Sunday, September 30, 2007
Ireland’s last chance
At the minute France are punishing Georgia for daring to think they might have a had a chance at an upset, although the Georgians have had only 4 days since their previous game. Adds France win 64 - 7. Oh, and Ireland are getting ready [hopefully - Ed] to face those Pumas. Kick-off 4pm at the Parc des Princes. As I may have mentioned, a win by 8 points and at least 4 tries are required against Argentina for Ireland to go through to join England and Scotland in the quarter-finals.. against a side that has yet to concede a try.. But here’s some, probably misplaced, optimism. And the Guardian’s Scott Murray, who’s less optimistic, predicts “Argentinian fly half Juani Hernandez is going to hoof Garryowen after Garryowen towards his opposite number Ronan O’Gara..” Half-time Ireland 10 - 18 Argentina. Ireland have 1 try.. but Argentina have 2.. Full-time Ireland 15 - 30 Argentina. A better performance from Ireland, but too many turnovers and just not good enough. The Pumas, deservedly, go through to play Scotland in the quarter-final in Paris. Leaving France to play the All-Blacks.. in Cardiff. Ireland, deservedly, go home.
Pete Baker @ 12:13 PM
The Irish were stuffed by the Argies!
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 03:33 PMCongrats to the Argies - a good side.
O’Gara’s time is up I fear, where’s Humph when you need him? Where has Murphy been all this time? Is D’arcy past his best now?
It’s been very, very poor and have got what we deserved. I hope the IRFU were watching the Welsh union this morning - the performances call into question the performance of the coach and if he’s not considering his position, someone should do it for him.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 03:37 PMGood game for rugby! Can’t fault Argentina. They controlled the game from start to finish. Can’t fault BOD or Geordan Murphy. Our pack was simply taught how to play the game properly.
Unlike Wales yesterday, there is little in this performance to give us a clue where we go from here. It may have cut the price of paying off the rest of eddie’s new four year contract.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 03:44 PMO’Gara not good - should not have played him. How on earth are Scotland in the quarters ? This lot will destroy them.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 03:44 PMHa Ha, serves them right for not playinh GSTQ at Ravenhill.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 03:51 PMThe Argies played well. Home time for what is now the Republic of Ireland rugby team.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 04:33 PMAt least Wales went out as well so I wont get too much c*ap at work tomorrow.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 04:56 PMDewi,
I’m sad to see Gareth Jenkins go - he is a good egg and did really well with Scarlets over a long period. I dont think Ireland should sack EOS - in both instances I put it down to players. Wales need to re-allign expectations with reality - sacking the coach looks like a mechanism to deny it.
re. O’Gara - there was no real alternative - a good number 10 might have helped but Argies fully deservered win and we can have no complaints.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 05:10 PMIt’s time we had two Irish teams.
Playing as a single team has clearly failed - we’d be better off splitting into our two states and competing separately as in football, which has had more success.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:00 PMRubbish Willowfield.
It’s clearly evidence that we should unite under a single British Isles team. Small countries like Ireland have no chance playing on their own - why not unite?
And by the way, I reserve the right to accuse anyone who disagrees with me of being:
- a sectarian bigot;
- a fool unable to see ‘the bigger picture’; and/or
- a partitionist who’s learned nothing from decades of failure playing as a separate team.Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:09 PM“Wales need to re-allign expectations with reality - sacking the coach looks like a mechanism to deny it. “
Disagree completely - just need a coach to deliver these expectations , which are reasonable, given the status of the game here.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:11 PM9 points from 4 games and a negative points difference - unbelievable!!! Worst side ever to leave the british isles on a sporting tour?
What were we ranked pre-world cup? third maybe?
Defeats against france and the pumas is no disgrace per se, but the 1st 3 performances were wowful. Almost a third of the squad never got a sniff at game time! What a shambles.With regards to todays game, the pumas were once again very very good - particuarly from 1-12. Throught their defence out wide was suspect though, but teams will find it very hard to get good ball to challenge them out there. Should get to the semis and maybe just maybe make the final.
Only 3 nothern hemisphere sides left - a poor but perhaps improving english side, a limited but gutsy scotish side and a confident yet unpredictable french side. Brain says, none will go to the semis, heart says maybe 1 sneek an unlikely victory!!PS-well done argentina and good luck for the semis.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:15 PMWiillow, totally agree what is there to lose trying something new like two seperate teams. Anyone who disagrees must be a bigot living in the past.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:17 PMDewi,
status does not a team produce. The media - particulalry the Western Mail are a fuelling a delusion of greatness - always just around the next corner. Look at the improvement in Italy in the last few years as more teams play e.g. Portugul etc the relative situation for Ireland and Wales will get worse.
