Planet Rugby Forum

camroc1 wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I'm concerned with the penalty situation. 14 against us on Saturday? f**king hell. Add in the French total, how we were reffed against Wales and we are doing something wrong. All good sides should be living on the edge at the breakdown, but we are giving away too many penalties.

Plus the error count is still frustrating. A bad kick, a knock on, a missed lineout and we punish ourselves too often.

I agree on the penalties but I thought our error count was quite low against Scotland. Ok some of the kicking could constitute errors if you want but that comes down to opinion more than anything else (other than the obvious kick to a Scot in his 22 with no-one near him but even that worked out for us!).

Sexton's kick to Bowe - yay or nay? Is it one of those it was only the right call if it worked? I was a bit upset we got nothing out of that passage of play, probably our most fluid attack from deep this season.

I asked this on the match thread, but didn't see any answers.

Surely both Bowe and his tackler were in- goal and therefore off the field of play for the incident; in which case the tackle laws didn't apply, and the Scot was entitled to hold on as long as he wanted, just as Bowe was allowed to take as many attempts to ground the ball as he wanted, until the ball became unplayable ?

Any opinions ?

Mentioned that above. One for OB.

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I think ol Hook is trying to start another Twitter row...

If Kidney picked on form, Jamie Heaslip would be the one to lose out. The No 8 has been outplayed by his opposite number in every match so far. If he took the headphones off and stopped tweeting and instead studied more video, he might get some idea of how peripheral he is to Ireland's cause.

On Saturday, his most obvious intervention came when he foolishly ran a penalty with three points on offer and was very lucky that Ireland subsequently manufactured a try.

I thought Heaslip played quite well on Sat.

Didn't have much issue with him running the peno. To be honest I think he was trying to get the extra 10m but the Scots did well (initially) to not touch him.

Hook is all over the place there. He runs the penalty and we, err, get the try Heaslip as said umpteen tomes before, is forced to do a lot more dogwork on the deck. And he does it very well.

I presume Hook criticised Best for going for the corner and Sexton for kicking to Bowe too?

The same article

Rory Best's leadership contrasted with that of Ross Ford. The Irish captain took the very brave decision to go for touch to initiate the set move for his own try, while Ford -- with a yellow card or even a penalty try beckoning after two infringements by Ireland at the maul -- went for the three points.

camroc1 wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I'm concerned with the penalty situation. 14 against us on Saturday? f**king hell. Add in the French total, how we were reffed against Wales and we are doing something wrong. All good sides should be living on the edge at the breakdown, but we are giving away too many penalties.

Plus the error count is still frustrating. A bad kick, a knock on, a missed lineout and we punish ourselves too often.

I agree on the penalties but I thought our error count was quite low against Scotland. Ok some of the kicking could constitute errors if you want but that comes down to opinion more than anything else (other than the obvious kick to a Scot in his 22 with no-one near him but even that worked out for us!).

Sexton's kick to Bowe - yay or nay? Is it one of those it was only the right call if it worked? I was a bit upset we got nothing out of that passage of play, probably our most fluid attack from deep this season.

I asked this on the match thread, but didn't see any answers.

Surely both Bowe and his tackler were in- goal and therefore off the field of play for the incident; in which case the tackle laws didn't apply, and the Scot was entitled to hold on as long as he wanted, just as Bowe was allowed to take as many attempts to ground the ball as he wanted, until the ball became unplayable ?

Any opinions ?

There may have been difficulty with Bowe having been in goal then back on the field of play, then touching it down. But surely Morrison would have been penalised for lying on top of Bowe.

Ireland's Call wrote: The same article

Rory Best's leadership contrasted with that of Ross Ford. The Irish captain took the very brave decision to go for touch to initiate the set move for his own try, while Ford -- with a yellow card or even a penalty try beckoning after two infringements by Ireland at the maul -- went for the three points.

FFS!

Heaslip has had an average 6 nations. On his day he's a great 8, but unfortunatly those days are few and far between.

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote: The same article

Rory Best's leadership contrasted with that of Ross Ford. The Irish captain took the very brave decision to go for touch to initiate the set move for his own try, while Ford -- with a yellow card or even a penalty try beckoning after two infringements by Ireland at the maul -- went for the three points.

