Italy V Ireland (Rome 6Nations 2015)

[Peg Leg]

Given the unexpected brilliance of Keatley and the acknowledged fact that Joe always picks on form, there is no way that Sexton could come back - even into the squad.

You had a good game for the 20 mins you were on. You should be happy with that. Well done lad.
Edit: your hair was magnificent

[All Blacks nil]

Murray ring rusty and taking on too much. He understandably has little or no confidence in Keatley. Front 5 doing very well. back-row, less so - getting blown out at the breakdown at times.

The lack of continuity at 10/12/13 is telling. Back 3 having to come looking for work. We need to stay maintain a minimum 8 point lead. I can see us conceding a sloppy try in broken field.

TOD just can't compete at this level. Got blown out of it there. Ulster in the HEC QF all over again.

I think te BR needs to be Henderson/POM/Heaslip against France with Jordi on the bench. Are Mick Mc and/or Foley back?

[Donny B.]

Dunno who got MOTM today but I thought O'Mahoney was excellent in attack and defence.

Murray was MOTM

Joke decision. Was Murray's worst game in a long time, slow to the rucks and several inaccurate passes. Hopefully it was just rustiness after the injury as we need him sharp next week.

POM would have been a far better choice alright.

[Golf Man]

cr@p game obviously but don't think anyone wouldn't have taken that score at the start of the game

not sure about this whole giving nothing away to the future opposition thing - team has played this style since schist came in not sure we are going to see an expansive game plan anytime soon

lot of talk on back row - pom was clearly the best of them. murphy and tod were okay but they are not in our top 5 back rows and it showed.

There were glimpses from hens haw and Payne in the second half that they could develop well. zebo showed up prey well relatively also.

Henderson shold have come on earlier - boss should never be near an Ireland shirt again

[carlow man]

Couldn't watch the game live so had to watch it last night. Okay performance without having to get into top gear. Hate watching Italy, their pack spend the whole match fouling, going off their feet, constantly offside at every ruck, scrummage illegally and as soon as the ref spots it we see them argue and parisee whinge as if they are being hard done by.

Get the win and get out of there. Solid performance all in all. Gutted for sob but we cd all see it was a hamstring issue on the screen apart from Phillip Matthews who must be blind! He told the viewing public that it wasn't his hamstring and it was his shoulder again and sib must be thinking thsts the end of his season!! Unreal! He is awful to listen to, constantly gets players names wrong and struggles to actually see who has done what e.g keatley cleared a great kicking down the field and Matthews tells us that a a great kicking from Rob Kearney! One is right footed the other one is left footed!!!

Picky I know but he is a terrible Co commentator! Anyway rant over, well done Ireland and let's hope sexton and sob are available for the France match.

[offshorerules]

Kearney-thought he performed well, though not asked to do much.
Bowe-quiet enough game.
Payne-did ok nothing great but glimpses of potential.
Henshaw-nice to have his physical presence but would need to be more than a one trick pony.
Zebo-improved as match went on, some good tackles which was nice to see.
Keatley-pleased with his kicking accuracy but some very poor stuff too.
Murray-took his try well, a couple of poor passes and some decisions were questionable.
Murphy-did well, for a small 8 he certainly makes an impact.
O'Donnell-coming in at late notice I thought he did very well.
O'Mahony-quiet enough game I thought. Maybe living off reputation a bit.
Toner-good in the line out not great carrying as is always the case. Put in some big hits though.
O'Connell- did nothing wrong, although he's undroppable Henderson is going to replace him well enough.
Ross-written off a bit early? Moore did well though when he came on.
Best-was he injured? One of his quieter games.
McGrath-did fine.

Overall ok is the word I think but maybe that's a result of expectations under joe.

[paddyor]

Murray ring rusty and taking on too much. He understandably has little or no confidence in Keatley. Front 5 doing very well. back-row, less so - getting blown out at the breakdown at times.

The lack of continuity at 10/12/13 is telling. Back 3 having to come looking for work. We need to stay maintain a minimum 8 point lead. I can see us conceding a sloppy try in broken field.

TOD just can't compete at this level. Got blown out of it there. Ulster in the HEC QF all over again.

I think te BR needs to be Henderson/POM/Heaslip against France with Jordi on the bench. Are Mick Mc and/or Foley back?

You really need to get a handle on the quote function

[johng]

When people delete the name they are quoting, do they expect us to trawl through several pages of a thread to find out who it is before we try to work out what they are on about?

I tend to ignore anonymous quotes.

