• You may have to login or register before you can post and view our exclusive members only forums.
    To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

Six Nations

I look away every time we win a line-out.

The inevitability kills me.
 
8-6.

If you like battles, you'll be enjoying it. The game really is as close as the score suggests. I'm of to the boozer to watch the second half. Enjoy
 
HT

The game withered away after twenty minutes, but I think the score is a reflection of the match.

Problems with England;

- Looking susceptible under the high ball
- Shocking line-out
- Slow ball and turnovers.
- Also our 9-10-12 link ups look far from harmonious.

We seem to be attacking the wingers straight away in the first phase, which can be risky and it cost us the first try. When the rain came Ireland put boot to ball to good effect (although too many went straight out). England carried on with the same game-plan and couldn't get anywhere.
 
Phew, I get the impression the Referee only just decided to go to the video referee there. He certainly looked surprise at the instruction to give the try.

Good, brave call from the video ref.
 
16-20. Bugger, I thought we were gonna win it then. Oh well... great match, and Ireland deserved it, I guess, for scoring three tries to our one.
 
I maybe slightly bias but I thought we deserved it for our second half performance, TBH. It was all blood, sweat and tears and our line-out improved dramatically once we de-constructed it and took it back to it's most simplest form, and I really feel we made the best of what we had.

Ireland played a smarter, more clinical game, but I wouldn't say it was one worthy of victory. Their first try was a massive, massive overlap and whilst it was perfectly executed, I think they would have been disappointed had they not got under the posts. Their final one was off the back of a great line out, but where was Wilkinson? Bowe cut a great line but it was much too easy.

Care needs benching.
 
Defence is the new attack. As with France yesterday, just let the opponents play all the rugby, defend well, and you'll get chances to score tries through opposition error or their being drawn out of position. That was a largely poor Irish performance, with far too many errors and needless penalties again, but we have the players to take advantage of attacking positions. 99 tackles and one missed is a stat that tells its own story for Ireland. Far from vintage from us, but any positive result at Twickenham is hard-earned, and I'll take it.

Surprised that try was given for England (despite it probably being one).
 
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=38718.msg1061177#msg1061177 date=1267296700]
I maybe slightly bias but I thought we deserved it for our second half performance, TBH. It was all blood, sweat and tears and our line-out improved dramatically once we de-constructed it and took it back to it's most simplest form, and I really feel we made the best of what we had.

Ireland played a smarter, more clinical game, but I wouldn't say it was one worthy of victory. Their first try was a massive, massive overlap and whilst it was perfectly executed, I think they would have been disappointed had they not got under the posts. Their final one was off the back of a great line out, but where was Wilkinson? Bowe cut a great line but it was much too easy.

Care needs benching.

[/quote]

I think there a fair bit of bias in that post Squiggs.
It was a tight game, a great battle. If you score three tries to one away from home, you'd feel very hard done by not to win the game.
Ireland were clinical, like you say, and did enough to deserve victory in my opinion.
I hope you batter the French, not going to be easy though.
 
I really enjoyed that game yesterday.

I feared the worst in the first 10 mins of the second half when we gave up two good attacking possessions in the England 22. The first was when Sexton put a great kick in behind Monye and, under pressure, Monye knocked it into touch, we fucked up a quick lineout. Which was stupid given our dominance in the lineout. The second was when Wallace went away from his support and got pinged for holding on at the ruck.

I thought those two moments would cost us the game but we hung in there and took every opportunity that came our way. England's pack deserved better than to be beaten, lineout excepted they looked like a tough, well drilled unit.

Sexton's (and ROG's) kicking really put the pressure on England and it's no coincidence that our kicking game is partly responsible for the scores. The first coming from a grubber from Sexton, the second one came after a lineout five metres out, but the reason we were there was a peach of touch find from Sexton. The third came after a long flat touch find from ROG and a messy England line out leading to a pressurised clearance from Wilko.

The third try was a simple but quite clever move. From the set up in the lineout it was obvious that some move was planned. Buckley was, unusually, standing at the tail of the lineout and the back rowers were closer to the front of the lineout than normal. Bringing Bowe in off his wing caused some confusion in Wilkinson's mind and that hesitation was enough to allow Bowe through the gap, O'Leary fixed the first covering defender well and the second (Haskell) was being asked a lot to catch Bowe. I'd imagine we expected him to be caught and the odd lineout setup would have allowed Buckley and Cullen to clear out the ruck quickly leaving Heaslip and Ferris coming at full pace for a pop off the ruck. Thankfully it never came to that because of Bowe's determined running. He's almost unstoppable when he gets a sniff of the line, and he is the best winger I've seen play for Ireland.

