Dave Cahill wrote:So basically we're all in agreement - everything that could go wrong or be gotten wrong went wrong or was gotten wrong. All the off-field stuff like selection and tactics and all the on-field stuff like discipline and execution of basic skills were crap. Lots of injuries and loss of form to key players. The Roof. Even the marketing from Guinness and Vodafone was a bit shit.
It was an omnishambles of a campaign.
And its over.
And, in reality, are we sure that anyone in the Irish squad and management really cares that much. This was a placeholder of a Six Nations for us.
------------------------------------------
I was struck by how much the performances in the this Six Nations reminded me of the performances in the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Nothing was quite right, no one was quite sure why (except Franno of course, he knows why and will be telling as soon as that world cup is over).
The big difference though is that we had a great six nations in 2007 - a missed tackle against France away from a Grand Slam and an injury time try away from a Championship. We went into that world cup with players saying, without bravado, that they were looking to win the competition. They genuinely believed it. Then the arse fell out of things the moment we hit French soil.
This time though, we've had our wake up call early. I'm not even sure it was a wake up call because I'm not sure that the group were even asleep in the first place, that they didn't - on some level - know or suspect that this was going to happen because they were, to an extent, going through the motions of this Six Nations on autopilot
I'd agree with a lot of that Dave, I think there's a lot of sense there. "Autopilot" might seem too strong to some, but we didn't look at the same emotional pitch as either England or Wales when we played them ... you have to be fully fired up to take it to those teams in the Six Nations.
I think Blaker and Sunshiner mentioned something above that I wholeheartedly agree with: trying to carry two misfiring halfbacks in the one team was a huge issue. Everything goes through 9 and 10, and if both of them are out of form, you're not going to be a successful team. But it was a tricky situation for Joe Schmidt - his now second choice outhalf [Carbery] was unavailable for three games, his second choice scrumhalf [Marmion] unavailable for four. On the evidence of the most recent squad selection before that for the Six Nations, Luke McGrath was his third choice scrumhalf, and he missed the whole tournament.
Some people might disagree with the scrum-half pecking order [I do] but I also recognise that Schmidt knows f*cking loads more about rugby and specifically what he wants from his players than I ever will, so I respect his opinion.
Murray's clearly not 100% physically, but the fact that he has been cleared to play for 4+ months now is a positive, because he's on the comeback trail.
I know he was protective of his privacy at the time, but he has since mentioned the nature of the injury and it's in the public domain [sources:
https://www.independent.ie/sport/rugby/ ... 80508.html ,
https://www.sportsjoe.ie/rugby/conor-mu ... ard-122347 (2017 injury) and
https://www.the42.ie/conor-murray-munst ... 2018/(2018 injury)]. The follow on is that he looks to have lost a really significant amount of muscle mass in his left shoulder and arm as a result of the injury:
https://www.sportsfile.com/id/1663775/ and
https://www.sportsfile.com/id/1663302/ ... again, these are publicly available photos. I feel a little uncomfortable speculating on a particular player's health or injury, but I think it's a case of 2+2=4 in this instance. He's had a long term injury, he's not physically at his best, and it's affecting his game ... but he's been cleared to play, he should be able to get himself back to where he was before with another four or five months of work, and better form will very likely come with him being healthier and closer to his physical peak. Cian had a similar nerve injury and it took a toll on him, but he came back from it [source:
https://www.the42.ie/cian-healy-retire- ... 9-Dec2017/ ].
With regards to outhalf, I'm not going to get into a long discussion on Paddy Jackson, because Pandora's Box doesn't cover it. The fella ruined his career, disgraced himself, and has been written out of rugby history, but the record shows that Schmidt gave him 9 starts at No10 between the start of Jun 2016 and the end of June 2017 [he was charged in Oct 2017].
Carbery's musical chairs since then is everything to do with Jackson, but because he wouldn't go up to Ulster [who looked every bit the basket case at the time] and went to Munster instead, and because Jackson's trial caused a huge furore and has a load of social consequences – and nobody wants to bring it up for fear of invoking a sh*tstorm – Carberry is not referred to as Jackson's replacement ... which he is. Schmidt had to fast-track the hell out of him, and with Carbery injured for the majority of this tournament, the coach was put in the position of having to mend and make do on the bench.
I'm not going to sh*t on Carty, because he did well when he came on, and I like him and respect him. But I completely understand Schmidt not dropping the current World Player of the Year and the greatest outhalf in the history of Irish rugby for a guy who has been a very slow burner with practically no test experience. The nearest equivalent I can draw would be dropping Drico for someone like Darren Cave or Paul O'Connell for somebody like Dave Foley.
I think most Irish fans accept that the RWC is the team's prime target this year. With that in mind, dropping both underperforming halfbacks [Murray and Sexton] for guys who are likely on the very fringes of selection for that squad [Cooney and Carty] would have been letting the tail wag the dog. The two Lions would have seen it as a massive breach of trust, because they have been incredibly reliable for Schmidt's entire stint. Selection is an art, not a science ... and managing a team could never even be confused for a science.
*EDIT* Apologies for the essay. A lot on my mind!