jezzer wrote:We were comfortable the whole way - which is a rare thing to manage against England.
Good post Jezzer, agree with most of that.
Not the bit above though. They crossed our line twice and we were out on our feet for the last 15 and were just as guilty at the breakdown as they were in the first 10mins.
Whilst Jones fits the bill should we pick up an injury early on, I think we need something different on the bench to defend/attack a lead. Our kicking wasn't effective in the last 15 mins and the players didn't have it in them to chase balls that were there to compete for.
I never thought for a second England were going to haul back in that lead. We might have coughed up a score, but only really because there was a huge drop-off in control from our backup 10. Both teams were wrecked by the end, but I really believe we were in control for 70 out of 80 minutes of that game.
Was reading a very complimentary article from an English journo about Irish cricket today and he was comparing the self-belief in the Irish cricket team to the Irish rugby team. He thought the Irish rugby team yesterday was "very plucky". Hey, if you can be plucky 10 times on the bounce, then fair play to ya! Stick to cricket coverage, though!
JB1973 wrote:
big game coming up in 2 weeks, any early injury news on the irish lads?
The medical team for the Ireland squad have released the following update on three players who were replaced during yesterday's RBS 6 Nations victory over England.
Sean O'Brien
Sean suffered a concussion, is much improved and has started the graded return-to-play protocols.
Jared Payne
Jared suffered a concussion and has also commenced the graded return-to-play protocols.
Sexton and SOB are world class players any side would miss them. I think you can cover SOB more easily than you can sexton if your missing Heaslip SOB and Sexton then that's load of ability , experience and leadership out of the team.
If all 3 are missing I'd expect us to beat you at home, if 2 of the 3 are fit I'd expect and Ireland win.
Payne is a good player but I don't this his absence effects you one way or the other
I hate being negative but George Hook is really starting to annoy me.
His "sure didn't we predict all this three hours ago" shyte is very demeaning of the players and the coach. Not to mention the fact that there are 15 other very good players on the pitch too.
Ireland are efficient - Well about bloody time, we're playing this game for over a 100 years and our win/loss ratio compares non too favourably with our peers.
Ireland aren't playing pretty rugby, implying like that we've always played pretty rugby, is another load of manure.
I for one am not hankering back for the days when Barry McGann kicked the leather off the ball and missed more penalties at goal than he scored, while Mike Gibson languished at centre like any good tackle bag of Irish rugby of yore did. Mick Doyle's era as coach was the only time we played pretty good rugby.
Hook knows all this, he's around longer than I am and I have to say our national TV station should hurry up his pastureisation.
Hook claims he wants Ireland to win and to suggest otherwise is poppycock. I believe him, but it's obvious he doesn't want Joe to be the winning coach.
Paul O'Connell is a great player and a good captain but it's Joe that is making the team he captains great not the other way around and Hook seems unwilling to acknowledge that. Hook would have us believe it's O'Connells captaincy that has got us to 10 wins on the trot.
Years ago I emailed RTE, in the build up to an Ireland v England, complaining about their negativity towards Ireland and showing only England scoring tries.
They stopped and it may or may not have had anything to do with my email but I felt the better for doing it.
If people have a beef with Hook's views please email RTE and complain.
The average punter hasn't a clue about rugby and it's Hook's views that are informing them, god help us.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
Oldschool wrote:I hate being negative but George Hook is really starting to annoy me.
His "sure didn't we predict all this three hours ago" shyte is very demeaning of the players and the coach. Not to mention the fact that there are 15 other very good players on the pitch too.
Ireland are efficient - Well about bloody time, we're playing this game for over a 100 years and our win/loss ratio compares non too favourably with our peers.
Ireland aren't playing pretty rugby, implying like that we've always played pretty rugby, is another load of manure.
I for one am not hankering back for the days when Barry McGann kicked the leather off the ball and missed more penalties at goal than he scored, while Mike Gibson languished at centre like any good tackle bag of Irish rugby of yore did. Mick Doyle's era as coach was the only time we played pretty good rugby.
Hook knows all this, he's around longer than I am and I have to say our national TV station should hurry up his pastureisation.
Hook claims he wants Ireland to win and to suggest otherwise is poppycock. I believe him, but it's obvious he doesn't want Joe to be the winning coach.
Paul O'Connell is a great player and a good captain but it's Joe that is making the team he captains great not the other way around and Hook seems unwilling to acknowledge that. Hook would have us believe it's O'Connells captaincy that has got us to 10 wins on the trot.
Years ago I emailed RTE, in the build up to an Ireland v England, complaining about their negativity towards Ireland and showing only England scoring tries.
They stopped and it may or may not have had anything to do with my email but I felt the better for doing it.
If people have a beef with Hook's views please email RTE and complain.
The average punter hasn't a clue about rugby and it's Hook's views that are informing them, god help us.
I hate being negative but George Hook is really starting to annoy me.
Oldschool, it must take an awful lot to get you annoyed if you're only starting to get annoyed now.
I no longer watch RTE coverage of International Rugby because of that gobshite*.
You know I'm going to lose,
And gambling's for fools,
But that's the way I like it baby, I don't want to live FOREVER!
Things of note from the game.
Ford was targeted by Sexton specifically as opposed to being targeted by everyone thus making sure no holes were left in our defence ie we didn't over commit.
Ford handled the pressure well.
Kearney didn't get turned over going into contact.
Murphy and TOD were very good at the breakdown and totally outplayed Robshaw in this facit.
The scrum and in fact all set piece play.
Adding a more expansive element to our armory is a WIP but it is obvious that the team are trying to introduce this without overdoing the risk taking.
We lost our shape after we scored the try and it wasn't just because Sexton went off, I think we almost panicked at the thought that we be about to win the game. It let them back into the game.