[All Blacks nil]

Murray ring rusty and taking on too much. He understandably has little or no confidence in Keatley. Front 5 doing very well. back-row, less so - getting blown out at the breakdown at times.

The lack of continuity at 10/12/13 is telling. Back 3 having to come looking for work. We need to stay maintain a minimum 8 point lead. I can see us conceding a sloppy try in broken field.

TOD just can't compete at this level. Got blown out of it there. Ulster in the HEC QF all over again.

I think te BR needs to be Henderson/POM/Heaslip against France with Jordi on the bench. Are Mick Mc and/or Foley back?

You really need to get a handle on the quote function

Just a selection of quotes from one of the more "respected" contributors.

[artaneboy]

Couldn't watch the game live so had to watch it last night. Okay performance without having to get into top gear. Hate watching Italy, their pack spend the whole match fouling, going off their feet, constantly offside at every ruck, scrummage illegally and as soon as the ref spots it we see them argue and parisee whinge as if they are being hard done by.

Get the win and get out of there. Solid performance all in all. Gutted for sob but we cd all see it was a hamstring issue on the screen apart from Phillip Matthews who must be blind! He told the viewing public that it wasn't his hamstring and it was his shoulder again and sib must be thinking thsts the end of his season!! Unreal! He is awful to listen to, constantly gets players names wrong and struggles to actually see who has done what e.g keatley cleared a great kicking down the field and Matthews tells us that a a great kicking from Rob Kearney! One is right footed the other one is left footed!!!

Picky I know but he is a terrible Co commentator! Anyway rant over, well done Ireland and let's hope sexton and sob are available for the France match.

This...! A very good player- maybe not as good as his hyperbolic fans claim- but Parisse has to be the biggest and most petulant whinner since Martin Johnson retired. There's always a push or a grab per game at the opposition when a decision (usually clear cut) goes against them. He was at it on Bowe (?) yesterday following his tackle in the air that gave away the peno- and he definitely had to know he touched that ball for the disallowed try- but claimed in the press conference he didn't.

[The Wum]

The anti munster bias on here is very disturbing.
Are we not all Ireland fans? Reading the match thread all it is, is comments on when a munster player doesn't do well. Get a grip please.
For me I was worried about how we would fair in the back row but thought the worked well as a unit against a experienced Italian back row.
Kearney- quite game but the guy has serious class, one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bowe- quite game not much ball.
Payne- solid but not much chance to shine
Henshaw- he has amazing acceleration and strength
Keatley- decent got his kicks on goal, had good moments and a few brain farts think he'll accept that run out
Murray- bit rusty played ok will only improve
McGrath- good game did good v castrogivani, solid around park as always
Best- good darts quite around park
Ross- did his job well
Toner- some very strong carries!! Well done becoming a real leader
POC - decent bit quite, bigger games to come
POM- very strong carries part of a good unit yesterday
TOD - good enough game good try, nice player to have to cover injuries
Murphy- really impressed me again good to have to cover injuries

We have struggled to victories in Rome in the past, yestrday wasn't vintage Ireland but solid. Would love to see Fitzgerald get a run at 13, think he's magic and better than Payne with earls or Payne in the bench instead of jones.
Happy with that C+ overall

[LeRouxIsPHat]

cr@p game obviously but don't think anyone wouldn't have taken that score at the start of the game

not sure about this whole giving nothing away to the future opposition thing - team has played this style since schist came in not sure we are going to see an expansive game plan anytime soon

lot of talk on back row - pom was clearly the best of them. murphy and tod were okay but they are not in our top 5 back rows and it showed.

Yeah not sure about that either but for different reasons. Think we just tried to beat them up in the first half but were too inaccurate and ignored the space out wide. We could have gone wide without doing anything extravagant, would have been very simple rugby but good decision making. SOB was obviously a loss in terms of that gameplan. On paper I'm sure it looks like we beat them up for an hour and then they tired but I'm not sure that's how it actually worked out. Italy were just really really poor and couldn't get the ball off us despite how sloppy we were.

Was really happy with the second half. Much improved breakdown work, speed in our play and moving of the ball. Very happy with the set piece too for the most part. Nice variety, slick move from POC to Jordi in the lead up to Murray's try, and attacked the Italian lineout more often than we usually do.

Aside from those in the set piece, I didn't think anyone played well in the first half. Much improved after that though, Jordi Murphy and TOD stepped up in particular. Both got through a mountain of work. TOD's reading of the game is top notch but I do still think he's underpowered. He's got good feet and I'd like to see him use them more when going into heavy traffic. Don't know who I'd go for at 7 next week assuming SOB misses out. I know SOB is a maybe at this point but it's hard to see him training over the next few days.

