Ireland v England. Saturday, February 2nd.

[Logorrhea]

Played off the park

Yeah. Had to happen some day I spose.

Thought they were totally dominant across the pitch. Physically beat the shite out of us and Farrell played out of his skin.

[OTT]

Well done England. People often confuse Eddie Jones being an arsehole with him being a bad coach. He is an arsehole (opinion) but a very good coach.

Hopefully we bounce back next week.

[Blueberry]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

[Oldschool]

When you lose by that amount you have to point the finger.
Eddie 2 Joe -1.
Eddie got his tactics spot on.
Joe picked too many players that weren't fit (IMHO)
Neither Sexton or Murray looked right
The speed of Murray's passing was attricious, into the face and slow. Cooney showed how to pass.
Sexton shovelled the ball on, Ringrose was buried following a pass from Sexton.
Slade's try was from another pass that shouldn't have been given, by Sexton.
Joe gets -1 because having made the mistake of picking players who weren't ready didn't give their replacement's a chance.
Both Joey and Cooney should have been on the pitch on the hour or earlier.
I won't criticize Robbie Henshaw, he was handed a tough gig.

[ronk]

England played well and were clinical at exploiting our weaknesses. They played a good pressure possession game and we buckled.

[OTT]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

Kneejerk much?

[Blueberry]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

Kneejerk much?

Absolutely !!

[Oldschool]

Joe shocked, talked too much.

[Jackie Brown]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

Ahhh so it was all the non-Leinster players fault?

That was completely apathetic by Ireland today. Zero fight in any of them, it was England's World Cup final.

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[FLIP]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

Stander wasn't the starting back row to ask questions about. Sure his attacking wasn't up to much but noone could say theirs was bar Ringrose. POM offered very little apart from angry face.

Best wasn't his best for sure. But Cronin adds best value as an option off the bench.

First meh game from James Ryan ever. Murray tried the kicking game even when it was clear it wasn't working without Kearney, and Sexton lost the head.

Aki huffed and puffed but didn't make all that much difference, and looked second class to Tuilangi.

The wrong winger was taken off if the call was tactical not injury. Stockdale made far too many mistakes.

And Henshaw just isn't Rob Kearney.

[leinsterforever]

The lack of adaptability was disappointing. Ireland needed to be kicking deep early to exploit the space in the backfield. There was no joy to be had by going through the phases against that England defense. John Mitchell really had Ireland's number. They knew where the ball was going all day and put in double tackles to knock Ireland back and then made a mess of the breakdown. Really canny play by England. It's disappointing to see Ireland outsmarted like that

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Joe seems to be blaming the ref but I think he needs to take a look at himself moreso than anyone else, that's the worst any of his teams have looked since he arrived in Ireland IMO. England had us figured out and we just couldn't react. It started with them attacking brilliantly and exposing Earls early on, and then their carrying and kicking game made us look vulnerable nearly every time they had the ball. England defended magnificently but we played into their hands.

Obviously Robbie turned out to be a dreadful call. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's really poor management to have Joey on the bench but not see him as a fullback. It's possible that Johnny was injured (certainly played like it) and Earls going off meant that we didn't want to make another change, but with the way the game was going I can't believe Joey didn't come on at fullback early in the second half. Robbie's selection gave them a blueprint of how to attack us but England's kicking game really was outstanding. We were weak at the back but they exposed us superbly.

Sexton can't have been fit, Aki seemed to be our ten which allowed England to strangle us because they weren't worried about him passing and know he can't chip in behind. When Johnny did get the ball he was often very deep, and to me he just looked sluggish a lot of the time. Murray hasn't really been at the races since he came back from injury (bar one or two games) and it's a big worry that we spent so long getting him right and yet he looks off the pace. He had one missed tackle that was just so unlike him that it made me question why he was even out there.