FFS!

Why are ye giving Hook any kind of recognition, even if it is laughing smileys?

Greg Feek really is the business. Our scrum is a very good one now, Paris was a real watershed in that area I think.

DOC on Feek.

“Our scrum probably doesn’t get enough mention but to be fair to Greg Feek, he’s got to get an awful lot of praise, just for the work he’s done in terms of analysis. I think we’re reaping the reward of getting good coaching.

“An awful lot of credit will go to Mike [Ross], Cian [Healy] too, and Rory, who do all of the hard work but that’s because they’re getting such clear detail, which is heaven to get from coaches.

“They can pick out one or two relevant points and work on it. This week he’ll have the points he’ll be happy with and the points we need to work on. Sometimes guys don’t get credit but he definitely deserves it with how our scrum is shaping up.”

Ireland's Call wrote:

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I see ROG hit some poor kid in the face with a ball while practicing kicking Gave him a nice bloody nose.

Gave him a signed ball to say sorry though.

Kid looks like he was holding out for more in fairness

His old man would want to have a word with him about those boots. Thats needs to be stamped out quick sharp.

Its impossible to find plain black boots for kids these days, i bought new boots for my boys a few weeks ago (they are 4 and 5) and both pairs were luminous green and purple, i asked the guy in the shop if they stocked plain ones and he told me not in kids sizes,No demand apparently.

etherman wrote:

DiscoHips D'Arcy wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I see ROG hit some poor kid in the face with a ball while practicing kicking Gave him a nice bloody nose.

Gave him a signed ball to say sorry though.

Kid looks like he was holding out for more in fairness

Isn't that Keith Earls?

Don't be ridiculous. Keith Earls wears pink boots with green laces.

Despot wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote: The same article

Rory Best's leadership contrasted with that of Ross Ford. The Irish captain took the very brave decision to go for touch to initiate the set move for his own try, while Ford -- with a yellow card or even a penalty try beckoning after two infringements by Ireland at the maul -- went for the three points.

FFS!

Why are ye giving Hook any kind of recognition, even if it is laughing smileys?

Sorry sir....

For those who watched the Munster game, anything of note to say about Wallace?

camroc1 wrote:

CM11 wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I'm concerned with the penalty situation. 14 against us on Saturday? f**king hell. Add in the French total, how we were reffed against Wales and we are doing something wrong. All good sides should be living on the edge at the breakdown, but we are giving away too many penalties.

Plus the error count is still frustrating. A bad kick, a knock on, a missed lineout and we punish ourselves too often.

I agree on the penalties but I thought our error count was quite low against Scotland. Ok some of the kicking could constitute errors if you want but that comes down to opinion more than anything else (other than the obvious kick to a Scot in his 22 with no-one near him but even that worked out for us!).

Sexton's kick to Bowe - yay or nay? Is it one of those it was only the right call if it worked? I was a bit upset we got nothing out of that passage of play, probably our most fluid attack from deep this season.

I asked this on the match thread, but didn't see any answers.

Surely both Bowe and his tackler were in- goal and therefore off the field of play for the incident; in which case the tackle laws didn't apply, and the Scot was entitled to hold on as long as he wanted, just as Bowe was allowed to take as many attempts to ground the ball as he wanted, until the ball became unplayable ?

Any opinions ?

Have to say, I would think you are right.
The reason given for disallowing the try was "double movement" - how did this apply, when Bowe hadn't previously grounded the ball?

Ireland's Call wrote:

Ireland's Call wrote:I think ol Hook is trying to start another Twitter row...

If Kidney picked on form, Jamie Heaslip would be the one to lose out. The No 8 has been outplayed by his opposite number in every match so far. If he took the headphones off and stopped tweeting and instead studied more video, he might get some idea of how peripheral he is to Ireland's cause.

On Saturday, his most obvious intervention came when he foolishly ran a penalty with three points on offer and was very lucky that Ireland subsequently manufactured a try.

Rory Best's leadership contrasted with that of Ross Ford. The Irish captain took the very brave decision to go for touch to initiate the set move for his own try, while Ford -- with a yellow card or even a penalty try beckoning after two infringements by Ireland at the maul -- went for the three points.

