Beating Ireland in World Cup

Tim Robbins

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. What do people think is the best tactical way to beat Ireland in the WC?

I say:

1. Breakdown is crucial, Ireland never play well with slow ball.
2. Scrummage as much as possible. I think Hayse has come on a lot in scrummaging, not sure about Horan though. If I was pack leader, I seriously considering calling for scrums as opposed to free kicks, or kicking for the lineout on the 5.
3. Use an in - out defense. No point using a rush defense against Drico and Dárce, they step off it easily. I would go for an in - out drift defense.
4. Aim for parity in the lineouts. I don't think O'Connell, O'Callaghan and Easterbunny can be torn apart here.
5.Ireland's weakest tacklers are:
O'Gara, Murphy, Stringer. Aim for all players.
6.Tell your 7, to ignore Stringer completly and hassel O'Gara as much as possible.

Snickers Man

Way too over elaborate.

Keep It Simple Stupid.

1. Bop O'Gara on the chin with a good high and late tackle early in the game. (or choke him out of it if you get him near the bottom of the ruck)

Not that he's brilliant or anything like, but he's a good reliable international class out half and he's the only one Ireland has.

If and when we play New Zealand I'll take any price anyone wants to lay that O'Gara won't make it to half time. They don't pussy foot around those Kiwis, nor do they leave anything to chance and there ain't no way they are going to risk being the first New Zealand team to fail to reach the semis and the first New Zealand team to lose to Ireland. Both of which would happen if we were to overcome them which COULD happen given a level playing field and a bit of luck.

2 Pick a big pack and stick to a pick and drive game. Don't kick the ball at these Irish backs. They have way too much of a cutting edge to risk defending against needlessly.

3 Agree with what you say about Stringer. The only way he'd ever score a try from a blindside break was if the opposition removed the blindside wing and told the blindside flanker to stay bound at the scrum no matter what.
(known in the trade as "Doing a Biarritz")

4 Pick a good kicker and take your points at scrum time (binding irregularities) and ruck time (offside, offside, offside again).

Tim Robbins

Snickers Man wrote:

Way too over elaborate.

Your's sound more elaborate than mine!

gosplan

Tim Robbins wrote:

Let's put the shoe on the other foot. What do people think is the best tactical way to beat Ireland in the WC?

Convince them they're favourites

Stev_o

Bully them at the breakdowns and play it out wide thats where things might start happening. Then pray some team outside the top10 manages to injure a key player.

Diamondmaker

Tim Robbins wrote:

Your's sound more elaborate than mine!

Both perfect plans IMO. Can a mod now please remove this thread so as we dont make it too easy for the competition!:D

Inquitus

Best way to beat us is to murder us upfront, do what Leicester did to Munster at Thomond. It's not an easy thing to do, and our lads had a big off day that day, and the knowledge that they could get away with losing in the back of their minds. It's definately where our weak spot is, get the pack on the back foot, at scrumtime and in the loose, pile the pressure on ROG and we are in for a tough day.

I don't think anyone in the world game can dismantle our Lineout, our half back axis is good as long as the pack has parity, and I'd pick our backline over pretty much any the world has to offer, but if they don't get the ball, it all counts for nowt.

Inqui

Tim Robbins

What defensive system is best to use against Ireland?
1. In - out
2. Out - out
3. Rush
4. Bananna

I say in - out if Drico is playing, rush if Horgan ends up in the center.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Snickers Man

Tim Robbins wrote:

Your's sound more elaborate than mine!

to summarise:

1 Take O'Gara out of it early
2 Play pick and drive
3 Kick your points

Tim Robbins

daveirl wrote:

This post has been deleted.