[StrangeButBlue]

The anti munster bias on here is very disturbing.
Are we not all Ireland fans? Reading the match thread all it is, is comments on when a munster player doesn't do well. Get a grip please.
For me I was worried about how we would fair in the back row but thought the worked well as a unit against a experienced Italian back row.
Kearney- quite game but the guy has serious class, one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bowe- quite game not much ball.
Payne- solid but not much chance to shine
Henshaw- he has amazing acceleration and strength
Keatley- decent got his kicks on goal, had good moments and a few brain farts think he'll accept that run out
Murray- bit rusty played ok will only improve
McGrath- good game did good v castrogivani, solid around park as always
Best- good darts quite around park
Ross- did his job well
Toner- some very strong carries!! Well done becoming a real leader
POC - decent bit quite, bigger games to come
POM- very strong carries part of a good unit yesterday
TOD - good enough game good try, nice player to have to cover injuries
Murphy- really impressed me again good to have to cover injuries

We have struggled to victories in Rome in the past, yestrday wasn't vintage Ireland but solid. Would love to see Fitzgerald get a run at 13, think he's magic and better than Payne with earls or Payne in the bench instead of jones.
Happy with that C+ overall

Welcome to the forum.
I am guessing the Wum aspect of your post is a team review that leaves out Zebo, very subtle.
Personally I thought Zebo had a good game, if anything looked for too much work in traffic. His pass out to payne was better than anything madigan has been trying to do all year

[simonokeeffe]

The anti munster bias on here is very disturbing.
Are we not all Ireland fans? Reading the match thread all it is, is comments on when a munster player doesn't do well. Get a grip please.
For me I was worried about how we would fair in the back row but thought the worked well as a unit against a experienced Italian back row.
Kearney- quite game but the guy has serious class, one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bowe- quite game not much ball.
Payne- solid but not much chance to shine
Henshaw- he has amazing acceleration and strength
Keatley- decent got his kicks on goal, had good moments and a few brain farts think he'll accept that run out
Murray- bit rusty played ok will only improve
McGrath- good game did good v castrogivani, solid around park as always
Best- good darts quite around park
Ross- did his job well
Toner- some very strong carries!! Well done becoming a real leader
POC - decent bit quite, bigger games to come
POM- very strong carries part of a good unit yesterday
TOD - good enough game good try, nice player to have to cover injuries
Murphy- really impressed me again good to have to cover injuries

We have struggled to victories in Rome in the past, yestrday wasn't vintage Ireland but solid. Would love to see Fitzgerald get a run at 13, think he's magic and better than Payne with earls or Payne in the bench instead of jones.
Happy with that C+ overall

Welcome to the forum.
I am guessing the Wum aspect of your post is a team review that leaves out Zebo, very subtle.
Personally I thought Zebo had a good game, if anything looked for too much work in traffic. His pass out to payne was better than anything madigan has been trying to do all year

theres a sinister fringe to this forum

[Dave Cahill]

Yeah not sure about that either but for different reasons. Think we just tried to beat them up in the first half but were too inaccurate and ignored the space out wide. We could have gone wide without doing anything extravagant, would have been very simple rugby but good decision making. SOB was obviously a loss in terms of that gameplan. On paper I'm sure it looks like we beat them up for an hour and then they tired but I'm not sure that's how it actually worked out. Italy were just really really poor and couldn't get the ball off us despite how sloppy we were.

Maybe, maybe not, but in pretty much every single game of this type (before the Lord Mayors show) that I have seen Joe Schmidt coach a team in, the performance has been like this. Functional but limited. Yesterday quacked like a duck.

[StrangeButBlue]

Personally I thought Zebo had a good game, if anything looked for too much work in traffic. His pass out to payne was better than anything madigan has been trying to do all year

theres a sinister fringe to this forum

sorry - was trying to be more light hearted than it must have come across

[LeRouxIsPHat]

[quote="LeRouxIsPHat"
Yeah not sure about that either but for different reasons. Think we just tried to beat them up in the first half but were too inaccurate and ignored the space out wide. We could have gone wide without doing anything extravagant, would have been very simple rugby but good decision making. SOB was obviously a loss in terms of that gameplan. On paper I'm sure it looks like we beat them up for an hour and then they tired but I'm not sure that's how it actually worked out. Italy were just really really poor and couldn't get the ball off us despite how sloppy we were.

