How the game should be played.....and EOS

Hippo

For anyone who didn't see it last night, the Leinster reserves destroyed Borders at Donnybrook. It was a fantastic display of passing out of the tackle, not panicking and kicking to touch, and running the right angles. And....almost no knock-ons. The contrast with the game shown later between Edinburgh and Cardiff could hardly have been greater, where two teams tried to bash their way up the middle and eventually kick for position, having gained 10 metres in as many minutes. I think this raises two issues:

1. I stayed in on a Friday night two watch two Celtic League matches on tv, therefore have no life.
2. Cheika and Knox have an exciting, match-winning gameplan which they can successfully communicate to all members of their squad. EOS has talked this week about 'the kind of game we need to win matches in the 6 nations'. Is he by any chance talking about the same thing?

Answers on a postcard.

RuggieBear

i was there. it was cold and the game was too one sided to be entertaining

While there was some fantastic play and ball skill from leinster....Borders were a shambles.

Amazotheamazing

It was a good win for Leinster but Leinster missing 4 or 5 players does not make it a Leinster "reserves" side. Secondly, the Borders squad is so weak that to take away their international players pretty much reduces them to AIL division standard (or lower).

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Hippo

You're all missing my point which is not about the Borders, or the defence. It's about the approach.

[Jackass]

Defence is a problem, but the style of rugby we're playing at the moment, imo far out-weighs that...at the moment we'd put up a big score against any side in Europe, and defence is something that can be worked on and improved, where as not many teams have the players to play flowing rugby like that. (and the strength in depth we're getting now) The impact Cheika has had has been imense, and it's only going to get better and better....we're improving all the time.

If it can be improved a good bit over the season, and get past Tolouse (big if), I'd be very confident of us winning the HC...beating a munster side, also playing their best rugby for years, along the way.

Sangre

Eos doesn't have a contemponi.

CJhaughey

DubGuy wrote:

Defence is a problem, but the style of rugby we're playing at the moment, imo far out-weighs that...at the moment we'd put up a big score against any side in Europe, and defence is something that can be worked on and improved, where as not many teams have the players to play flowing rugby like that.

Apart from Toulouse.

DubGuy wrote:

If it can be improved a good bit over the season, and get past Toulouse (big if)

Actually 2 big if's....

DubGuy wrote:

I'd be very confident of us winning the HC...beating a munster side, also playing their best rugby for years, along the way.

Unfortunately Leinster have proven to be brittle in defense and do not have a particularly good record away to French teams.

[Jackass]

I said I'd be confident IF we beat toulouse of winning it, of course i know all about our record in france...IF we beat them, i think we'll win HC, and my whole point was about our "brittle defence" and that it will have improved significantly by then imo. The players are there and are all good defencively, it's a matter of getting the organisation in the defencive back line...so it can be sorted, and i think it will be.

For what it's worth, I know they're no great shakes, but the defence against borders was superb for the most part.

Hippo wrote:

For anyone who didn't see it last night, the Leinster reserves destroyed Borders at Donnybrook. It was a fantastic display of passing out of the tackle, not panicking and kicking to touch, and running the right angles. And....almost no knock-ons.

It's starting on setanta right now for anyone who missed it...worth watching.

Not to drag this thread to much off topic though, I hope EOS will try to simulate Leinsters style of Rugby for the 6 nations, and it seems he's finally losend up a bit in his concervativeness...there are a lot of good players that can be blooded into the international scene, so I'd have to say I'm quitely optomistic despite recent form (still feel the autumn interntionals were waisted, we know nothing more now than we did before...)

This year will hopefully be a building block for next years 6N and the world cup.

Teg Veece

I'm sure if Munster beat Toulouse they'd be confident of winning the HC too. What team wouldn't be? That doesn't mean they have much of a chance though.

Fair play to Leinster beating the Borders yesterday but don't get too carried away lads.

I agree with what you're saying about EOS. If Ireland's game plan doesn't go beyond kick to the corners then try an over rehearsed move then i'd say we're screwed. Plus it's incredibly boring rugby.

Peter B

To be honest I think EOS main shortcoming as a coach is he doesn't lett the players play how thay want to play. He seems to want to dictate the play and not let the players show some of their own flair or potential on the pitch.

How come Geordan Murphy always plays electric for Leicester but when he puts on the green shirt he seems completely 1-dimensional?

Why does O'Gara kick straight to touch after the restart when playing Scotland but runs it against New Zealand?

I think EOS has way too much influence on exactly what players do on the pitch. Everything I have heard / read on the New Zealanders, the coach is always looking for ways to let the players express themselves on the pitch and play their own game and not the game plan the coach drills in their head.

lazystudent

From an interview with Mike Ford in the aftermath of the Lions Tour. Ford is responding to criticisms that there is too much emphasis in NH rugby (France excepted) on teamwork and not skills

“Ireland have been criticised for kicking too much ball but it’s not that Eddie (O’Sullivan) doesn’t want to play an off-loading game. It’s the personnel he has. Eddie’s predicament is that when the players come to him, he hasn’t got time to work on the basics. They should be the finished article.”