And so it begins..
As Mick said earlier, “L’Instant de la vérité arrive…” Fingers, and everything else, crossed then. Have to say, though, the French team win the pre-match singing contest.. Allez les verts! Le crunch game begins. Half-time France 12 – 3 Ireland, four penalties for France and a drop goal by O’Gara. Tense isn’t the word, and mistakes on both sides, but the ill-disciplined play by Ireland has been the main difference so far. Full-Time France 25 – 3 Ireland. Really, what is there to say. A touch of brilliance from Michalak brought the first French try in the 59th minute and the sin-binning of O’Connell, deservedly so, in the 62nd sealed it. In truth, France deserved the win. Only the Argentinians to go.. and Ireland need to get a bonus point there, and hold out the Pumas, for a game in the next round.. against New Zealand. I’m going outside.. I may be some time..
nice post nic – agreed a leader was missing on the pitch – no one stood up to be counted.
“see you didn;t address any of my rugby related points – is that because you have no knowledge of the game or because you want to enter into some kind of secrarian slanging match? Or maybe a bit of both?â€
Posted by agh@hot on Sep 22, 2007 @ 02:56 PM
Not being someone who hits refresh every few minutes I read and posted without reading your post. But let me take up your ‘rugby related’ post while hoping you might read what I posted.
You insinuate I moaned about Paddy Wallace being on the bench. I didn’t. I simply pointed out he was on the bench and selected from the squad. My point was? Something to do with no anti-Ulster selection (or pro-Munster) happening perhaps?
What about Boss covering 2-3 positions? What did I say?
“Issac Boss – on the bench for Namibia and Georgia. A talented player but competing for a place as scrum-half or fullback – probably the most competitive positions on the squad. Most of the comments suggest Geordan Murphy (Leinster) should have been given a chance. Both Geordan and Issac have been on the bench twice – both dropped for the game against France. Hardly evidence of anti-Ulster bias. “
What’s really rich is you then add “Whilst the likes of Murphy doesn’t even make the bench – shocking!†– as if this isn’t what I’d already said. Do try and keep up!
“i see you didn’t address any of my rugby related pointsâ€.
Go get some Vaseline and rub it in those self-inflicted wounds of yours!
Ireland played badly (but better than against Namibia & Georgia). It wasn’t for the want of Ulstermen. But I have “no knowledge of the game†– if we’d only but realised we should have played the Ulster 15 who are Gods and we’d have nothing but success.
Jesus wept!
Nic – partly agree. B.O’D should be dropped as captain, but he remains a great player. E.O’S – couldn’t agree more – for reasons even abvious to agh@hot.
Good win by England.
They may go further than most people think and will cause at least one surprise.
Nic,
you cannot be serious about Ciaran Fitzgerald – he was then picked as captain of the Lions and was a disaster. Anyone can run around swearing – most sporting leadership is shown by actions on the pitch. BOD does that, Fitzgerald couldnt throw the ball straight and ended up undermining the team.
We are getting ahead our ourselves. We are the 2nd best nation ( currently) in Europe and that’s it. Apart from G. Murphy EOS probably picked the best 15.
No anthems will suit me fine and efforts should be made to make Ulster players/fans included given the (continued) divided nature of our collective allegiances.
Hi Sammy,
let me clarify in case you missed it: LAST NIGHT we could have used a Fitzgerald-TYPE leadership (Martin Johnson for example would do either) rather than the technical noodling of the management consultants running this current Irish rugby team.
My concern is about TOURNAMENT rugby and this team’s dismal failure to get their act together in the few absolutely critical tournament matches the IRFU spend all that money preparing for.
IMO a) we’ve totally overestimated how good these players actually are (probability 30%) or b) we’re talking about a failure of leadership (probability 70%). “There’s no problem” is not a serious option.
Nic,
they have better players and more of them than us – we are the second best team in Europe over the last 4 years and we were beaten by the best team. Add in the fact that they were at home and it’s our bogey ground and hey presto – we lost. No crisis in leadership, no failure in processes or systems – just the natural order of things. The most difficult thing to say is that thre other guy is better – thats why we reach for the coach and try to wring his neck – it’s really a comfort blanket or a device to hide behind and keep reality out.
Tonga had a go. Wilkinson brilliant for England. Why didn’t he play soccer like the rest of his tribe ?
Sammy,
I see what you are saying mate – but I think there is a bit more to it than getting beat by a better team. We have played 3 games in this world cup – 2 of them against minnows – as I said namibia are made up of amateur players, Oz beat them 150-0 in last RWC, and they are the lowest ranked side in the competition. Georgia are only a couple of steps up. Indeed, the missing out of a bonus point against georgia, effectively means our chances of qualification are zero!!!
The result against france was 1 thing, the performance another – I saw very little to be proud about – pack ineffective, backs hardly crossing the gainline – what do we take out of such a performance?
To date we are the laughing stocks of this RWC – even england have now shown glimpses of potential. And if we thought France was tough?
Rubicon – ireland should play the 15 ulster gods, unfortunately the likes of harrison, steiner, danielli, dewey, and bart will find eligibility somewhat difficult lol.
On a serious note, I;d be starting Trimble, Boss, Rory and Neil. And I;d be bringing on Paddy, Simon and ferris shortly after half-time. I hope Eddie picks no ulster players, as I expect the Argies to rip our pack apart no matter who plays and I’d prefer if the likes of Hook and Francis didn;t get their knives into our men again lol.
How could we possibly be World beaters?
For the past year 6 or 7 Munster players made up our pack of forwards and what did they do in the last HC?
Not very much except being torn apart by a club side Leicester and others.
If our pack can not hold its own in such a competition how can they win in a WC situation.
Many may say this is the best pack we could select—what nonsense.
Will someone tell me why Bob Casey is never considered and some Leinster players should be in the reckoning.
The team is jaded and that is the responsibility of management.
If we had been anyway good we could have complained about another bad performance by an Englishman at the World Cup.
Oili,
“Andrew Trimble’s mistaken position which led to France’s first try.”
He was covering, it must be said, for a tragically out-of-form ROG. The latter’s misfiring performance is having a deleterious effect on the whole back line. Without competition for Fly Half he seems not to have prospered. The forwards have their own questions to answer.
I’m afraid it’s too late for Eddie to do much about it now. His tactics worked for long enough so that we probably shouldn’t carp. Four years ago he promised the players would be physically up to world standards and by and large they are.
But the team looks played out for ideas. And his conservatism in player choice has left him/us with too few options to vary our game.
Seven nations in competition there are.
“The first try was a gift from Trimble”
No so careful rerun of event shows Trimble telling No 8 and WF7 that he was going right to counter expected surge- “coverme”
Careful reruns also shows that he was telling the same thing to Michalak.