Looking forward to next week it might be time to start testing out tighthead props with a view to letting the Bull ease himself out of the picture. Kidney again has the Cullen/O'Callaghan call to make, it's one he can't win in the press but can't lose on the pitch if that makes any sense. The backrow picks itself, the halfbacks will be another tricky call for Kidney. I'd prefer to see Reddan and Sexton but I expect O'Leary to get the nod again. If O'Driscoll is fit we'll see the same backline out next week. Murphy had a good game and it's great to have an experienced top level campaigner to call on when Kearney is out.
 
[quote author=Stu link=topic=38718.msg1061619#msg1061619 date=1267372854]
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=38718.msg1061177#msg1061177 date=1267296700]
I maybe slightly bias but I thought we deserved it for our second half performance, TBH. It was all blood, sweat and tears and our line-out improved dramatically once we de-constructed it and took it back to it's most simplest form, and I really feel we made the best of what we had.

Ireland played a smarter, more clinical game, but I wouldn't say it was one worthy of victory. Their first try was a massive, massive overlap and whilst it was perfectly executed, I think they would have been disappointed had they not got under the posts. Their final one was off the back of a great line out, but where was Wilkinson? Bowe cut a great line but it was much too easy.

Care needs benching.

[/quote]

I think there a fair bit of bias in that post Squiggs.
It was a tight game, a great battle. If you score three tries to one away from home, you'd feel very hard done by not to win the game.
Ireland were clinical, like you say, and did enough to deserve victory in my opinion.
I hope you batter the French, not going to be easy though.
[/quote]

You can say the same if you dominate possession and territory, which is effectively what Rugby is all about.

I think our forwards got the better of your lot, but a weak line-out and our lack of a ball carrying 12 really cost us. It was the sort of game where you need you inside to crash in and pick up some yards and ship it out in the second phase. There was a big Tindall shaped hole in our midfield. We decided spread in wide in the first phase too many times in the first half which left us vulnerable at times and made it hard work for the back-row. We were even having Tait as first receiver with Wilko standing in the 12/13 channel in a bid to get the ball wide. I'm not sure which weakness we were trying to exploit, but we certainly didn't find it, and it cost us the first try. It also made it fairly straight forward for your back line to line us up for the tackle. It wasn't until the second half until we saw more innovation and started to make some headway, although as ever this tournament, the source of it was mostly the forwards.

It was a decent defensive performance from the Irish and exploited the English mistakes, but I wasn't overly impressed with the overall performance given the talent in this Ireland side.

Job done, I guess. But France look a class apart so far.
 
Sorry mate but both your posts on yesterdays match just stink of sour grapes.
England lost and deserved to lose, slice it whatever way you want to.
 
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=38718.msg1061108#msg1061108 date=1267285603]
What the fuck do the Welsh know about rugby Pesam ?

tut tut
[/quote]

Haha, he did look a little embarrassed when I saw him in the pub the next day but as he pointed out to me I gave him a dodgy football tip once so we're evens. The other saving grace is that the money I was going to invest in the rugby match went on Southampton to beat Walsall so it was still a very profitable weekend.
 
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=38718.msg1061662#msg1061662 date=1267374683]
I really enjoyed that game yesterday.

I feared the worst in the first 10 mins of the second half when we gave up two good attacking possessions in the England 22. The first was when Sexton put a great kick in behind Monye and, under pressure, Monye knocked it into touch, we fucked up a quick lineout. Which was stupid given our dominance in the lineout. The second was when Wallace went away from his support and got pinged for holding on at the ruck.

I thought those two moments would cost us the game but we hung in there and took every opportunity that came our way. England's pack deserved better than to be beaten, lineout excepted they looked like a tough, well drilled unit.

Sexton's (and ROG's) kicking really put the pressure on England and it's no coincidence that our kicking game is partly responsible for the scores. The first coming from a grubber from Sexton, the second one came after a lineout five metres out, but the reason we were there was a peach of touch find from Sexton. The third came after a long flat touch find from ROG and a messy England line out leading to a pressurised clearance from Wilko.

The third try was a simple but quite clever move. From the set up in the lineout it was obvious that some move was planned. Buckley was, unusually, standing at the tail of the lineout and the back rowers were closer to the front of the lineout than normal. Bringing Bowe in off his wing caused some confusion in Wilkinson's mind and that hesitation was enough to allow Bowe through the gap, O'Leary fixed the first covering defender well and the second (Haskell) was being asked a lot to catch Bowe. I'd imagine we expected him to be caught and the odd lineout setup would have allowed Buckley and Cullen to clear out the ruck quickly leaving Heaslip and Ferris coming at full pace for a pop off the ruck. Thankfully it never came to that because of Bowe's determined running. He's almost unstoppable when he gets a sniff of the line, and he is the best winger I've seen play for Ireland.

