Irish Team V the French

GreenHell

15 – Girvan Dempsey (Leinster – Terenure College);

14 – Shane Horgan (Leinster – Lansdowne)

13 – Brian O’Driscoll (Leinster – Blackrock College)

12 – Kevin Maggs (Bath)

11 – John Kelly (Munster – Cork Constitution)

10 – Ronan O’Gara (Munster – Cork Constitution)

9 – Peter Stringer (Munster – Shannon)

1 – Reggie Corrigan (Leinster – Greystones)

2 – Keith Wood (Munster – Garryowen) Captain

3 – John Hayes (Munster – Shannon)

4 – Malcolm O’Kelly (Leinster – St. Mary’s College)

5 – Paul O’Connell (Munster – Young Munster)

6 – Simon Easterby (Llanelli)

7 – Keith Gleeson (Leinster – St. Mary’s College)

8 – Victor Costello (Leinster – St. Mary’s College)

Replacements:

16 – Shane Byrne (Leinster – Blackrock College)

17 – Marcus Horan (Munster – Shannon)

18 – Donncha O’Callaghan (Munster – Cork Constitution)

19 – Eric Miller (Leinster – Terenure College)

20 – Guy Easterby (Rotherham)

21 – David Humphreys (Ulster – Dungannon)

22 – Anthony Horgan (Munster – Cork Constitution)


No Foley

uberwolf

Foley is prob suffering for a lot of dropped ball in contact IMO. Easterby has done well for himself, wouldn't have been in the running before WC

evilhomer

the team looks solid enough, i suspect anthony foley probably picked up another knock. He would have been on the bench otherwise!
We can do france if we play even 80% of how we played against the Ozzies!!

Vistor Costello brings a lot of power to the back row and crash ball!! we will be seeing him around the fringes alot!!

GO IRELAND!

We have a real chance in this world cup you know!! with only really 6 big teams left in it!

Ireland
France
New Zealand
England
South Africa
Australia

Scotland and Wales aren't up to much despite wales's excellent performance against the all blacks.

uberwolf

foley didn't pick up a knock, I'd say the reasoning is, that foley as a specialist no.8 on the bench can't cover other postions, miller played centre for a period the last day, crash ball through there!!!

daveirl

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DEG viper

I think we will beat France and then sort the engish out in the semis. is nt it a pity that Ireland are missin two of there best backs in murphy and hickie.

Hairy Homer

Foley was muck against Oz. MAybe it was lack of match practice, maybe he was still carrying an injury but how many times did he drop the ball?

He was the only Irish forward who had an off day, however.

Can't see us doing it against France. Not unless we get some serious luck but that front five has been battered around a bit now.

Mind you. I would love it. I would love it if we beat them. Love it.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by evilhomer
We have a real chance in this world cup you know!! with only really 6 big teams left in it!

Ireland
France
New Zealand
England
South Africa
Australia

We have the same chance of winning the World Cup as we did before it started (the odds haven't changed). The only big team knocked out was Argentina.

the fnj

I think France are the only big team that have yet to have it put up to them. They very professionally took their group apart getting bonus points in every game.

This could work in our favour as they may grow cocky and think they will just have to turn up this weekend or more worryingly it could mean that they are just so good that no one can touch them, every other major team has been made look vulnerable so far New Zealand had it put up to them by Wales, England were in trouble till the last twenty against Samoa and Australia were lucky to come away with a win against us. France look like a class act from one to fifteen, I said before the world cup I fancied them to do well and if they beat us at the weekend I think they will win the competition.

If Ireland are to win at this weekend we will have to get in amongst the French early and see if we can provoke some sort of reaction, if France do get unsettled I think they will lose their shape and then we will have a chance. I just hope that losing and injuries hasn’t taken too much out of the team.

the fnj

Originally posted by eireboy
We have the same chance of winning the World Cup as we did before it started (the odds haven't changed). The only big team knocked out was Argentina.

How are Argentina a big team, they are a top ten team at best, but no way where they ever potential winners.

eirebhoy

Originally posted by The FANJ
How are Argentina a big team, they are a top ten team at best, but no way where they ever potential winners.

Well, we only beat them by a point and we are in evilhomers list of big teams. If I give you the benefit of the doubt and say that Argentina aren't a top team then evilhomer's list of big teams left in the competition would be the same as before the competition started.

the fnj

The teams that have a realistic chance of winning are the big teams, going into the competition there was four possible winners.

Australia
England
France
New Zealand

No one else in the competition is good enough, Ireland could beat any one of those teams but only with a special performance, the chances of pulling two or three "special" performances in a row is unlikely.

Argentina would do well to keep within twenty points of the four above, they lost 24-8 to arguable the worst big four team. The style of game they play does not suit Ireland that is why they ran us close, also Ireland were under huge pressure to win, especially after the disaster four years earlier. Also watching the game I never felt Argentina had a chance of winning they stayed in the game but the better team was obvious.

If we played Argentina again tomorrow with no pressure on we would beat them more convincingly.

Qadhafi

France to win.

I cant really see France having much problems with Ireland at the weekend. We have defintely improved hugely in the recent years but we played 2 huge games one of which we won by a very small margin.

The pressure was off against the Aussies and thats why we did so well. France have many reasons to win and such a strong team !

Only decent team has gone out so far was the Argentina. I think Scotland Wales and Ireland are out next. Of course it would be great to beat the French

evilhomer

I cant really see France having much problems with Ireland at the weekend. We have defintely improved hugely in the recent years but we played 2 huge games one of which we won by a very small margin.

Well i would have to disagree there, France have not been tested by a big team yet, look who was in their group!

