Planet Rugby Forum

irishrugbyua wrote:The IRFU have confirmed that Cian Healy suffered a stinger but he will train fully this week.

All other players are fit and available. Ian Keatley will train with the squad again this week.

Excellent news. He took a fair bit of punishment in that first half and there's decent depth behind him but just feel he's been excellent and improves our chances that bit more if he can start again.

Any more word on SOB?

Nolanator wrote:

Duff Paddy wrote:We’re good but the top teams will see our vulnerability in broken play. Gatland reckons any team who can keep the ball in play for longer than 43minutes can beat Ireland.

Schmidt called out Gatland's bullshit on that comment. The reason the ball was in play for such a short period of time was because we kept scoring against them, not because we were slowing the game down.

I don't think I would agree with Gatland on that. If he is implying we aren't fitter than the rest then I reckon he's way off.

Equal possession would probably force us to have a plan B though. Can we expect to have 60% / 70% in all our games? Probably not. We saw against France and even Wales that a bounce of a ball can ruin a dominant performance.

hermie wrote:Any more word on SOB?

nothing official at least.

Boxcar Ira wrote:

Nolanator wrote:

Duff Paddy wrote:We’re good but the top teams will see our vulnerability in broken play. Gatland reckons any team who can keep the ball in play for longer than 43minutes can beat Ireland.

Schmidt called out Gatland's bullshit on that comment. The reason the ball was in play for such a short period of time was because we kept scoring against them, not because we were slowing the game down.

I don't think I would agree with Gatland on that. If he is implying we aren't fitter than the rest then I reckon he's way off.

Equal possession would probably force us to have a plan B though. Can we expect to have 60% / 70% in all our games? Probably not. We saw against France and even Wales that a bounce of a ball can ruin a dominant performance.

Against the ABs in LR in 2016 we had 60/65% of the ball, and I think we've achieved similar numbers against most other sides, but as the ABs showed, and France very nearly showed, we must get better at turning that into scores. I said it on Saturday that I thought our performances against Wales and Scotland were closer to Leinster under Schmidt than any I'd seen from Ireland before because of the intensity and relentlessness that we brought to the tackle area, and to our carrying.

What really fcuked Scotland up in the second half was the pace and physicality we generated through the pack, and it was much the same against Wales. Even when we were behind in the first half against wales I felt that if we could cut down on our errors and hold on to the ball that we were making yards at will, and if we can maintain that approach I'm not sure England will have an answer, especially with the shite they're selecting in the backrow.

If we are to continue to develop I think we will have to expand our attacking game, but we definitely seem to have taken a step up, and I'm looking forward to see how the Aki/Ringrose partnership develops.

Lenny wrote:if we can maintain that approach I'm not sure England will have an answer, especially with the shite they're selecting in the backrow.

Well, their backrow will be changed. How much of a difference that makes remains to be seen.
I also wonder will EJ revert to Angry Mike at fullback to deal with the more tactical approach of Ireland. Mind you, the kicking against Scotland was fairly poor, all told.

England will probably pull out a backs to the wall performance, so all the selection discussion becomes secondary to just playing the game as best we can.

Trostan wrote:

Diego wrote:

Duff Paddy wrote:The scoreline really flattered us.
Our pack is very good, with good depth.
Leavy played well but got absolutely left for dead early in the second half - and it happened against Wales as well.
Ringrose was the best player on the pitch.
Kearney man of the match was bizarre.
Our backs looked so blunt compared to Scotland, we really need some pace from full back.
Stockdale is a serious liability in defence, he needs to improve there.

This contrarian act is getting a bit silly.

Most of the press scored Kearney with an 8 or 9 out of 10.
Seems they are all wrong (inc. the TV pundits), because a few people who probably never played, can't see DK had an excellentgame.

It would be hard to come up with a dumber post if you tried.
1. Most press journalists never played
2. Nobody said he didn’t have a good game
3. Man of the match isn’t about having a good game it’s about having the best performance of the match
4. Most of us on here have/do play (albeit low level)
5. Give yourself an uppercut

Nolanator wrote:

Duff Paddy wrote:We’re good but the top teams will see our vulnerability in broken play. Gatland reckons any team who can keep the ball in play for longer than 43minutes can beat Ireland.

Schmidt called out Gatland's bullshit on that comment. The reason the ball was in play for such a short period of time was because we kept scoring against them, not because we were slowing the game down.

That’s not what Gatland meant - and it was a theory he came up with before that match anyway

irishrugbyua wrote:The IRFU have confirmed that Cian Healy suffered a stinger but he will train fully this week.

All other players are fit and available. Ian Keatley will train with the squad again this week.