As well as England defended and as physical as they were it was really frustrating that we didn't change our approach. There's so many clips of us passing one out and being lined up by two defenders and driven back. That can happen, but why not increase the numbers in support, latch on, use tip on passes etc? Stander was really quiet, wonder when he picked up his injury because it just wasn't like him, not in green anyway. POM also really quiet. Our kicking/kick chase were awful but we kept on doing them

James Ryan, Josh, and (especially) Ringrose were the only positives (Healy, Furlong, and Porter decent too) I'd take from today, thought they all rose above the flat performances from everyone else. There's no need to panic but there are definitely things we need to work on going forward. The main thing is that we need to be more flexible, both in terms of the selection/subs and tactically. I'd like to have seen how things would have changed if Joey had come on at 15, Henshaw had moved to 12, Cronin had come on with half an hour to go, and Cooney got more time than he did. Plan A usually works for us but it's not like we don't have the players to try Plan B and it's annoying when we don't.

Fair play to England though, that was light years ahead of any other performance they've put in over the last couple of years.

[ronk]

Earls was injured.

[Blueberry]

Pants day at the office not much else to say about it, Henshaw is our first choice 12, we have to start asking questions about Stander at some stage, he endlessly just kills ball, O'Brien on a different level when he came on and I have had enough of Best, Cronin is our best hooker end of story. Murray off the pace and it is a worry as he hasn't been top drawer since he has come back from injury.

Ringrose a class above as always.....

Stander wasn't the starting back row to ask questions about. Sure his attacking wasn't up to much but noone could say theirs was bar Ringrose. POM offered very little apart from angry face.

Best wasn't his best for sure. But Cronin adds best value as an option off the bench.

First meh game from James Ryan ever. Murray tried the kicking game even when it was clear it wasn't working without Kearney, and Sexton lost the head.

Aki huffed and puffed but didn't make all that much difference, and looked second class to Tuilangi.

The wrong winger was taken off if the call was tactical not injury. Stockdale made far too many mistakes.

And Henshaw just isn't Rob Kearney.

Fair points, just feel we have the balance wrong in some respects in the Irish pack when it comes to making hard yards against big physical teams like England. You need ball carriers who can get across the gainline by working around big men not through them. Specifically looking at this today you have Best, Toner, VDF, O'Mahony, Stander struggling to make yards and names like Cronin, Ruddock, O'Brien, Henderson, Conan, Dillane, Leavy give options here. Balance is the key and I prefer 6-7 effective ball carriers in a pack, today only felt that in the starting pack Healy, Furlong and Ryan looked like making yards.

[MylesNaGapoleen]

Joe seems to be blaming the ref but I think he needs to take a look at himself moreso than anyone else, that's the worst any of his teams have looked since he arrived in Ireland IMO. England had us figured out and we just couldn't react. It started with them attacking brilliantly and exposing Earls early on, and then their carrying and kicking game made us look vulnerable nearly every time they had the ball. England defended magnificently but we played into their hands.

Obviously Robbie turned out to be a dreadful call. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's really poor management to have Joey on the bench but not see him as a fullback. It's possible that Johnny was injured (certainly played like it) and Earls going off meant that we didn't want to make another change, but with the way the game was going I can't believe Joey didn't come on at fullback early in the second half. Robbie's selection gave them a blueprint of how to attack us but England's kicking game really was outstanding. We were weak at the back but they exposed us superbly.

Sexton can't have been fit, Aki seemed to be our ten which allowed England to strangle us because they weren't worried about him passing and know he can't chip in behind. When Johnny did get the ball he was often very deep, and to me he just looked sluggish a lot of the time. Murray hasn't really been at the races since he came back from injury (bar one or two games) and it's a big worry that we spent so long getting him right and yet he looks off the pace. He had one missed tackle that was just so unlike him that it made me question why he was even out there.

As well as England defended and as physical as they were it was really frustrating that we didn't change our approach. There's so many clips of us passing one out and being lined up by two defenders and driven back. That can happen, but why not increase the numbers in support, latch on, use tip on passes etc? Stander was really quiet, wonder when he picked up his injury because it just wasn't like him, not in green anyway. POM also really quiet. Our kicking/kick chase were awful but we kept on doing them

James Ryan, Josh, and (especially) Ringrose were the only positives (Healy, Furlong, and Porter decent too) I'd take from today, thought they all rose above the flat performances from everyone else. There's no need to panic but there are definitely things we need to work on going forward. The main thing is that we need to be more flexible, both in terms of the selection/subs and tactically. I'd like to have seen how things would have changed if Joey had come on at 15, Henshaw had moved to 12, Cronin had come on with half an hour to go, and Cooney got more time than he did. Plan A usually works for us but it's not like we don't have the players to try Plan B and it's annoying when we don't.