Japan
Scotland
USA and to a lesser extent
Fiji.
cannot be considered top class teams or even in fact meadocre teams.

Scotland have been off for a few seasons now and fiji played well thanks to individual brilliance , opposed to good team work!!

I think Ireland have a great chance of doing over France.

Our only problem is we dont have the belief in ourselves that we are a great team. (which we are!!)

gwan the Ireland

O 'Gara to spread it wide for our pacy backs!

Solid defence and we will win the match

uberwolf

Originally posted by evilhomer


Our only problem is we dont have the belief in ourselves that we are a great team. (which we are!!)

I'd say the belief from winning 19/20 matches from their last 23 is strong, and after last wknd with a positive spin they should be confident. After shipping an early try to aussie the old ireland would have battered down the hatches, that wasn't what we saw on sat. Not by a distance.

spudulike

I like the team o'sulli has put out - it's our best possible team - Costello is gonna be key, not only in attack but also in defence. We beat France by 3 in the march game - and that was thanks to some try saving tackles on our line.
I like Kelly on the wing aswell - if he keeps his head and puts in a good performance he could do some damage aswell. O'Driscoll will hopefully keep his performance high aswell.
Set play pieces are vital - we have to win our own lineout but also steal French lineout ball.
O'Gara to kick his penalties and even a drop goal of two.

Ireland to win 20-13

eirebhoy

Originally posted by evilhomer
Our only problem is we dont have the belief in ourselves that we are a great team. (which we are!!)

I agree. I think I am the only person in Ireland who put a bet on Ireland winning the world cup. Even Dennis Hickie was asked on News Talk 106 yesterday how far do the players think they will go and he said if they beat the French there is no way they can't go on to win the cup. So the team have the belief, why don't the fans?

uberwolf

the irish are traditionally like this though, inferiority complex, I blame the brits.

Pmc

Reason not way.

uberwolf

Originally posted by Pmc
Reason not way.

????

Pmc

Sorry - it was a reply to the previous note.

spanner

i agree with that, we dont mind losing as long as its a galant loss and we went down giving a good account of our selves. this used to be the way always but with the new breed of player like hickey odriscoll and oconeill i think things are changing we now know that winning is the important thing. hopefully this will happen out on the pitch

its a real shame that hickey and murphy arent playing in this world cup. i think it was about time the world see how good these two are.

paul o conaill is having a stormer of a world cup. the amount of clean ball won by him in the line out and even robbing oppositions was great and could really be a match breaker.

i think a major problem about ireland is that we dont convert our pressure to points, we got to start doing that, the last two scores shows us that we could definately do with scoring more points. look at england with the minum amount of pressure johnny willkinson gets some amount of points. we will not get much space for tries againist the big boys so we got to start taking our points.

Aindriu

France 50 Ireland 13.


France is the best team in this tournament and there is going to be no contest tomorrow. If Ireland dont loose my a massive margin everyone will be happy. Ireland to be honest made a complete mess of the last match againist the Aussies. The amount of cock ups show that Ireland is still a amature team.

We should have beaten the Aussies last game and we would now probably be in the semi finals. It came down to one kick and we fcuked that up.

France to win by a huge margin and it looks like it will come down to a England France final.

daveirl

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Qadhafi

typo there, England to win the world cup.

France to hammer us tomorrow

GreenHell

Originally posted by Aindriu
France 50 Ireland 13.


France is the best team in this tournament and there is going to be no contest tomorrow. If Ireland dont loose my a massive margin everyone will be happy. Ireland to be honest made a complete mess of the last match againist the Aussies. The amount of cock ups show that Ireland is still a amature team.

We should have beaten the Aussies last game and we would now probably be in the semi finals. It came down to one kick and we fcuked that up.

France to win by a huge margin and it looks like it will come down to a England France final.

Gota love real Irish fans like you.

eirebhoy

Ireland will win the World Cup.:)

eirebhoy

Originally posted by Aindriu
France 50 Ireland 13.


France is the best team in this tournament and there is going to be no contest tomorrow. If Ireland dont loose my a massive margin everyone will be happy. Ireland to be honest made a complete mess of the last match againist the Aussies. The amount of cock ups show that Ireland is still a amature team.

We should have beaten the Aussies last game and we would now probably be in the semi finals. It came down to one kick and we fcuked that up.

France to win by a huge margin and it looks like it will come down to a England France final.

Originally posted by Aindriu
havent a chance against the french, how do you figure we can then go on to be England and on top of all that beat the all blacks?

24hrs it will be all over bar the shouting

This fella must be French. France are a very good team but you have to be French to say there the best team in the tournament (the world!).

Aindriu

France are a very good team but you have to be French to say there the best team in the tournament (the world!).

was I right or was I right?

Tazzle

I've forgotten all about the Irish game, what about the welsh, jesus. Wow

Mossy Monk

go Wales. they deserve to be leading at half time

it's always good to see the underdog do well

for anyone wanting to wait for highlights

woops :cool:

daveirl

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tHE vAGGABOND

as long as SOMEONE beats england I dont care

spanner

Originally posted by Mr.Taz
I've forgotten all about the Irish game, what about the welsh, jesus. Wow

i know! theres life still in welsh rugby. there are few countries as passionate about there rugby as in wales, its the national sport, they live and breath it. i love to see them do well. when we played them in cardiff the last time there was a little bit of me wishing they would win.

they really rattled the english. They seem to play a very exciting game of rugby, total rugby if you like putting the ball through the hands even if they dont quite have the calabre player to excute it yet. they really are the fijians of the northern hemphere. i see a similar revival of welsh rugby that ireland experienced.