Ireland 2018/2019

[outcast eddie]

Our lineout came under pressure in the last 15mins.
JS needs to have a good look at this.
Substituting Best, Toner and POM more or less at the same time had a huge impact on our lineout effectiveness. Maybe not the smartest move ever and it coincided with NZ only real period of dominance.
Other teams will notice this fact too

The Ireland scrum also deteriorated with the introduction of the bench.

[wixfjord]

I think the lineout was getting creaky even when those were still on. Toner was running out of gas in particular and bringing Hendo on was the right call imo.

The only worry for me from yesterday is Best. Much better performance albeit, but he still looks like a man tiring with age.

[wixfjord]

Two other things:

James Ryan is from another world.

And that POM run back was probably the moment of the game. He brought the pashun there.

[blockhead]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

[paddyor]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

There was one turnover in the NZ 22 were the player who made the tackle was holding the ball in though so these things even out.

Yeah thought Kearney got lucky there.

[CiaranIrl]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

Yeah, but they should really have seen a yellow too for the cynical penalties on the line in the first half. We very deservedly won. We had all the attacking play really.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

What a game, was hoping for a great contest and it really was brilliant regardless of the low score, and the atmosphere was amazing as well, just a brilliant occasion.

I'd love to know what the ball in play time was, it seemed like passages of play went on for minutes at a time and that the set piece didn't exist. I don't think I've ever seen subs looking so tired as they went off.

I was unbelievably impressed with how organised we were on both sides of the ball. When we had the ball we nearly always had the right numbers of players to resource the ruck (although I was surprised NZ didn't compete a bit more there) and our clearouts were absolutely perfect for the most part. Then defensively we very rarely looked stretched or short of numbers. Aside from POM's desperate dive our scramble defence actually looked really well organised as opposed to being frantic, and really there was only that incident, the Read charge down, and Rob's intercept that made me think NZ were going to score a try, thought we looked really comfortable apart from those. Given that they average over five tries a game and we got over the line three times I think that shows how much we dominated.

I was wondering how many penalties we conceded so thanks to whoever mentioned the number above, that's a ridiculously impressive number given the pressure we were under at times. I'm struggling to think of a game where we've been under such pressure and yet looked so comfortable.

Everyone played well so hard to single anyone out but I thought our backrow was exceptional. POM came up with some huge moments and hard to argue with him being MOTM but I thought Stander and VDF were our best players given that they did it for the full 80. It was as if they were having a personal duel to see who could work harder for the 80 minutes. Stander was a complete nuisance for NZ at the breakdown, seemed to slow down their ball all day long, and how he managed to sprint the whole way across the pitch at HT is beyond me. Josh may not have the standout moments that Leavy does but his carrying was still excellent at times and the way he robbed the ball from Ioane after we'd lost it down the right hand side was crucial. Healy and Furlong were freakish too and it makes no sense that Furlong could stay on as long as he did.

Best made a few bad errors but he was much better than last week, hopefully he can keep it up.

NZ have problems but I've no doubt they can fix them before the World Cup...bring it on!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

Yeah, but they should really have seen a yellow too for the cynical penalties on the line in the first half. We very deservedly won. We had all the attacking play really.

And Whitelock should have been sent off for his hit on Healy.

[Fan with smartphone]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

Whitelock could have seen yellow too with the knockdown or for a cynical hold when already on penalty advantage in the first half. That, plus the fact Barnes stopped refereeing Savea at the breakdown for a good bit just prior to Kearney incident probably saved Kearney, because he should’ve walked on at least a yellow there. I liked how little we complained overall. Stander made no meal of the high tackle and we were just there to play tough, hard ball. So were they to be fair, but our ability to keep our discipline at high pressure is what is separating those sides more than anything else at the minute.

We maybe over celebrated winning those 2 lineout chances to kill it and didn’t see those through. Oldschool right to highlight that. Wouldn’t put that on personnel changes - Toner and O’Mahony had to go, their race was absolutely run. It was probably run 5 minutes earlier in O’Mahonys case but he kept on making plays! The misdirection in our lineout in early exchanges was superb but it was just hard to maintain that I think.

