Ireland v Wales 6Ns 2016

[FLIP]

2 matches in the first round of the 6 nations decided by refereeing instead of the players. World Rugby needs to sort this out. I currently have no faith in the match day refereeing staff being impartial, or any faith in the process of continuous improvement for referees seeing as it's all behind closed doors.

Transparency is the only option.

[Dave Cahill]

Stander and Sexton exceptional, the Irish back 5 en masse very good, halfbacks, centres (ignoring Payne kicking the ball at the death) and wingers very good as well.

[simonokeeffe]

Zebo setting a record for aimless kicks

credit where its due Stander played really well AT SIX

Faletau and Roberts with 21 tackles each

[neiliog93]

Zebo did some brilliant things at the start of the match. Couple of breaks/half breaks, one excellent defensive read that saved a try, a very good kick.

Then in the second half he must have kicked poorly 4 or 5 times, costing us hugely. Nathan White pulled it together well in the second half but I'd probably start Furlong ahead of him next week. I know Evans was going in at an illegal angle all day and getting away with it, but France will do that next week and Furlong did well when he came on. J.McGrath had a huge performance, excellent in the loose. Toner stepped up in the absence of POC and McCarthy fitted in perfectly at international level. I feel that if Wales hadn't had Davies they would have lost. He kicked brilliantly, defended stoutly and just cruised over the gainline, whether by using his gas on the outside or crashing it up.

[neiliog93]

Duplicate post

[LeinsterLeader]

Just back now. T'was great entertainment. Disappointed we didn't win but not sure what else we could have done.

Stander was brilliant obviously but thought Heaslip was immense (is it alright to praise both or do I have to pick a side?). Thought JH made a huge amount of tackles (may have been our biggest tackler) where he got straight back to his feet and drove through the ruck making quick ball very difficult. I think with a back row of CJ/JW/SOB against France we'd be in with a shout.

Not sure what the fuss about SZis. Was he not just typically SZ at full-back? His positioning was suspect, kicking was poor but was exciting in attack. Rob is more or less the opposite. Depends what you're looking for from the Full-back. For me Rob back to 15, Zebo to the wing for France.

All in all better than I was expecting to be honest.

[neiliog93]

Zebo will be on the wing vs France with R.Kearney at fullback because according to Joe, Earls is probably out of the France game with concussion. We're more than 'in with a shout' against France. We should beat them. They were poor against Italy.

[Raydollard]

blame the ref. He tells Best to get away, Best can't hear him, peno costs us the win. Garces needs to learn some sign language.

[LeinsterLeader]

Zebo will be on the wing vs France with R.Kearney at fullback because according to Joe, Earls is probably out of the France game with concussion. We're more than 'in with a shout' against France. We should beat them. They were poor against Italy.

True they weren't great but they'll be better for having played it and come away with the win and also we never find it easy in Paris, but yeah I'd be hopeful too.

[Cianostays]

Happy with that overall. I think our back row, especially considering who they were up against, were terrific. The balance between Stander, TO'D and Heaslip was surprisingly good. Also, very encouraged by the willingness to play with ball in hand. A little disappointed that we couldn't convert territory into points but Wales could probably say the same. Garces was bizarre at times but balanced by and large. He may want to look up the definition of a ruck though.

[TerenureJim]

Garces brought a whole new level to the Farces tag it was like there was no ref at times and the every once in a while he'd whistltle for something random and don't get me started on the offside line, knock ons, forward passes etc. I've seen better reffing at JCT. not that it's his fault in fact I'd question the whole "assistant" referee thing because to me they do less than linesmen used to.

[TerenureJim]

Stander and Sexton exceptional, the Irish back 5 en masse very good, halfbacks, centres (ignoring Payne kicking the ball at the death) and wingers very good as well.

Zebo sublime going forward but suspect positionally for defence on kicks, suspect on tackling and on follow through the on kick chase?

[matt]

What did we learn today.

Good performance full of commitment typicied by CJ Stander 6 attacks in first 12 mins.

Murray & henshaw serious players but sob missed even though tod did well & Nathan White could not dominate a poor Rob Evans.