The thought of Keatley being involved in a match day squad for a grand slam decider at Twickenham has almost made me have an accident in my work trousers.

Copeland gone west I see

Mullet 2 wrote:

Willie Falloon wrote:

danthefan wrote:We lost two early lineouts but it was fine after that.

Plus Henderson just can't call the lineout.

Henderson is Irelands lineout caller when he is starting. It's between himself and Toner.

Henderson can't call a lineout to save his life.

He calls the Irish lineout when he is starting, you wingnut.

danthefan wrote:

Willie Falloon wrote:

danthefan wrote:We lost two early lineouts but it was fine after that.

Plus Henderson just can't call the lineout.

Henderson is Irelands lineout caller when he is starting. It's between himself and Toner.

Nope he can't do it. Just not able.

You must be thick like Mullet.

Willie Falloon wrote:

Mullet 2 wrote:

Willie Falloon wrote:

danthefan wrote:We lost two early lineouts but it was fine after that.

Plus Henderson just can't call the lineout.

Henderson is Irelands lineout caller when he is starting. It's between himself and Toner.

Henderson can't call a lineout to save his life.

He calls the Irish lineout when he is starting, you wingnut.

Copeland to Connacht confirmed.

Ah Willie Faloon.

Never change buddy

Andrew Conway is continuing to rehab a knee injury sustained on Ireland duty.

irishrugbyua wrote:Copeland to Connacht confirmed.

Big pressure now on jod to cement that position behind cj.

CM11 wrote:

Yer Man wrote:Ryan to bench?

Lineout looked a lot sharper when Henderson came on.

Logic? Hendo came on for Toner.

I'm just not sure about starting a sh1t-fight over benching Toner

Yes, Henderson replaced Toner and bored logic is that Toner is the biggest lineout asset.
Don't know exactly what it was, but we just looked sharper & quicker in the lineout after the switch.
Maybe it was less obvious where the ball was going? Then again we've spread the ball around quite well.
Or maybe we just got the bloody ball in quicker and gave Scotland less time to react.

I'll give Toner credit - he made a great steal on the Scottish throw in the fist half.
James Ryan's steal was a woeful overthrow that his octopus arm reeled in.

CM11 wrote:We don't play the ball quickly from side to side because we don't have to. Not really much more to it than that.

That try before HT was a classic modern Irish try.

Yes, we made a break out wide, but didn't force any pass or try for a magic off-load.
We got right up to the goal-line and maybe Aki took the wrong option (the ball kinda got caught up in feet for a precious second or two) but we didn't panic.

Once we had the 5m scrum, I just knew we were going to score.
Let's be honest, we all did.

And it might not have been as knicker-droppingly sexy as the Scottish try (with the three men in a line behind the scrum, phowaar) but it was ruthless efficiency.
A couple of phases to the right, a couple of tardy forwards loitering on the left and we exposed them to create a simple run-in for the winger.
T'was beautiful

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

fishooks15 wrote:Toner ran over someone on Saturday actually. Was pretty funny. He always manages about one really good carry a game that gets a good roar out of me

Thought it was their scrum half at first, on review it was the 7.

Defender tackled low - Toner went over him like a farmer reaching over a gate for a stray lamb.

hermie wrote:

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

JOD was the extra man ahead of Conan at the weekend so it might be a sign that his stock has dropped a good bit.

hermie wrote:

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

Nordi was very good when he came on and entirely justified his selection over Conan

Duff Paddy wrote:We’re good but the top teams will see our vulnerability in broken play. Gatland reckons any team who can keep the ball in play for longer than 43minutes can beat Ireland.

It was nearly 47 mins in Chicago.

hermie wrote:

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

Jordi certainly deserves to keep his place . I’ve a feeling he’ll go with the same pack and make plenty of changes before the hour mark . The formula is working well

Jumper wrote:

hermie wrote:

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

JOD was the extra man ahead of Conan at the weekend so it might be a sign that his stock has dropped a good bit.

You could be right. And he didn't even particularly standout against the Scarlets. But that's balanced with him being exactly the type of player you'd love to see coming off the bench if we need to make something happen.

Jordi was brilliant when he came on. No way will he be dropped. He's very consistent at this level.

Trostan wrote:Seems they are all wrong (inc. the TV pundits), because a few people who probably never played, can't see DK had an excellentgame.

DK was fecking anonymous on Saturday.

Yer Man wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Yer Man wrote:Ryan to bench?

Lineout looked a lot sharper when Henderson came on.

Logic? Hendo came on for Toner.