The best moment for me was when JVDF, just, scragged Barrett. This was our 3rd choice 7, but nobody else could’ve made that tackle. A try saver and a match winner.

The two big decisions we have to make are on Best and Kearney. Will they still be as good as that next season? They could both do it, or neither. I’d want to give them both every chance, they have certainly earned that. But we will need to prepare for both eventualities. Either way, standing still won’t be an option and to help bring us back down to earth, we have the worst possible World Cup draw. But no team is going to be delighted having to face us.

[Fan with smartphone]

What a game, was hoping for a great contest and it really was brilliant regardless of the low score, and the atmosphere was amazing as well, just a brilliant occasion.

I'd love to know what the ball in play time was, it seemed like passages of play went on for minutes at a time and that the set piece didn't exist. I don't think I've ever seen subs looking so tired as they went off.

I was unbelievably impressed with how organised we were on both sides of the ball. When we had the ball we nearly always had the right numbers of players to resource the ruck (although I was surprised NZ didn't compete a bit more there) and our clearouts were absolutely perfect for the most part. Then defensively we very rarely looked stretched or short of numbers. Aside from POM's desperate dive our scramble defence actually looked really well organised as opposed to being frantic, and really there was only that incident, the Read charge down, and Rob's intercept that made me think NZ were going to score a try, thought we looked really comfortable apart from those. Given that they average over five tries a game and we got over the line three times I think that shows how much we dominated.

I was wondering how many penalties we conceded so thanks to whoever mentioned the number above, that's a ridiculously impressive number given the pressure we were under at times. I'm struggling to think of a game where we've been under such pressure and yet looked so comfortable.

Everyone played well so hard to single anyone out but I thought our backrow was exceptional. POM came up with some huge moments and hard to argue with him being MOTM but I thought Stander and VDF were our best players given that they did it for the full 80. It was as if they were having a personal duel to see who could work harder for the 80 minutes. Stander was a complete nuisance for NZ at the breakdown, seemed to slow down their ball all day long, and how he managed to sprint the whole way across the pitch at HT is beyond me. Josh may not have the standout moments that Leavy does but his carrying was still excellent at times and the way he robbed the ball from Ioane after we'd lost it down the right hand side was crucial. Healy and Furlong were freakish too and it makes no sense that Furlong could stay on as long as he did.

Best made a few bad errors but he was much better than last week, hopefully he can keep it up.

NZ have problems but I've no doubt they can fix them before the World Cup...bring it on!

+1

[Ruckedtobits]

Well done to the entire group and to their vital team-mates Confidence and Belief. This was a game in which every Irish player contributed in an important way and nobody who came off the bench caused any flutters about their ability to contribute.

I've rarely seen our replaced players look more emptied as they left the pitch. They all played with huge intensity. We now do really have strength in depth and I was delighted with Marmion and McGrath as replacements for the "irreplaceable" Conor Murray. He is a player beyond comparison but no longer irreplaceable.

PO'M was awesome tonight. Four or five superb interventions and whilst his ball carrying will never be a strength, his ability to turnover at the breakdown is right at the highest level.

[ronk]

.

The two big decisions we have to make are on Best and Kearney. Will they still be as good as that next season? They could both do it, or neither. I’d want to give them both every chance, they have certainly earned that. But we will need to prepare for both eventualities. Either way, standing still won’t be an option and to help bring us back down to earth, we have the worst possible World Cup draw. But no team is going to be delighted having to face us.

No reason to do extra prep for them over other position. Alternatives are mature enough mostly. Larmour some fullback time. There's always the break glass option of Zebo anyway.

[Logorrhea]

And Whitelock should have been sent off for his hit on Healy.

Yah saw it straight away. 4:03 on the clock and Barnes shouted that the "clearout was legal". It was shoulder straight to Healy's head, about 2 foot off the ground. Was waiting for the TMO to say something cause that was a shocker.