[ribs]

We learnt that we were not allowed to compete for the ball while defending. That's not Rugby

[blockhead]

Fair result overall, Wales were very strong and accurate. Our defence was immense throughout. Zebo is a good player but obviously suffering in terms of confidence and form and had a poor game but was better in the 2nd half. Stander was very good, POM was not missed. I'd expect SOB and Rob to come back in for next week. Earles and Trimble did not see much ball but defended very well.
The doom and gloom merchants in the media were hovering above Joe all week ready to swoop. One of them on newstalk yesterday morning even predicted a hammering for Ireland. Sorry boys, he's not gone away y'know.

[jezzer]

Conor Murray head and shoulders the best player yesterday. Terrific.

White McCarthy and Zebo were probably the three that found the level toughest, but all of them did good stuff. The thing with Zebo is his bad stuff is probably worse than his good stuff is good, at fullback. At wing, its a different story.

Backline still isn't firing and we're back to our bad habits of smashing it up one-out for 75% of phases. Would have thought we'd show more for having been in camp and having been through the RWC where that didn't work.

They were there for the taking. Back row misfiring, Biggar out and Liam Williams having a mare. .. It was there for us. Wales will be the happier team but a draw doesn't suit either team. Have to win out to do it, Id say.

[olaf the fat]

Already one foot ahead of last year!

Looks like Earls may be out for next week, maybe Zebo to move into that slot if RK is fit.

[OTT]

Earls will be a loss he was excellent yesterday, he brought huge physicality in defence and it was a very harsh penalty against him for the Williams tackle imo. Zebo is a strange creature I thought he might have been the one to win us that game yesterday but also I thought he probably would be the guy to lose it for us. The kick out on the full in the first half was pure concentration (or lack of it) because he was going for touch and the pass came from about 8 metres outside the 22 so that is just not good enough. Then he cut through their defence in the 2nd half and gave a great off load. I wish he could just cut out the looseness it is irritating because he is a definite talent.

Not sure what was wrong in the scrums. Refs have their idiosyncrasies which is fine because you can learn to play to them. I find it hard to stomach a ref who refs both sides differently. Their scrum crumples on our attacking ball at their 5metres line the call is "play it, play it" the same happens on the other end and he calls a penalty. How is that fair?

Stander was brilliant fair play to him what a welcome addition he is and the guy who has been cr@p for years was brilliant as well 14 carries and 16 tackles, hopefully he has a few years of being cr@p left in the tank.

[Oldschool]

Conor Murray head and shoulders the best player yesterday. Terrific.

White McCarthy and Zebo were probably the three that found the level toughest, but all of them did good stuff. The thing with Zebo is his bad stuff is probably worse than his good stuff is good, at fullback. At wing, its a different story.

Backline still isn't firing and we're back to our bad habits of smashing it up one-out for 75% of phases. Would have thought we'd show more for having been in camp and having been through the RWC where that didn't work.

They were there for the taking. Back row misfiring, Biggar out and Liam Williams having a mare. .. It was there for us. Wales will be the happier team but a draw doesn't suit either team. Have to win out to do it, Id say.

-1
Murray's slow pass once again cost us.
They were there for the taking and Murray's passing ckoked us.
Other than that he had a good game.
This affects the ability of the backs to fire.
Wyn Jones had a relatively quiet game, well done McCarthy.
White got thru a lot of work. The scrums who knows? Certainly not Garces.
Zebo very mixed.
One out ball. When your scrum half delays the pass and you have to slow/stop your run what do you expect.
Stander had a great debut but Heaslip and McGrath were awesome.

[wixfjord]

Conor Murray head and shoulders the best player yesterday. Terrific.

White McCarthy and Zebo were probably the three that found the level toughest, but all of them did good stuff. The thing with Zebo is his bad stuff is probably worse than his good stuff is good, at fullback. At wing, its a different story.

Backline still isn't firing and we're back to our bad habits of smashing it up one-out for 75% of phases. Would have thought we'd show more for having been in camp and having been through the RWC where that didn't work.

They were there for the taking. Back row misfiring, Biggar out and Liam Williams having a mare. .. It was there for us. Wales will be the happier team but a draw doesn't suit either team. Have to win out to do it, Id say.

This sums it up for me, good point.

We still need a little more subtlety in back play, but there were flashes of better stuff, particularly when we used screens to get Sexton free and pre-planned offload moves.
When attacking from 5 metres out though we might as well take a drop goal, because we're pretty much toothless from that far out.