Maybe, maybe not, but in pretty much every single game of this type (before the Lord Mayors show) that I have seen Joe Schmidt coach a team in, the performance has been like this. Functional but limited. Yesterday quacked like a duck.[/quote]

Don't get me wrong, I think there was an element of that. I just think you can be limited but still go wide more often, exactly like we did in the second half really. There was nothing flash about it but we made ground much easier.

Would say the fact that it was our first run out in months and had Keatley playing would have played a part in us not showing much too, wouldn't put it solely down to us holding back for next week.

[outcast eddie]

The anti munster bias on here is very disturbing.
Are we not all Ireland fans? Reading the match thread all it is, is comments on when a munster player doesn't do well. Get a grip please.
For me I was worried about how we would fair in the back row but thought the worked well as a unit against a experienced Italian back row.
Kearney- quite game but the guy has serious class, one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bowe- quite game not much ball.
Payne- solid but not much chance to shine
Henshaw- he has amazing acceleration and strength
Keatley- decent got his kicks on goal, had good moments and a few brain farts think he'll accept that run out
Murray- bit rusty played ok will only improve
McGrath- good game did good v castrogivani, solid around park as always
Best- good darts quite around park
Ross- did his job well
Toner- some very strong carries!! Well done becoming a real leader
POC - decent bit quite, bigger games to come
POM- very strong carries part of a good unit yesterday
TOD - good enough game good try, nice player to have to cover injuries
Murphy- really impressed me again good to have to cover injuries

We have struggled to victories in Rome in the past, yestrday wasn't vintage Ireland but solid. Would love to see Fitzgerald get a run at 13, think he's magic and better than Payne with earls or Payne in the bench instead of jones.
Happy with that C+ overall

Don't come on here with this 'can't we all just get along' guff.

We all thrive on good old fashioned Irish parochialism around here so g'wan out of it with your common sense, it'll never catch on.

[The Wum]

The anti munster bias on here is very disturbing.
Are we not all Ireland fans? Reading the match thread all it is, is comments on when a munster player doesn't do well. Get a grip please.
For me I was worried about how we would fair in the back row but thought the worked well as a unit against a experienced Italian back row.
Kearney- quite game but the guy has serious class, one of the first names on the team sheet.
Bowe- quite game not much ball.
Payne- solid but not much chance to shine
Henshaw- he has amazing acceleration and strength
Keatley- decent got his kicks on goal, had good moments and a few brain farts think he'll accept that run out
Murray- bit rusty played ok will only improve
McGrath- good game did good v castrogivani, solid around park as always
Best- good darts quite around park
Ross- did his job well
Toner- some very strong carries!! Well done becoming a real leader
POC - decent bit quite, bigger games to come
POM- very strong carries part of a good unit yesterday
TOD - good enough game good try, nice player to have to cover injuries
Murphy- really impressed me again good to have to cover injuries

We have struggled to victories in Rome in the past, yestrday wasn't vintage Ireland but solid. Would love to see Fitzgerald get a run at 13, think he's magic and better than Payne with earls or Payne in the bench instead of jones.
Happy with that C+ overall

Don't come on here with this 'can't we all just get along' guff.

We all thrive on good old fashioned Irish parochialism around here so g'wan out of it with your common sense, it'll never catch on.

Wow. I hate losing to leinster as much as the next munster man, I love beating ye and slagging before and after games, was I gutted when ye won yer third Heineken cup to become the most successful Irish team? Yep. But I was happy to see ye fly the flag for Ireland this year. That's a side note, here were talking about Ireland. I don't post on Munsterfans, they anger me as much asye do, looking over there they are calling to drop toner.
Zebo is Irish, heaslip is Irish (two players who seem to get most abuse from red and blue fans)we need to see them in green and not blue or red, as for me it does effect the atmosphere at games.
Let's not let a minority of fans make us look like children

[fourthirtythree]

There wasn't an awful lot on show from the backs yesterday, both halfbacks had indifferent games, new centre pairing showed some flashes, the two señor internationals there in Bowe and Kearney were outstandingly sterile, Zebo was for me easily the pick of them. Some fantastic play, great passes, from him. Along with Henshaws power he unlocked Italy's defence.

Tight five delivered excellent set piece and did their work without looking great in the loose. I was worried about McGrath but he did a decent shift in the scrum. Back row all looked underpowered and were blown away at times but also showed well later on. O'Donnell try was a particular delight to watch.

Next.