Kearney's too, its a flat yellow, unless the refs have been allowed to consider intent which I dont think they are meant too.

Edit: There is it. I dont know how to embed the gif, can a mod fix, or instruct me on what to do

https://giphy.com/embed/1AheuKhNBmywNMiqhy

[blockhead]

Only NH team to hold NZ tryless since 1995. That is some stat.
If it's true of course, just read it somewhere.

What about that forward pass call against us in the 2nd half? Oddest call I've seen in a while.

[ronk]

I think Kearney was helped by the traffic he had to navigate through and the subsequent angle they came together.

Plus the fall wasnt too bad.

[TerenureJim]

Only NH team to hold NZ tryless since 1995. That is some stat.
If it's true of course, just read it somewhere.

What about that forward pass call against us in the 2nd half? Oddest call I've seen in a while.

That forward pass call was very, very odd

[Laighin Break]

Only NH team* to hold NZ tryless since 1995. That is some stat.
If it's true of course, just read it somewhere.

What about that forward pass call against us in the 2nd half? Oddest call I've seen in a while.

*Excluding the Lions

[Peg Leg]

Only NH team* to hold NZ tryless since 1995. That is some stat.
If it's true of course, just read it somewhere.

What about that forward pass call against us in the 2nd half? Oddest call I've seen in a while.

*Excluding the Lions

Just about to add the 21-24 loss to Warren G's Lions

[Flash Gordon]

Marmion was excellent. The pressure on him must have been huge. The "who is the 2nd 9" debate is settled.
Barnes let us off for a couple of things, POMs steal at one of the breakdowns should have gone the to NZ, thought so at the time.
Kearney collision for a high ball, stonewall yellow in the current climate could have even seen red. Barnes would'nt even look at it again.
Overall though the game was very clean and honest.

Whitelock could have seen yellow too with the knockdown or for a cynical hold when already on penalty advantage in the first half. That, plus the fact Barnes stopped refereeing Savea at the breakdown for a good bit just prior to Kearney incident probably saved Kearney, because he should’ve walked on at least a yellow there. I liked how little we complained overall. Stander made no meal of the high tackle and we were just there to play tough, hard ball. So were they to be fair, but our ability to keep our discipline at high pressure is what is separating those sides more than anything else at the minute.

We maybe over celebrated winning those 2 lineout chances to kill it and didn’t see those through. Oldschool right to highlight that. Wouldn’t put that on personnel changes - Toner and O’Mahony had to go, their race was absolutely run. It was probably run 5 minutes earlier in O’Mahonys case but he kept on making plays! The misdirection in our lineout in early exchanges was superb but it was just hard to maintain that I think.

The best moment for me was when JVDF, just, scragged Barrett. This was our 3rd choice 7, but nobody else could’ve made that tackle. A try saver and a match winner.

The two big decisions we have to make are on Best and Kearney. Will they still be as good as that next season? They could both do it, or neither. I’d want to give them both every chance, they have certainly earned that. But we will need to prepare for both eventualities. Either way, standing still won’t be an option and to help bring us back down to earth, we have the worst possible World Cup draw. But no team is going to be delighted having to face us.

Not sure about Josh being our 3rd choice 7!!! But for injury I think he might have been a starting Lion in New Zealand. He was my man of the match on Saturday, there's going to be some sh!t fight for back row positioning in the coming years! Luckily these days, you pretty much need 2 starting international backrows (as you do props) as it's such an attritional position.

Immense performances from all 3 backrowers, locks and props.

[Oldschool]

I think the lineout was getting creaky even when those were still on. Toner was running out of gas in particular and bringing Hendo on was the right call imo.

The only worry for me from yesterday is Best. Much better performance albeit, but he still looks like a man tiring with age.

My comment re the lineout was an observation not a critism. Joe had to make those substitutions as you say..
On the lineout NZ, on Ireland's ball closed the gap.
Every NZ lineout player took a step towards our lineout IN UNISON before the ball was thrown in.
Watch just on the 14min in first half where it's very obvious.
As far as I'm aware that's a penalty.
It happened more than once.