[simonokeeffe]

Vindicated like a motherf*****

[Donny B.]

Vindicated like a motherf*****

Denis Leamy can suck it!!

[fourthirtythree]

I think Schmidt showed, as Kidney did before him, that you need to be lucky to win the championship. Good enough also, but you need to be lucky. Parisse could have lost it for us today! Poor O'Sullivan just couldn't catch a break.

[Donny B.]

I think Schmidt showed, as Kidney did before him, that you need to be lucky to win the championship. Good enough also, but you need to be lucky. Parisse could have lost it for us today! Poor O'Sullivan just couldn't catch a break.

Well yes and no. Yes there were some letoffs today but the French were awarded a try that wouldn't have been given had it gone to the TMO and he also had his fly-half knocked out for the last ten minutes. And against England we had bugger all luck, a bounce of a ball one way or the other and there could have been more tries and also Joubert chose to ignore some blatant penalties from the home side.

Were we perfect? Not at all. I'm sure when Joe gets the boys to watch the match again he'll point out that we got very negative when 9 points up and started kicking ball away that we should have ran. Rob Kearney saved us many times yesterday but his decision to kick the ball two minutes from time when they left their kick to touch short was absolutely criminal and very nearly cost us the match.

[simonokeeffe]

I think Schmidt showed, as Kidney did before him, that you need to be lucky to win the championship. Good enough also, but you need to be lucky. Parisse could have lost it for us today! Poor O'Sullivan just couldn't catch a break.

Well yes and no. Yes there were some letoffs today but the French were awarded a try that wouldn't have been given had it gone to the TMO and he also had his fly-half knocked out for the last ten minutes. And against England we had bugger all luck, a bounce of a ball one way or the other and there could have been more tries and also Joubert chose to ignore some blatant penalties from the home side.

Were we perfect? Not at all. I'm sure when Joe gets the boys to watch the match again he'll point out that we got very negative when 9 points up and started kicking ball away that we should have ran. Rob Kearney saved us many times yesterday but his decision to kick the ball two minutes from time when they left their kick to touch short was absolutely criminal and very nearly cost us the match.

Ireland were fortunate with injuries in 2009 in that we had a great team Wally, Jerry etc who all stayed fit for the tournament

This year we had no Bowe, Luke, Earls, Ferris, SOB, Ryan, Strauss, McCarthy