November Internationals 2014

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Watching it again, I suspect you're right about the miscommunication because while Dev tries to sack it there are a couple of guys trying to counter maul. Now maybe we did want to do something illegal on purpose but I doubt it.

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

[paddyor]

Watching it again, I suspect you're right about the miscommunication because while Dev tries to sack it there are a couple of guys trying to counter maul. Now maybe we did want to do something illegal on purpose but I doubt it.

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

There's an awful lot of people who don't understand the new Maul rules like former ref Johnathan Kaplan

Ireland also used a line out tactic where they would back off once the ball was collected and then come in round the side… appallingly poor refereeing understanding of what is happening. Either penalize Ireland for leaving the line out or penalize SA for early transfer of the ball before contact is made, the other option is not good for the game.

The law Clarification from some a referees site

If the defenders in the lineout choose to not engage the lineout drive by “leaving the lineout as a group”. Penalty Kick to team in possession.
If the defenders in the lineout choose to not engage the line out drive by simply opening up a gap & “creating space” & not leaving the lineout, the following process should be followed:
attackers would need to keep the ball with the front player, if they were to drive down-field (therefore play on, general play – defenders could either engage to form a maul, or tackle the ball carrier only);
If they immediately pass it back to the player at the rear of the “group”, the referee will tell them to “use it” which they must do immediately.
if they drive forward with the ball at the back (did not release the ball), the referee will award a scrum for “accidental offside” rather than PK for obstruction.

Hard to agree with Kaplan there. He's just calling for more ref intervention. The clarification as I see it gives the defending team a fair chance to sack the carrier without letting them leave the lineout.

[doodles]

What a game, lads. We did almost everything right, even if it wasn't pretty. A lot of heroic performances - McGrath, POC, Ruddock, POM, Heaslip, Murray, Sexton, Henshaw, Bowe, Kearney and the rest of them were very good. Factor in that we had to stick to our starting XV far longer than we probably would have liked and it was a massive effort from the guys who kicked the game off.

You'd expect that a backline with guys like Sexton, Payne, Bowe, Zebo in it would be able to make serious inroads into any world backline at some points in the game, but we played it very conservative and - at times - a bit naively in the backline. Our tactic of not engaging them in the lineout/lineout maul was interesting, but I have to say it worked the entire time bar their try. It's one thing to stand off them when you're on the 10m line, but 5-8m out from the tryline - headscratcher...

Tommybowe has some wheels on him - you'd wonder if he was ahead of Murray for the chip, but who cares?

S. Africa were pants for a lot of this game. I don't think that takes the gloss off the result at all. Our linespeed (take a bow Henshaw and Payne) forced them into a lot of errors and poor decisions. We asked them to beat us and they couldn't. There was an element of rope-a-dope about it, but it was well judged and we looked pretty comfortable defending for a lot of the time.

I was hoping for Zebo to have a cracker. I actually thought he wasn't great. I know some others here thought otherwise. He was out of position a lot, as far as I could see.

Tactically though, it was a masterclass and the difference between the two teams. Not just the starting gameplan, but the way the players adapted on the pitch to the situation. S Africa at times looked like they were thrown together for the first time last week and we made them look that way.

When you think of the structures in place now in Ireland, the vast increase in player participation rates at all levels, the professionalism of the regional structures, the contribution of the schools system, increasing contribution by clubs, the academy systems, success at underage levels.... it's no coincidence that we're knocking on the door of a top 3 ranking and you'd have to say that the only thing historically that's prevented us from residing there permanently is top level coaching.

With that in place, there really is no limit for Irish rugby.

The only thing I would add is that Meyer didn't prepare his team properly. If SA had had a better coach we might not have won.
Kicking to touch with easy 3 pointers on offer is an indictable offense especially earlier on.
He also totally failed to prepare his team to profit from their scrum dominance.

If you come up against Joe you have to know what you're about otherwise he'll do you.
He's a nice guy and all that but he's ruthless and he doesn't leave much to chance.
Joe works hard at preparing his players and he expects them to work just as hard and if they sign up for their Schmidt degree in Excellence they'll get honours.
Cos one thing we all should never forget especially where Joe is concerned - History Does Repeat Itself.