Agh,
With the possible exception of France there was no chance of any Northern Hemisphere team doing anything in this competition - it was just about respectability i.e. getting to quarters and relative success i.e. getting to semis.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:44 PMDoctor Who, Willowfield,
What about 2 Irish teams based on religious belief as there are unfortunate people of different allegiance trapped on the wrong side of the frontier. Thinking about it the Presbos will probably want a seperate team from Church of Ireland and there may soon be the possibility of a molsem XV with a bit more Middle Eastern and Albanian immigration. We have to see the smaller picture and thinking of the smaller picture why dont we just disappear up our own arseholes jabbering incoherently?
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:58 PM“status does not a team produce.” - that’s apparent Sammy !!! .....New Zealand (about our size) consistently producer wonderful teams. I know there is a genetic difference (that’s a serious point by the way) but we surely should be able to consistently produce a world competetive team. We have the money, the crowds, a maturing structure - just don’t quite get where it’s wrong.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 06:58 PMIt’s been downhill since Croker and all that horrible Irish Gaelic triumphalism. Followed by the Ravenhill debacle. It’s been impossible to play like a united team since. Unionist fans treated like 2nd class fans. Unionist players treated like 2nd class players. Belfast treated like it’s not even in IRELAND.
Beat it up the IRFU.
Time to go our separate ways. An Irish-Gaelic team that can play the SS and fly the tricolour HOME and AWAY.
And an Ulster-British team that can finally be backed by the whole Ulster-Prod community. I’m sure all the housetrained Prods that go to Irish matches now could begin to stand on their own two feet at some stage and ween themselves off the IRFU tit.
Put to death finally for all this stupid quasi-nation nonsense that NO-ONE really wants.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:04 PMSAMMY McNALLY
What about 2 Irish teams based on religious belief
No, just based on two states either side of the border as in the rest of international rugby.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:06 PMDewi,
The fact that Wales produced a crop of exceptional players in the 70s does not mean they will do so again. The fact that a country similar in size at the opposite end of the world have a good rugby team does not mean Wales will have one - though I do think that if Wales could steal a shed load of Pacific Islanders as well they would be a hell of a lot better.
Life, or more specifically genetics, as you suggested yourself, can be a bitch.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:15 PMWillowfield, I dont want to get all constitutional on you but I think you will find that Non Iron is not a state.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:19 PMIt was Sammy Mc Nally what done it
“Willowfield, I dont want to get all constitutional on you but I think you will find that Non Iron is not a state. “
And IRELAND is not a nation.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:28 PMTwo Nations,
And IRELAND is not a nation
this is what I was referring to earlier about disappearances and aresholes. If I take the defintion “a member tribe of an American Indian confederation” (see Dictionary.com) as a definition of a Nation then clearly not, whereas if I take the definition “a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own” then clearly it is.
Although, I am not convinced your opinions are entirely serious I am convinced that amongst the sensible Unionist community they are in small minority.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:39 PMI know the IRFU regard Belfast as an away fixture but I’m not all sure about carrying that through to its logical conclusion and suggesting Northern Ireland split from the IRFU, it seems a retrograde step.
But wouldn’t it have been lovely to have had one team representing us all on these islands instead of the present four?
Just think of how much better we’d do on the world stage and more importantly, what it could do for the reconciliation of all our peoples, the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh.
Stop living in the past guys, let’s push for one united IONA team.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:42 PMOneill,
“But wouldn’t it have been lovely to have had one team representing us all on these islands instead of the present four?”
I appreciate this is not a rugby union website but in a debate about rugby a small amount of knowledge on the topic is probably a good idea. Presumably you have heard of the British and Irish Lions sometimes incorrectly spoken of as the British Lions - they have been doing the reconcillaitioon thing you speak of for many years.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:51 PM“a large body of people, associated with a particular territory, that is sufficiently conscious of its unity to seek or to possess a government peculiarly its own”
Which government would that be? The ROI or HMG.
And i’m particularly concious of the lack of unity with the rest of people on this island. That’s why I call myself an Unionist. To think otherwise would preclude me from being an Unionist.The idea of this IRELAND rugby team is based on a fallacy. Like some bad Alliance experiment it is completely unworkable in the real world.
The reason it has trundled along up until this point is the majority of the ROI citizens did not care enough about the team to care enough that it did not play the SS or tricolour while playing away. That all has changed. Irish triumphalism is on the rise.
The other reason has been that the bigots in the IRFU had successfully hoodwinked all those housetrained Prods into thinking that everything was fair and equal. So while the IRFU stood and pissed on the poor wee lambs, they were being told it was just raining.
That the Irish have their own team (and good luck to them) and then we can have ours. It is the deluded Prods that are holding everyone back and turning more people off the game both North and South.
Posted by on Sep 30, 2007 @ 07:57 PM