Looking forward to next week it might be time to start testing out tighthead props with a view to letting the Bull ease himself out of the picture. Kidney again has the Cullen/O'Callaghan call to make, it's one he can't win in the press but can't lose on the pitch if that makes any sense. The backrow picks itself, the halfbacks will be another tricky call for Kidney. I'd prefer to see Reddan and Sexton but I expect O'Leary to get the nod again. If O'Driscoll is fit we'll see the same backline out next week. Murphy had a good game and it's great to have an experienced top level campaigner to call on when Kearney is out.
[/quote]

I like O'Callahan, but he infringes far too blatantly- you just know in certain situations he'll give a peno away, and duly, he does.
 
[quote author=Stu link=topic=38718.msg1061766#msg1061766 date=1267377160]
Sorry mate but both your posts on yesterdays match just stink of sour grapes.
England lost and deserved to lose, slice it whatever way you want to.
[/quote]

I think that's a bit unfair Stu. Squiggs is just looking at it from a 'what if' perspective, as you would probably have done had England won the match rather than Ireland.
 
France for the Grand Slam it is then.

I was really proud of the Welsh performance in the 2nd half, but this six nations has just confirmed that we seriously suffer when we're missing a few players through injury.

The Irish win was very enjoybale viewing. Glad to see Sexton get the nod over O'Gara, it just amazes me that ROG has remained untouchable for so long.

I wonder how many more caps this lot have in them? They've all served their countries/Lions exceptionally well, but i doubt we'll see much more than another year out of quite a few of them.

BOD
ROG
Hayes
Wallace
S Jones
S. Williams
M. Williams
Shaw
Wilkinson
Moody
 
[quote author=Stu link=topic=38718.msg1061766#msg1061766 date=1267377160]
Sorry mate but both your posts on yesterdays match just stink of sour grapes.
England lost and deserved to lose, slice it whatever way you want to.
[/quote]

Absolute shite.
 
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=38718.msg1062556#msg1062556 date=1267479966]
[quote author=Stu link=topic=38718.msg1061766#msg1061766 date=1267377160]
Sorry mate but both your posts on yesterdays match just stink of sour grapes.
England lost and deserved to lose, slice it whatever way you want to.
[/quote]

Absolute shite.
[/quote]

England deserved to lose or sour grapes or both?
 
I don't think either side deserved to lose the game to be honest.

The English pack played a bloody effective pick and go game, but overall they couldn't capitalise on it in the end. We defended like demons and rolled with the punches for a long time before stealing the game with clinical execution from the set piece.
 
[quote author=Rosco link=topic=38718.msg1063178#msg1063178 date=1267566237]
I don't think either side deserved to lose the game to be honest.

The English pack played a bloody effective pick and go game, but overall they couldn't capitalise on it in the end. We defended like demons and rolled with the punches for a long time before stealing the game with clinical execution from the set piece.
[/quote]

"stealing" is not quite true.
 
Wales team for sat (or so I've heard):

Byrne
Halfpenny
Hook
Roberts
Shane
Jones
Rees

James
Rees
Adam
Bradley
Charteris
JT
Delve
Nugget (c)

No bench yet.
 
A fully fit Irish squad playing at home against our depleted side......

I'm not feeling to confident about this game.
 
The main talking point from the Irish point of view is that Murphy retained his place despite Kearney being fit. Kidney has always shown a dislike for changing a winning team and nobody really gave him cause to drop them so it's not that surprising.

It'll be the usual story for us, seeking parity in the scrum, dominating the lineout, praying for quick ball but ultimately will probably do well off set piece moves.
 
Well done to the Irish on a deserved victory!

Another ref goes onto my hate list though! We get a yellow for a minor offence, yet the Irish get away with conceding about 150000000 penalties without any further punishment.

*Runs off to put his kilt on*
 
Scotland have started well here. Both teams are getting over the game line but lacking the quality to convert the chances.

Good game.

(And maybe the Irish fans should have their own Six Nations thread? I wouldn't want to catch this arrogance which engulfs you where Rugby is concerned.)
 
[quote author=Squiggles link=topic=38718.msg1068951#msg1068951 date=1268501339]
(And maybe the Irish fans should have their own Six Nations thread? I wouldn't want to catch this arrogance which engulfs you where Rugby is concerned.)
[/quote]


Give us a break Squiggles, were shite at every other international sport. Its our only chance to be arrogant :p
 
Back
Top Bottom