I am strongly thinking of starting up a website or some sort of online campaign to try and get George hook fried from all media outlets, and I don't want to see anybody out of a job but that man is a joke, the shit he was on about with Best being captain I mean wtf George. What I really hate is the fact that he takes a dislike to certain players and even if they play well, he still goes on about them, this example is case and point, Heaslip took the right decision and more importantly was back by the rest of his team hence why the try was scored. George hook is a utter wit kant. Rant over

CM11 wrote:For those who watched the Munster game, anything of note to say about Wallace?

Nothing of note to say about anyone. It was a complete farcical performance.

Ireland's Call wrote:Greg Feek really is the business. Our scrum is a very good one now, Paris was a real watershed in that area I think.

DOC on Feek.

“Our scrum probably doesn’t get enough mention but to be fair to Greg Feek, he’s got to get an awful lot of praise, just for the work he’s done in terms of analysis. I think we’re reaping the reward of getting good coaching.

“An awful lot of credit will go to Mike [Ross], Cian [Healy] too, and Rory, who do all of the hard work but that’s because they’re getting such clear detail, which is heaven to get from coaches.

“They can pick out one or two relevant points and work on it. This week he’ll have the points he’ll be happy with and the points we need to work on. Sometimes guys don’t get credit but he definitely deserves it with how our scrum is shaping up.”

The scrum has become better than stable. Funny how when Euan Murray came on he appeared to get his arse handed to him.......

Healy was immense on Saturday, hes one of those guys that once he gets his hands on the ball once he seems to pop up everywhere....

I was really heartened by Saturday. I think Earls is growing in to the 13 jersey - he is not and never will be BOD - but competent. I thought he was going to get physically ruined but he seems to have been concentrating hard on defence..... Needs to build back on his attacking strengths - he ran a couple of great lines on saturday....

All that said - Twickers will be very difficult. England have their tails and even though France were doubly shit yesterday - this 4th game in a row may be one too far.

Hook in coming across as a complete buffoon shocker, b his opinion carries no weight with anyone who knows the first thing about the game.

One thing I will say, I do like coming up against a confident England side

He Man Rugger Pints wrote:Hook in coming across as a complete buffoon shocker, b his opinion carries no weight with anyone who knows the first thing about the game.

That's why he's a problem. Too many people repeat something like what he says. Does my head in.

The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Nolanator wrote:

He Man Rugger Pints wrote:Hook in coming across as a complete buffoon shocker, b his opinion carries no weight with anyone who knows the first thing about the game.

That's why he's a problem. Too many people repeat something like what he says. Does my head in.

He is a pundit for the bandwagoner and the retards

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Harsh

but fair

lorcanoworms wrote:The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

Yeah - presume that's what was done/we got done for. Either that or the Scots jumper perfected the art of mid-air moonwalking.

redderneck wrote:

lorcanoworms wrote:The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

Yeah - presume that's what was done/we got done for. Either that or the Scots jumper perfected the art of mid-air moonwalking.

What was Ryan done for after he stole the ball at the lineout the second time?

redderneck wrote:

lorcanoworms wrote:The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

Yeah - presume that's what was done/we got done for. Either that or the Scots jumper perfected the art of mid-air moonwalking.

Keef showed him how to do that mid air wobble.

SASP wrote:

redderneck wrote:

lorcanoworms wrote:The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

Yeah - presume that's what was done/we got done for. Either that or the Scots jumper perfected the art of mid-air moonwalking.

What was Ryan done for after he stole the ball at the lineout the second time?

Scrum against us think Court lost the pill on the deck,that one?.

In that penalty we hit the lifters before Gray hit the deck. Was a penalty for certain.

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Best rating so far.

Who wrote that?

lorcanoworms wrote:

SASP wrote:

redderneck wrote:

lorcanoworms wrote:The second jock lineout penalty for interfering with the jumper in the air well no one went near him,you could say we hit the lifters early maybe.

Yeah - presume that's what was done/we got done for. Either that or the Scots jumper perfected the art of mid-air moonwalking.

What was Ryan done for after he stole the ball at the lineout the second time?

Scrum against us think Court lost the pill on the deck,that one?.

Will need to watch again. I think he took it from their man (think it was hamilton) who went off his feet to try to get it back. Ref then blew for a scrum to them. Crazy call anyway.