Yeah this is what I was thinking while watching the game. A touch of arrogance perhaps, but SA were trying to impose themselves and were left wanting at the end of the day.
They will be the better team for it i'd imagine.
Ireland certainly will.

[fourthirtythree]

Watching it again, I suspect you're right about the miscommunication because while Dev tries to sack it there are a couple of guys trying to counter maul. Now maybe we did want to do something illegal on purpose but I doubt it.

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

There's an awful lot of people who don't understand the new Maul rules like former ref Johnathan Kaplan

Ireland also used a line out tactic where they would back off once the ball was collected and then come in round the side… appallingly poor refereeing understanding of what is happening. Either penalize Ireland for leaving the line out or penalize SA for early transfer of the ball before contact is made, the other option is not good for the game.

The law Clarification from some a referees site

If the defenders in the lineout choose to not engage the lineout drive by “leaving the lineout as a group”. Penalty Kick to team in possession.
If the defenders in the lineout choose to not engage the line out drive by simply opening up a gap & “creating space” & not leaving the lineout, the following process should be followed:
attackers would need to keep the ball with the front player, if they were to drive down-field (therefore play on, general play – defenders could either engage to form a maul, or tackle the ball carrier only);
If they immediately pass it back to the player at the rear of the “group”, the referee will tell them to “use it” which they must do immediately.
if they drive forward with the ball at the back (did not release the ball), the referee will award a scrum for “accidental offside” rather than PK for obstruction.

Hard to agree with Kaplan there. He's just calling for more ref intervention. The clarification as I see it gives the defending team a fair chance to sack the carrier without letting them leave the lineout.

Kaplan hiding the fact that he didn't understand the laws or chose not to enforce them when we played England last year. He was shockingly poor, allowed England to maul the ball with no Irish players attached and allowed England to sack the ball carrier at the back of a properly formed maul and coming from behind the ball carrier.

Tosser.

[paddyor]

Nearly certain that was Joubert. His record is something like 80% home wins.

Not a fan of Kaplans site. A bit bok-centric, seems to emphasize some of the places he felt the boks got "done" by the ref.

[locho]

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

I watched ATH and was appalled by the two munster lads suggesting the IRB will look at a law change based on Ireland's maul defence. As you say all SA had to do was keep the ball at the front and rumble forward forcing ireland to engage, instead they continued to shift it too early to the back allowing us to implement the tactic. Its a valid defence and does nothing to reduce the effectiveness of the maul all it does is ask more questions of the attacking sides ability to set a maul up properly. SA simply didn't adjust to it, although we mixed it up very effectively throughout the game.

Well done Easterby!

[simonokeeffe]

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

I watched ATH and was appalled by the two munster lads suggesting the IRB will look at a law change based on Ireland's maul defence. As you say all SA had to do was keep the ball at the front and rumble forward forcing ireland to engage, instead they continued to shift it too early to the back allowing us to implement the tactic. Its a valid defence and does nothing to reduce the effectiveness of the maul all it does is ask more questions of the attacking sides ability to set a maul up properly. SA simply didn't adjust to it, although we mixed it up very effectively throughout the game.

Well done Easterby!

typical Munster everyone is out to get us ness
am amazed someone as experienced as Matfield could be fooled more than once by it

[suisse]

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

The start of second captains is also ridiculous. Listening to Murph's watery, bogger accent waste the first few minutes with usual lack of insightful views, this time of Meyer in the dressing room. They need less of Ciaran Murphy. They need..... no Murphy in fact. First 7 mins is far too much Murph injecting himself into a rugby chat, and he knows nothing about it.

[blockhead]

Blockhead said yesterday......

Tommy Bowe on 27 tries for Ireland now. Only 2 behind Hickey. Can't see him getting to BODs record of 45 but still he's been very prolific in green.

The INDO says today.....

Ulster and Ireland winger Tommy Bowe moved to third in Ireland's all-time try scoring charts with his effort in the 29-15 win over South Africa but thinks it may be tough to reel in Brian O'Driscoll.

