Ireland v Australia thread

[Xanthippe]

Joe Schmidt would rather die than miss an Ireland game!!!!!

I wouldn't have thought there was anything Joe could do to further his legendliness but he outdid even himself today - sat through the game while suffering from appendicitis

[Made Of Ale]

Wouldn't like to be his appendix at the video session.

[Peg Leg]

All joking aside, that pain is as close to the max that the body can create. Get well soon boss!

[TheBear]

All joking aside, that pain is as close to the max that the body can create. Get well soon boss!

I thought it was a hangover.

(I'd been very drunk, and I though it was a terrible, body-splitting hangover, but still...)

On the match: I thought Kearney was very good, esp in attack, close to MOM. I thought Zebo was weak, with the exception of his try. Even then, he could have moved closer to the sticks. Madigan had a very strong cameo. O'Connell was immense, made some great tackles.

Worrying to see so many leaving the pitch dazed and confused, but at least they left the pitch...

[blockhead]

All joking aside, that pain is as close to the max that the body can create. Get well soon boss!

Try passing a kidney stone through your urethra!

[Not_Today]

Great win but a lot of guys were below par today. Thankfully, we survived to win in doing so had a clean slate in the AIs.

Looking good for the 6Ns now.

[Vamos los azules]

I thought Zebo was weak, with the exception of his try. Even then, he could have moved closer to the sticks. Madigan had a very strong cameo. O'Connell was immense, made some great tackles.

Worrying to see so many leaving the pitch dazed and confused, but at least they left the pitch...

There were a couple of things Zebo did which had me wincing at what Joe will do to him in analysis. I'm not sure even appendicitis will be enough for them to be overlooked.

Great result both today and in the series overall. Can't complain too much about 3 from 3 and 3rd place in the world rankings.

[paddyor]

Set piece in general is a bit of a worry. Good to get the win despite some of the bad play. A bit surprised he didn't use more of the bench

[All Blacks nil]

Set piece in general is a bit of a worry. Good to get the win despite some of the bad play. A bit surprised he didn't use more of the bench

No MOTM medal presented today POR.

[paddyor]

Set piece in general is a bit of a worry. Good to get the win despite some of the bad play. A bit surprised he didn't use more of the bench

No MOTM medal presented today POR.

Really? Missed the afters, ran out for a fag

[Hornet]

Set piece in general is a bit of a worry. Good to get the win despite some of the bad play. A bit surprised he didn't use more of the bench

No MOTM medal presented today POR.

Really? Missed the afters, ran out for a fag

Was. POC got it.

[meinster]

It was presented in a box, rather than put around the neck.

[ichabodscrane]

I was confused at Joe's reluctance to use our two replacement props in the latter stages of the game. I know we won and McGrath & Ross should be applauded for their endurance but I can't help but wonder if it was a case of Joe not trusting them in such a high pressures match. Oz used every replacement, I can understand given their volume of matches over the last couple of months but we left three players on ours.

[outcast eddie]

I was confused at Joe's reluctance to use our two replacement props in the latter stages of the game. I know we won and McGrath & Ross should be applauded for their endurance but I can't help but wonder if it was a case of Joe not trusting them in such a high pressures match. Oz used every replacement, I can understand given their volume of matches over the last couple of months but we left three players on ours.

I found that bewildering also, surely Killer was good enough to come on whatever about Ah You. I suppose Joe was playing safe with scrum penalties in such a close game.

Would we have won in a neutral stadium?? We need Healy, SOB and a different option to Zebo (I prefer Trimble meself) if we're going to make a dent in the World Cup.

BTW I thought Maddog was excellent during the Autumn games. If Leinster can get that kind of form out of him this season at 10 we can do Toulon (at home... just... maybe).

[hugonaut]

I was confused at Joe's reluctance to use our two replacement props in the latter stages of the game. I know we won and McGrath & Ross should be applauded for their endurance but I can't help but wonder if it was a case of Joe not trusting them in such a high pressures match. Oz used every replacement, I can understand given their volume of matches over the last couple of months but we left three players on ours.

Ah You is a fourth-choice prop at this level with very little gametime at test level behind him [like fourth-choice tightheads in every country]. Peter O'Reilly made much the same comment in the Sunday Times today – about Mike Ross being irreplaceable – and while I agree that he's undervalued, I think that we would have seen the gametime at tighthead shared around a good bit more were our second and third choice tightheads available. I don't see how people can overlook that context.