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

Willie Falloon wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Best rating so far.

Who wrote that?

Mark Bonsall

camroc1 wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

I think thats fair but by that stage I think Ireland were in control anyway. O'Gara does bring alot of experience when he comes on.

But I think most of those changes were for tired players.

camroc1 wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

Best was breathing out the side of his ribcage at that stage; he was nearly done. Hence Cronin. D'Arcy was playing like a beanbag wearing boxing gloves. He had to come off. I'm not about to argue the toss over why McFadden isn't trusted, but he patently isn't. The call was to put Sexton into 12, where - most certainly against oppo as limited in midfield as Scotland - you know full well he'll operate just fine for you; added benefit is no need to change kickers when he's in his groove. ROG comes in, when you know his tactical nous will not go astray. Reddan had been ragdolled in a total mismatch v Gray and I'm guessing they wanted a bit more defensive bite there - fair enough, especially with decision to bring ROG on - but all; each and every one of them camroc, entirely logical decisions. The rest will do them all good, given we have England in a week. Why risk an injury to Sexton or indeed Reddan when both are vital for next week and the game is under control?

They may not be YOUR logic camroc, but then you're not the coach, nor are you privy to what gets communicated on & off the pitch during games.

I'd have brought Cronin on when he came on. I'd have brought McFadden on a lot sooner for D'Arcy. I'd have taken Sexton off tbh. Once the game was done - do not want him picking up a knock preventing him from starting against the pigdogs.

Reddan? Fcuk it. I'd have left him on. He plays better when he's had his head battered a few times.

Found these ratings
http://www.sportinglife.com/rugbyunion/ ... ml&BID=504

My favorite bit

MIKE ROSS: Anchored Ireland's scrum but the set-piece wobbled against the Scots' pack at times. 6.

redderneck wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

Best was breathing out the side of his ribcage at that stage; he was nearly done. Hence Cronin. D'Arcy was playing like a beanbag wearing boxing gloves. He had to come off. I'm not about to argue the toss over why McFadden isn't trusted, but he patently isn't. The call was to put Sexton into 12, where - most certainly against oppo as limited in midfield as Scotland - you know full well he'll operate just fine for you; added benefit is no need to change kickers when he's in his groove. ROG comes in, when you know his tactical nous will not go astray. Reddan had been ragdolled in a total mismatch v Gray and I'm guessing they wanted a bit more defensive bite there - fair enough, especially with decision to bring ROG on - but all; each and every one of them camroc, entirely logical decisions. The rest will do them all good, given we have England in a week. Why risk an injury to Sexton or indeed Reddan when both are vital for next week and the game is under control?

They may not be YOUR logic camroc, but then you're not the coach, nor are you privy to what gets communicated on & off the pitch during games.

I'd have brought Cronin on when he came on. I'd have brought McFadden on a lot sooner for D'Arcy. I'd have taken Sexton off tbh. Once the game was done - do not want him picking up a knock preventing him from starting against the pigdogs.

Reddan? Fcuk it. I'd have left him on. He plays better when he's had his head battered a few times.

And we proceeded to play spacker rugby for 20 mins, with Scotland still in the hunt, instead of killing them off.

camroc1 wrote:

redderneck wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

Best was breathing out the side of his ribcage at that stage; he was nearly done. Hence Cronin. D'Arcy was playing like a beanbag wearing boxing gloves. He had to come off. I'm not about to argue the toss over why McFadden isn't trusted, but he patently isn't. The call was to put Sexton into 12, where - most certainly against oppo as limited in midfield as Scotland - you know full well he'll operate just fine for you; added benefit is no need to change kickers when he's in his groove. ROG comes in, when you know his tactical nous will not go astray. Reddan had been ragdolled in a total mismatch v Gray and I'm guessing they wanted a bit more defensive bite there - fair enough, especially with decision to bring ROG on - but all; each and every one of them camroc, entirely logical decisions. The rest will do them all good, given we have England in a week. Why risk an injury to Sexton or indeed Reddan when both are vital for next week and the game is under control?

They may not be YOUR logic camroc, but then you're not the coach, nor are you privy to what gets communicated on & off the pitch during games.

