Glorious moral victory for Ireland in Paris

dod

Bookmakers throughout Ireland were left licking their wounds today after a tenacious display by the Ireland team resulted in a hard won moral victory for the nearly men of the Two Nations rugby tournament. Ireland, heavily backed from sure things to absolute certainties to secure the moral victory this week, duly delivered with an assured sense of purpose.

In the post-match interview, Irish coach Eddie O’Sullivan said he hoped to build on today’s glorious result to deliver further powerful team performances. He seems to hold an especial hope for a good outcome in the England match- almost to the point of being complacent about victory against Clive Woodwards men. “We want to enjoy today’s result, but, yes, I think that if we can put in another display like that, we have every reason to be hopeful for a moral victory in the England match,” he said.

In a victory procession planned by team sponsors Heineken, an open top bus will parade through Dublin city centre on Monday. Trade union bosses have declared a general strike to allow workers to attend the parade. After a lunch hosted by Lord Mayor Royston Brady in the Mansion house, the players will go to Annabels to talk utter shite to anyone who will listen.

“We encourage revellers celebrating this result to drink responsibly,” said a spokesman for Heineken, raising his eyes toward heaven.

When asked to comment on plans for the victory celebrations, a spokesman for Lord Mayor Royston Brady said, “Fuck off, you’re not invited.”

daveirl

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niallith

i wasnt to pleased wit there performance tbh so many holes in the defnce givin them easy tries and some silly mistakes while we was attacking and we jus dont hav the speed to compete

mike65

I clicked this thread fearing a straight post! Enjoyable play by the French who were never in danger, the Irish were um, plucky and thier second try was very iffy.

Mike.

daveirl

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Sundy

Originally posted by daveirl
Shane Byrne wasn't as good as I'd expect.

what did you expect? he lineout throwing was exceptional, i dont think we lost even one of his throws(may be wrong, went to the toilet a few times!).
if you consider this to when sheahan came on the lineout went to bits with o'callaghan not looking comfortable catching at no2. i cant see byrne being replaced for the welsh game

Our weekest point was our defence, simply because the stood and waited for the french to come to them rather than coming up to meet them. This subsequently allowed the french to break the gain line nearly every time.

GreenHell

Originally posted by Sundy
what did you expect? he lineout throwing was exceptional, i dont think we lost even one of his throws(may be wrong, went to the toilet a few times!).
if you consider this to when sheahan came on the lineout went to bits with o'callaghan not looking comfortable catching at no2. i cant see byrne being replaced for the welsh game

Our weekest point was our defence, simply because the stood and waited for the french to come to them rather than coming up to meet them. This subsequently allowed the french to break the gain line nearly every time.

Byrne lineout throwing and scrummaging are the main points of his game. He was excellent in the lineout but the scrum was under serious pressure. When Frankie came on we lost one line out i think and the pack started moving forward and looking more aggressive for the first time in the game. Also Frankie was taken the ball on. All credit to byrne but his game is too limited.

DOC played great once he replaced the ruck inspector.

I don't think out defense was to bad, we're still very weak in broken play but we're improving.

D'Arcy had a quiet game but for his first full cap I was pleased he didn't mess up.

With the position we had I thought we could have caused an upset today, we were unlucky that a few mauls died out or were dragged down and Horgan and shaggy were unlucky to score, have a feeling that if Costello was brought in earlier along with Frankie and DOC we could have pull it off.

daveirl

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GreenHell

Howe impressed me, don't think his as creative as John Kelly though. You'd never no about the rest of them Gleeson, MOK and Dempsey aren't coming in for much praise these days there might be a pr dropping of them.

Isn't it strange though that Toulose the best team in france are the back bone of the french team and in Ireland some people seem determined to have leinster as the backbone clearly the worst team in Ireland at the moment.

Sundy

yes leinster are one of the worst in ireland at the moment but if you took the time to look you would see leinster have very few internationals playing at the moment. And as far as i can see muster dont have anything to offer at centre thats better than darcy or Bo'd.
and john kelly is hardly what you would call creative, actually im sure the french wouild have loved to see him on the staring line up, so they could test his catching skills again.

I was well impressed wit shane horgan, maybe eddie should have dropped him into centre for a while would have been interesting to see.

GreenHell

Leinster are the worst Irish team

Team Pld Pts
Ulster Rugby 12 42
The Dragons 12 40
Llanelli Scarlets 12 36
Munster Rugby 12 35
Celtic Warriors 11 30
Connacht 12 29
Leinster Lions 12 28
Edinburgh Rugby 12 27
Cardiff Blues 12 24
The Ospreys 12 23
The Borders 11 10
Glasgow Rugby 12 9

Of course munster don't have anything better than BOD no one has anything better than BOD, but yesterday mullins at centre and D'arcy had full back, in hindsight looks like a much better balance.

Sundy

yeah im not disputing that leinster are shocking at the moment but that is because of all the injuries. In the game before the munster game they had to have 8 players on special permit for the AIL because of so many injuries.
So you cant blame their poor position on the internationals.

jonno

Originally posted by GreenHell
but yesterday mullins at centre and D'arcy had full back, in hindsight looks like a much better balance.

I only half agree with that selection. I agree with D'Arcy playing at full back as anything is better than Dempsey at the moment. What I disagree with however is playing an injured Mullins at outside centre over anybody. Shaggy would have been a decent choice to play there but that would have left use without two of our usual starting wingers so really EOS's selection was okay.

Overall I thought we could have done better. I was expecting a closer game. Byrne, POC, Foley, Shaggy and D'Arcy had good games. ROG had a good game too in that he carried out the tactics very well but I would have preferred to see a bit more of those hands of his rather than trying to pin the French back all the time. There is a time and place for that kind of play but not when you are losing the game. I suspect this is what he was told to do so he had a very good game. On the other hand, Maggs was nowhere near being involved in the game and as for Dempsey - well we won't go there. Bring on Murphy's return

GreenHell

Mullins was injured after the squad was announced, training with the irish squad....

Shaggy is thick stupid, all credit to him big and reasonably fast but there isn't to much between the ears, serious cringe factor as he fumbled the ball, but god loves a trier.

jonno

Even if Mullins was named in staarting 15 and then withdrawing him when he got injured still wouldn't have helped us on saturday would it?

I would have liked to see him play a part had he not got injured but that is the way of things.

As for Shaggy, he was one of our best players (not saying much seen as how POC, Foley and D'arcy were our only really decent performers) out there on Saturday but one would not expect a Munster fan to notice that

Hairy Homer

George Hook called it spot on at half time. 'One team is trying to win the match, the other is trying to keep the score down.'

Bulls Eye.

The first Irish try, which was a bit of a fluke, demonstrated the difference between the teams. If you have the game on tape, look at how far back off an ATTACKING ruck the Irish backline is. The hopeful chip and chase, compounded by a French error, hid the fact that most of the Irish backs were hanging back fearful of a French steal and counter attack. Contrast that with the last French try where there were supporting runners on the ball carrier's shoulder from start to finish.

I agree our backs have all the penetrative power of a gang of eunuchs at the moment, but I was well impressed with the way our forwards hung in there and kept pressing to the end. However, with no pace in the backline, that's the only attacking ploy we had really.

France were deserved winners.

As for next week, Wales look sprightly but I think our forwards will be too tough for them.

Prediction: Narrow Irish win.

uberwolf

Originally posted by Hairy Homer
Prediction: Narrow Irish win.

and a complete failure to remember previous problems afterwards.