It's like if we had Conor Murray available, but Eoin Reddan and Keiran Marmion were both injured – would anybody be calling for Isaac Boss to be getting loads of time off the bench? I know I wouldn't [and I love Bossy].

With that said, I was a little surprised that Kilcoyne didn't get a look in during the last ten minutes. I thought he went well against Georgia and might have added some fresh legs, but in fairness to Jack McGrath, his work-rate was very good all the way through to the final whistle.

[paddyor]

Yeah, Kilcoyne and TOD were the 2 I was surprised didn't get a look in. Injury fears may have played a part. We got lucky Wed someone to bring on for sexton. I suppose TOD is 4th choice 7 but still

[LeRouxIsPHat]

It's not like the props were out on their feet. They were both working really hard in those last few minutes. Wasn't surprised by Jack but didn't expect it from Ross. I know it was a little earlier but did anyone notice that it was Ross who managed to catch Kuidrani from behind and injure him? Amazing! Obviously I don't mean the injury part....but that was a huge swing right there. It potentially cost Oz a score and definitely lost them their only real carrier out wide. Given our injuries and fatigue, I'm not sure we'd have held on if Kuidrani had stayed on. We just about coped with their speed and offloads, but his physical presence might have tipped the scales in their favour.

Don't really get the criticism for Zebo. He made a mistake with the offload but thought he was generally very good outside of that. Thought the bigger mistake than the offload was just not passing to Sexton first time. He had the chance and blew it. Sexton ran a great line and called for the offload then, Zebo should have held on but I can totally understand why he passed and he was a bit unfortunate that Oz went on to score straight away. That would very rarely happen.

There are loads of things to work on and I don't think we were as good as the SA game but what I'm really happy with is that we could compete for 80 mins in a game of that speed and that we closed it out. That's huge going into the WC. We'll never have a full deck to pick from but even we got 6 or 7 back of the 15 or so who are missing then the squad looks infinitely stronger. The set piece is the biggest area for work IMO but hopefully the returning props would help with that.

[hugonaut]

It's not like the props were out on their feet. They were both working really hard in those last few minutes. Wasn't surprised by Jack but didn't expect it from Ross. I know it was a little earlier but did anyone notice that it was Ross who managed to catch Kuidrani from behind and injure him? Amazing! Obviously I don't mean the injury part....but that was a huge swing right there. It potentially cost Oz a score and definitely lost them their only real carrier out wide. Given our injuries and fatigue, I'm not sure we'd have held on if Kuidrani had stayed on. We just about coped with their speed and offloads, but his physical presence might have tipped the scales in their favour.

Don't really get the criticism for Zebo. He made a mistake with the offload but thought he was generally very good outside of that. Thought the bigger mistake than the offload was just not passing to Sexton first time. He had the chance and blew it. Sexton ran a great line and called for the offload then, Zebo should have held on but I can totally understand why he passed and he was a bit unfortunate that Oz went on to score straight away. That would very rarely happen.

There are loads of things to work on and I don't think we were as good as the SA game but what I'm really happy with is that we could compete for 80 mins in a game of that speed and that we closed it out. That's huge going into the WC. We'll never have a full deck to pick from but even we got 6 or 7 back of the 15 or so who are missing then the squad looks infinitely stronger. The set piece is the biggest area for work IMO but hopefully the returning props would help with that.

Yeah, I thought Zebo was pretty okay over all. Took his try very well and I thought that he defended with a lot of physicality and bravery. He lacked concentration on a couple of occasions [the intercepted offload and that silly knock-on from Kearney's pass on the left early in the second half], but overall he did pretty good.

[Hippo]

I'd love to know the real story behind Murray being taken off the field for, er, concussion-like symptoms and then being brought back on. If there was any suspicion of concussion he should never have come back, regardless of necessity.

[berniemac67]

There are loads of things to work on and I don't think we were as good as the SA game but what I'm really happy with is that we could compete for 80 mins in a game of that speed and that we closed it out. That's huge going into the WC. We'll never have a full deck to pick from but even we got 6 or 7 back of the 15 or so who are missing then the squad looks infinitely stronger. The set piece is the biggest area for work IMO but hopefully the returning props would help with that.

Agree 100%. It was so heartening to see the team cope with that tempo for almost the entire match without cracking. That alone makes up for any individual mistakes in my eyes.

Imagine how much that Australian squad can improve with another 9 months of Cheika cracking the whip! They are going to be a real threat by the time RWC 2015 comes around. I wouldn't fancy England's chances of progression very highly.