I'm just not sure about starting a sh1t-fight over benching Toner

Yes, Henderson replaced Toner and bored logic is that Toner is the biggest lineout asset.
Don't know exactly what it was, but we just looked sharper & quicker in the lineout after the switch.
Maybe it was less obvious where the ball was going? Then again we've spread the ball around quite well.
Or maybe we just got the bloody ball in quicker and gave Scotland less time to react.

I'll give Toner credit - he made a great steal on the Scottish throw in the fist half.
James Ryan's steal was a woeful overthrow that his octopus arm reeled in.

Ryan also stole another another at the front.

Murray rescued Hendo from a poor attempted catch where he just dropped it and Murray cleaned up.

Toner had a very good game, but it isn't a coincidence a couple of turnovers came when he missed the clearout - I remember 2, but the first was definitely on Watson after the Ringrose break.

grimoald wrote:Toner had a very good game, but it isn't a coincidence a couple of turnovers came when he missed the clearout - I remember 2, but the first was definitely on Watson after the Ringrose break.

First turnover pen that I remember had Ringrose and Toner going in to clear out.
Ringrose flat out missed the man, Toner couldn't manage to clear him - I think he'd been expecting a helper on the other side.
By the time the third man got there (Stander?) and helped Toner with the clearout, Barnes had called pen.

Best clearout of the entire match was a Toner effort in the first half on our left wing.
Scot reaches over for the ball, Toner just grabs him by the body (reaches past the arms/armpits) and wrenches them both away from the ruck.
Almost judo style.


It was one of the features of the game, we consistently cleared them out with only one or two men.
England simply couldn't do that in Paris.

Thought Jordi was terrific. Lots of unseen work but best of all plenty of High Definition air punchingly good in plain sight play too.

Case for him to be starting after that.

Am I missing someone or can Rob Kearney become the only Irishman in history with two grand slams next weekend?

I suppose Best could claim it as he subbed for most of 09 but fair play to Rob if he can win two having started all 10 games!

Sissyfuss wrote:Thought Jordi was terrific. Lots of unseen work but best of all plenty of High Definition air punchingly good in plain sight play too.

Case for him to be starting after that.

Don't get ahead of yourself now.

diarm wrote:Am I missing someone or can Rob Kearney become the only Irishman in history with two grand slams next weekend?

I suppose Best could claim it as he subbed for most of 09 but fair play to Rob if he can win two having started all 10 games!

Best started games too I'm sure. But Rob has amassed some collection of silverware. Both are on 4 championships which is impressive for anyone.

Jumper wrote:

Sissyfuss wrote:Thought Jordi was terrific. Lots of unseen work but best of all plenty of High Definition air punchingly good in plain sight play too.

Case for him to be starting after that.

Don't get ahead of yourself now.

With dreary predictability....

Jumper wrote:

hermie wrote:

danthefan wrote:What do we expect for next weekend, Henderson to come back in and as you were otherwise? There were no injuries right?

Conan could come back onto the bench given that England aren't as much of a threat over the ball as Scotland have been. He's the kind of player who could give you big impact for the final 20/25 and his concentration dips are less of a worry off the pine. Then again Nordi did nothing wrong.

JOD was the extra man ahead of Conan at the weekend so it might be a sign that his stock has dropped a good bit.

or that Conan was playing a game the night before and was needed by his province, unlike JOD.

diarm wrote:Am I missing someone or can Rob Kearney become the only Irishman in history with two grand slams next weekend?

I suppose Best could claim it as he subbed for most of 09 but fair play to Rob if he can win two having started all 10 games!

4 Six Nations, 3 Heinkens, 3 Pro14s, 1 Grand Slam and 2 Lions tours.

82 Irish caps, 3 B&I Lions Caps, 193 Leinster Caps.

European Player of the Year for 2012.

Boxcar Ira wrote:

diarm wrote:Am I missing someone or can Rob Kearney become the only Irishman in history with two grand slams next weekend?

I suppose Best could claim it as he subbed for most of 09 but fair play to Rob if he can win two having started all 10 games!

Best started games too I'm sure. But Rob has amassed some collection of silverware. Both are on 4 championships which is impressive for anyone.

Kearny has the more impressive domestic career obvs, but Rory Best OBE still won the magners league and got a HCup final.


Also a lions tour and Irish captain over all 3 SANZAR nations.

Not bad all the same.

Boxcar Ira wrote:

diarm wrote:Am I missing someone or can Rob Kearney become the only Irishman in history with two grand slams next weekend?

I suppose Best could claim it as he subbed for most of 09 but fair play to Rob if he can win two having started all 10 games!

Best started games too I'm sure. But Rob has amassed some collection of silverware. Both are on 4 championships which is impressive for anyone.

Rob just needs the RWC next year to complete the package.