Fair play to England though, that was light years ahead of any other performance they've put in over the last couple of years.

good points well made. we should probably take it as a compliment how the english needed to be fired up etc to take us on. in fairness, they did and did it well. fully deserved. no navel gazing for me. this is a blip rather than a disaster. we will move forward from this.

[Blueberry]

Joe seems to be blaming the ref but I think he needs to take a look at himself moreso than anyone else, that's the worst any of his teams have looked since he arrived in Ireland IMO. England had us figured out and we just couldn't react. It started with them attacking brilliantly and exposing Earls early on, and then their carrying and kicking game made us look vulnerable nearly every time they had the ball. England defended magnificently but we played into their hands.

Obviously Robbie turned out to be a dreadful call. I'm a broken record on this but I think it's really poor management to have Joey on the bench but not see him as a fullback. It's possible that Johnny was injured (certainly played like it) and Earls going off meant that we didn't want to make another change, but with the way the game was going I can't believe Joey didn't come on at fullback early in the second half. Robbie's selection gave them a blueprint of how to attack us but England's kicking game really was outstanding. We were weak at the back but they exposed us superbly.

Sexton can't have been fit, Aki seemed to be our ten which allowed England to strangle us because they weren't worried about him passing and know he can't chip in behind. When Johnny did get the ball he was often very deep, and to me he just looked sluggish a lot of the time. Murray hasn't really been at the races since he came back from injury (bar one or two games) and it's a big worry that we spent so long getting him right and yet he looks off the pace. He had one missed tackle that was just so unlike him that it made me question why he was even out there.

As well as England defended and as physical as they were it was really frustrating that we didn't change our approach. There's so many clips of us passing one out and being lined up by two defenders and driven back. That can happen, but why not increase the numbers in support, latch on, use tip on passes etc? Stander was really quiet, wonder when he picked up his injury because it just wasn't like him, not in green anyway. POM also really quiet. Our kicking/kick chase were awful but we kept on doing them

James Ryan, Josh, and (especially) Ringrose were the only positives (Healy, Furlong, and Porter decent too) I'd take from today, thought they all rose above the flat performances from everyone else. There's no need to panic but there are definitely things we need to work on going forward. The main thing is that we need to be more flexible, both in terms of the selection/subs and tactically. I'd like to have seen how things would have changed if Joey had come on at 15, Henshaw had moved to 12, Cronin had come on with half an hour to go, and Cooney got more time than he did. Plan A usually works for us but it's not like we don't have the players to try Plan B and it's annoying when we don't.

Fair play to England though, that was light years ahead of any other performance they've put in over the last couple of years.

Good post and Joe did get it wrong in some areas, he is our greatest coach but not infallible. Look better today than in a world cup semi. Fess up and move on. Forget Carbery at 15, Joe has nailed his colours to the Joey is a 10 camp with the Munster move. I have always felt he was Kearney's heir and feel Leocaster had strong leanings that way. We would have been better today with Henshaw at 12, Carbery at 15 I think but that is tricky as it questions the Carbery to Munster move.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Stander was really quiet, wonder when he picked up his injury because it just wasn't like him, not in green anyway.

And now I see on Twitter that he fractured his cheek and his eye socket at the very start of the game. Fair play to him for toughing it out for as long as he did.

I have to wonder if Joe didn't want to bring SOB on earlier because of his lack of fitness though?

[Jackie Brown]

Addison at 15

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk

[Oldschool]

Fair play to England though, that was light years ahead of any other performance they've put in over the last couple of years.

If I were Eddie I'd keep the feet firmly on the ground.
That was a reaction game for England.
We made them look better than they are and if we were to meet them in the RWC I'd give us a 50/50 chance of beating them.

[FLIP]

Stander was really quiet, wonder when he picked up his injury because it just wasn't like him, not in green anyway.

And now I see on Twitter that he fractured his cheek and his eye socket at the very start of the game. Fair play to him for toughing it out for as long as he did.

I have to wonder if Joe didn't want to bring SOB on earlier because of his lack of fitness though?

Stander had the joint highest Irish tackle count at 17 with none missed, compared to POMs 9 with 2 missed. Better attacking stats too. Impressive for someone who'd injured himself that bad early doors.