I have plenty of faith in the players, if selected in their correct positions and not nailed to the floor with an american football style no risk playbook. However, they weren't and they are.CM wrote:Dave, my point is why are you still in shock from this team announcement? He was never going to change it. He's clearly been training for the French match and even played the game as if we were playing against the French (e.g. we didn't really need the elaborate clearing of our lines against Italy but we will against France) and I imagine that just like I think Leinster did against Glasgow we trained closer to match day than we will this week thus explaining some lethargy.I would have thought that the obvious weaknesses would have caused at least a couple of changes. The completely unbalanced back-row is a serious cause for concern and was at least partially responsible for the concession of a try last saturday. The inability of the scrum half to break, thus putting further pressure on the outhalf is another serious issue that nothing has been done about for the last two years. And finally the total absense of anything even vaguely resembling his club form from the full back begs the question, if we put up with his weaknesses in defense to benefit from his attacking nous, and then hes not attacking, is he not just a poor international full back?
On Murphy, he's not playing FB much for Leicester so I'm not sure what FB form you're talking about. Yes, I'd argue he isn't a great international FB but he clearly doesn't see Dempsey there for the WC so he's persisting with Murphy in the hope that the experience will make him a better FB. And he was excellent for us in that position in 2003.
The backrow argument was one to be had when the Italy team was picked, not today. I'd hope that he'll change it slightly for Wales but I'd disagree that it lacked balance. Again, the more the players play together the better they will become. Have some faith in the players if you're not going to have any in the coach.
Our backrow is astonishingly unbalanced. We have not one, not two, but three blindside flankers in the backrow. No number 8, and crucially, no openside. We will, as we did against italy, get creamed at rucktime whilst our number 7 faffs around in the 12-13 channel. Meanwhile a backline containing some of the most potent players in European rugby have to wait and wait and wait whilst slow ball is dug out.
I genuinely cannot see how this team could have been selected with France in mind, there are no areas of tactical advantage we have, save in the centres and that has been negated by other selections. If we were to pick a heavy, mauling pack, then fair enough, at least there would have been a discernable uniqueness about it, but what we have is neither fish nor good red meat.
I dunno why I'm in shock, after all this is one of the most conservative coaches in the game, but I thought perhaps the worst Irish performance since god knows when would have enforced at least one or two changes, but it looks like the only changes that may happen will be forced upon us by the Disciplinary Committee, and thats not satisfactory