We didn't implode when they did put us under pressure, they had to work very hard for their points.
They were just as tired as we were at the end hence the reason they couldn't make more of their purple patch.
White line fever - we weren't patient or efficient enough in the first few minutes of the game when we were on their line.
The next time we meet England it's going to be harder to beat them. Having said that they are still going to find us a very hard team to beat.
The Welsh will do anything and everything to stop us beating them in two weeks time. It will be our toughest game of the season.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
blockhead wrote:I no longer watch RTE coverage of International Rugby because of that gobshite*.
You miss out on what is some pretty decent analysis you get from the rest of the lads though. I wouldn't do that.
Having said that, when I heard that George Hook was "offended" by the style of play, having just hammered England, I thought he had stooped to a new low. He's a pathetic waste of a chair.
blockhead wrote:I no longer watch RTE coverage of International Rugby because of that gobshite*.
You miss out on what is some pretty decent analysis you get from the rest of the lads though. I wouldn't do that.
Having said that, when I heard that George Hook was "offended" by the style of play, having just hammered England, I thought he had stooped to a new low. He's a pathetic waste of a chair.
Shaggy and ROG were a delight to listen to . I normally avoid rte because of the shitehawk spoofing on the way I does. He genuinely drags down the discourse to his miserable level. He can't be gone quick enough. Every moment he spends pontificating is a moment you will never get back that was completely wasted.
blockhead wrote:I no longer watch RTE coverage of International Rugby because of that gobshite*.
You miss out on what is some pretty decent analysis you get from the rest of the lads though. I wouldn't do that.
Having said that, when I heard that George Hook was "offended" by the style of play, having just hammered England, I thought he had stooped to a new low. He's a pathetic waste of a chair.
Shaggy and ROG were a delight to listen to . I normally avoid rte because of the shitehawk spoofing on the way I does. He genuinely drags down the discourse to his miserable level. He can't be gone quick enough. Every moment he spends pontificating is a moment you will never get back that was completely wasted.
I hope to be back watching RTE soon.
his serial whingeing reached a nadir when he said we werent going to win a world cup final kicking the ball 44 times
1. RWC finals always tight
2. Having started going to internationals in 1988 as a 7 year old it is anathema to me to COMPLAIN about Ireland not being liable to win a world cup final (rightly or wrongly) let alone taking victories over Australia, South Africa, France and England for granted
also get impression theyve had to split Hook and ROG up
Retired from babbling. Can be found on twittter @okeeffesimon
blockhead wrote:I no longer watch RTE coverage of International Rugby because of that gobshite*.
...
...
his serial whingeing reached a nadir when he said we werent going to win a world cup final kicking the ball 44 times
1. RWC finals always tight
2. Having started going to internationals in 1988 as a 7 year old it is anathema to me to COMPLAIN about Ireland not being liable to win a world cup final (rightly or wrongly) let alone taking victories over Australia, South Africa, France and England for granted
also get impression theyve had to split Hook and ROG up
yup, it's pretty obvious that ROG has no time for Hook and his random nonsense.
I used to enjoy Hook on the radio on the way home from work for maybe 2 weeks, until it became clear he's just dealing the same cr@p as the rest of them, it's just the same auld dishonest lazy journalism we're forced to accept over here, dressed up as "let me tell you how it was in my day."
He's just a lazy hack trading on a fake eccentricity.
He is not there to provide insightful analysis to hardcore rugby fans. They have Shaggy, O'Shea and ROG for that. George is the show man for people who catch maybe 5 or 6 games of rugby a year, and remember there is more of them watching at home than there is of us.
I have a bigger problem with the likes of Keyes and Sheenan who actually detract from watching a game. When they are on international games I switch to BBC
I quite like him on TV and can't listen to him on the radio so much so that even if he's got a stand in for his show I won't listen to them either. To be honest if you write down a lot of his quotes they could be posts on here and other fora. For example I am waiting for him to suggest that we should shuffle the back row to accommodate Henderson.
"POC will not be going to Toulon" - All Blacks nil » May 27th, 2015, 12:18 am
offshorerules wrote:I quite like him on TV and can't listen to him on the radio so much so that even if he's got a stand in for his show I won't listen to them either. To be honest if you write down a lot of his quotes they could be posts on here and other fora. For example I am waiting for him to suggest that we should shuffle the back row to accommodate Henderson.
Researching here works for the OTB gang!
Last edited by olaf the fat on March 3rd, 2015, 1:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
olaf the fat wrote:Come on, there is nothing wrong with George.
He is not there to provide insightful analysis to hardcore rugby fans. They have Shaggy, O'Shea and ROG for that. George is the show man for people who catch maybe 5 or 6 games of rugby a year, and remember there is more of them watching at home than there is of us.
I have a bigger problem with the likes of Keyes and Sheenan who actually detract from watching a game. When they are on international games I switch to BBC
Yes there is, he's rubbish.
offshorerules wrote:I quite like him on TV and can't listen to him on the radio so much so that even if he's got a stand in for his show I won't listen to them either. To be honest if you write down a lot of his quotes they could be posts on here and other fora. For example I am waiting for him to suggest that we should shuffle the back row to accommodate Henderson.
Ahhh... but it wouldn't be the suggestion, it would be the "Ah but shure listen Popey, the birds in the park were singing to me when me Mother had to work scrubbing floors to send me to Pres Cork, and sure everyone knew their neighbours back then, and if you didn't know that Joe knows that someone has to make way for Henderson in the back row, then you've just not been listening to the same auld shyte that I've been talking for the last 7 minutes non-stop." that would grate.
if he could just form an honest opinion, and try not to wrap it up inside some sort of philosophical pretext, that would be just about do me.
Last edited by Oldschoolsocks on March 3rd, 2015, 10:36 am, edited 1 time in total.