I'd have brought Cronin on when he came on. I'd have brought McFadden on a lot sooner for D'Arcy. I'd have taken Sexton off tbh. Once the game was done - do not want him picking up a knock preventing him from starting against the pigdogs.

Reddan? Fcuk it. I'd have left him on. He plays better when he's had his head battered a few times.

And we proceeded to play spacker rugby for 20 mins, with Scotland still in the hunt, instead of killing them off.

But we did kill them off. They didn't score a point and we scored a converted try. May be conservative but still worked. If we lost I could see why your so annoyed but we won and won well.

camroc1 wrote:

redderneck wrote:

camroc1 wrote:

SASP wrote:The rugby blogs ratings of Irish players v Scotland

http://www.therugbyblog.co.uk/rbs-six-n ... v-scotland

Cronin, O’Leary and O’Gara all steadied the ship when they came on with 25 minutes remaining,

Explain to me, in what way, did the ship require steadying at 53 minutes, after probably our best 10 mins of the match, culminating in the Bowe Non-try ?

Best was breathing out the side of his ribcage at that stage; he was nearly done. Hence Cronin. D'Arcy was playing like a beanbag wearing boxing gloves. He had to come off. I'm not about to argue the toss over why McFadden isn't trusted, but he patently isn't. The call was to put Sexton into 12, where - most certainly against oppo as limited in midfield as Scotland - you know full well he'll operate just fine for you; added benefit is no need to change kickers when he's in his groove. ROG comes in, when you know his tactical nous will not go astray. Reddan had been ragdolled in a total mismatch v Gray and I'm guessing they wanted a bit more defensive bite there - fair enough, especially with decision to bring ROG on - but all; each and every one of them camroc, entirely logical decisions. The rest will do them all good, given we have England in a week. Why risk an injury to Sexton or indeed Reddan when both are vital for next week and the game is under control?

They may not be YOUR logic camroc, but then you're not the coach, nor are you privy to what gets communicated on & off the pitch during games.

I'd have brought Cronin on when he came on. I'd have brought McFadden on a lot sooner for D'Arcy. I'd have taken Sexton off tbh. Once the game was done - do not want him picking up a knock preventing him from starting against the pigdogs.

Reddan? Fcuk it. I'd have left him on. He plays better when he's had his head battered a few times.

And we proceeded to play spacker rugby for 20 mins, with Scotland still in the hunt, instead of killing them off.

Not what I saw. I saw us in control. Winding the game down. Six days after the Paris efforts and a week shy of the English in Twickenham.

It might not have been so astute had Scotland rallied - but let's face it camroc; they'd have needed 15 Audi Quattros to rally at that stage.

Reasonable calls IMO. I'd have made different ones, but there you go. Knicker-twisting ain't my thing.

Trying to shut down a game with half an hour to go is a dangerous thing to do, as we discovered in the France game in particular.

Ireland's Call wrote:Something I thought prior to the game on Saturday was echoed by DOC in the quote below. I thought that a good few of those players would actually be pissed off with the hysteria from fans and the media of POC gone to add to BOD. And they should have been pissed off becuase even with those two huge players out, (and they are huge players, there is no doubt) I still thought we matched up very well.

We still had Heaslip, Healy, DOC, Best, Ferris, Bowe, Trimble, D'Arse, Earls, Sexton, Kearney......All of those players are big game players, hugely experienced, big personalities and many of them Lions to boot. This team has never been just about two players, as great as they are. We have other bloody good players in this team.

"Sometimes you get a bit frustrated when the lads are out of the squad because people think you can't tie your laces without them," mused Donncha O'Callaghan afterwards.

Good man - he's dead right, a lot of the coverage was almost disrespectful to the players who were there.

monners1969 wrote: I think Earls is growing in to the 13 jersey - he is not and never will be BOD - but competent. I thought he was going to get physically ruined but he seems to have been concentrating hard on defence..... Needs to build back on his attacking strengths - he ran a couple of great lines on saturday....

Agreed. I have to hold my hand up and admit I was wrong, he hasn't been the weak link I expected. He's not been sensational but he's been effective in attack and has defended very well.

CM11 wrote:For those who watched the Munster game, anything of note to say about Wallace?

Biggest thing of note was Mike Ross could probally take Denis Hurley in a sprint