Pretty clear case of plagiarism.

[Donny B.]

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

The start of second captains is also ridiculous. Listening to Murph's watery, bogger accent waste the first few minutes with usual lack of insightful views, this time of Meyer in the dressing room. They need less of Ciaran Murphy. They need..... no Murphy in fact. First 7 mins is far too much Murph injecting himself into a rugby chat, and he knows nothing about it.

Got to agree. I find myself skipping past the "opening bants" more often than not these days

[Broken Wing]

Against the head is a joke. They've just spent a few minutes talking about how Jack McGrath stopped SA mauling and that they don't like how that tactic takes away the maul. No mention that if the ball if kept at the front until someone engages then they can rumble away. Ridiculous.

The start of second captains is also ridiculous. Listening to Murph's watery, bogger accent waste the first few minutes with usual lack of insightful views, this time of Meyer in the dressing room. They need less of Ciaran Murphy. They need..... no Murphy in fact. First 7 mins is far too much Murph injecting himself into a rugby chat, and he knows nothing about it.

Got to agree. I find myself skipping past the "opening bants" more often than not these days

I saw Roman Mars at Dublin's Sounds ALive festival doing a live 99 percent invisible show (i99 percent invisible is an incredible podcast by the way) and he mentioned that he often listens to podcasts on double speed if he has a lot to get through. I tried it at 1.5x and it's surprisingly easy to listen to (Gerry Thornley is the only one to give me any difficulty so far) and I found it makes the opening of 2nd Captains much more bearable because it's over so much quicker.

[suisse]

Blockhead said yesterday......

Tommy Bowe on 27 tries for Ireland now. Only 2 behind


Hickey.


Can't see him getting to BODs record of 45 but still he's been very prolific in green.

The INDO says today.....

Ulster and Ireland winger Tommy Bowe moved to third in Ireland's all-time try scoring charts with his effort in the 29-15 win over South Africa but thinks it may be tough to reel in Brian O'Driscoll.

Pretty clear case of plagiarism.

You and the Indo are made for each other.

[Donny B.]

You and the Indo are made for each other.

Them's fighting words!!!!

[blockhead]

You and the Indo are made for each other.

Them's fighting words!!!!

He's lucky he's all the way over there in Korea by jaysus.

Suisse OUT!

[suisse]

My phone wouldn't let me highlight the word Hickey, hence the really bad editing job to isolate the name and make a fool out of you for your Indo like spelling!!!!!!!!

This site can be fairly tricky when using a phone.

You need to change your avatar to a picture of Conor George. Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

[janeymac08]

My phone wouldn't let me highlight the word Hickey, hence the really bad editing job to isolate the name and make a fool out of you for your Indo like spelling!!!!!!!!

This site can be fairly tricky when using a phone.

You need to change your avatar to a picture of Conor George. Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

Farrelly is working for the Daily Mail.

[simonokeeffe]

My phone wouldn't let me highlight the word Hickey, hence the really bad editing job to isolate the name and make a fool out of you for your Indo like spelling!!!!!!!!

This site can be fairly tricky when using a phone.

You need to change your avatar to a picture of Conor George. Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

Farrelly is working for the Daily Mail.

its a match made in hell

expect plenty of columns about foreign players coming over here taking our jobs and our women

[Donny B.]

Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

I was quite content to have completely forgotten about that clown. Why did you have to revive such a painful memory? Feckin' sadist!!

[suisse]

Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

I was quite content to have completely forgotten about that clown. Why did you have to revive such a painful memory? Feckin' sadist!!

I wrote it just before I went to sleep last night. I often lay in bed wondering what Hugh Farrelly is doing these days.

[paddyor]

Does anyone remember Hugh Farrelly? what's he doing now?

I was quite content to have completely forgotten about that clown. Why did you have to revive such a painful memory? Feckin' sadist!!

I wrote it just before I went to sleep last night. I often lay in bed wondering what Hugh Farrelly is doing these days.

Long walks on the beach with Conor George. The Indo seems to have more scoops with George gone........