Teams tend to stick to one.
In the VI nations France used Rush againsts us, and England used Bannana.
But you're still playing so probably know more than me, so give us your comments.

kevmy

In fairness though O Gara is pretty tough and needs to be seriously taken out of it (ie. illegally) so you have to way up the cost of taking O Gara out. That means don't let Richie McCaw take him out.

dulpit

Agree with what others say, target O'Gara early and often... If he's gone Ireland are a different team... Does anyone think Ireland would have a chance against the likes of France or the All Blacks with Paddy Wallace at no.10???

Kalashnikov_Kid

dulpit wrote:

Agree with what others say, target O'Gara early and often... If he's gone Ireland are a different team... Does anyone think Ireland would have a chance against the likes of France or the All Blacks with Paddy Wallace at no.10???

I dont think so. He can barely kick to touch and hasnt shown an ability to tactically control a game from 10 at international level. I read an article in last Sunday's Tribune that still suggested that Eddie would give Humphreys a ring before doing anything else, in the event of O'Gara being injured. Yeah I know its only the Tribune but I think that could easily happen. Please God we wont find out for sure.

High&Low

Scotland targetted O'Gara in this year's six nations (not counting the alleged choking). There were about 4 or 5 late tackles/challenges on him in the first half, O'Driscoll and O'Connell hit back at the challengers and O'Gara still managed to score all of Ireland's points that day. He is not that soft a target...

kevmy

dulpit wrote:

Does anyone think Ireland would have a chance against the likes of France or the All Blacks with Paddy Wallace at no.10???

No-one except Paddy Wallace's Ma.

We need ROG at full fitness but IMO we also need O' Connell, Drico, Hayes and Stringer (certainly if ROG is playing the partnership between the two is highly overlooked IMO) to be fully fit.

Of the major nations we are the ones most vulnerable to injury/suspension

Tim Robbins

High&Low wrote:

Scotland targetted O'Gara in this year's six nations (not counting the alleged choking). There were about 4 or 5 late tackles/challenges on him in the first half, O'Driscoll and O'Connell hit back at the challengers and O'Gara still managed to score all of Ireland's points that day. He is not that soft a target...

I don't buy into this targetting players thing. You hit people as often as you can, as hard as you can. That's rugby.
If you try to stamp on someone's knee or head, you might get away with it but it could also ruin your own career.

gosplan

Tim Robbins wrote:

I don't buy into this targetting players thing. You hit people as often as you can, as hard as you can. That's rugby.

Watch it happen if we meet the All Blacks.

First few attacking runs of theirs will be drives straight into O'Gara to test him.

When he gets the ball, one goes high, one goes low and CRUNCH!!!

Punchbowl

Are you getting all this Mr Henry?

Stev_o

gosplan wrote:

Watch it happen if we meet the All Blacks.

First few attacking runs of theirs will be drives straight into O'Gara to test him.

When he gets the ball, one goes high, one goes low and CRUNCH!!!

Well there isnt much wrong with it you know any backrow player will always test the opposition 10 at the start of the game and try to get him to have a nightmare game. Not sure about going to illegal high tackle but yes most backrow will go for the big double hits to get him down, just the way the position has been looked at since the olden days.

Now if ROG had Wilko's tackling my god would he piss off those backrows

Tim Robbins

gosplan wrote:

Watch it happen if we meet the All Blacks.

First few attacking runs of theirs will be drives straight into O'Gara to test him.

When he gets the ball, one goes high, one goes low and CRUNCH!!!

Which is legal and any player who gets a hospital pass or stands still with the ball will get creamed. It is Rugby.

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

Snickers Man

kevmy wrote:

In fairness though O Gara is pretty tough and needs to be seriously taken out of it (ie. illegally) so you have to way up the cost of taking O Gara out. That means don't let Richie McCaw take him out.

I think the Blacks would fancy their chances of beating us even with 14 men if O'Gara wasn't playing, so they could well get some forward monster to take him out. And, who knows, they could even get away with it. They are past masters at intimidating referees.

Not to mention citing commissioners with planes to catch.

kevmy

Snickers Man wrote:

I think the Blacks would fancy their chances of beating us even with 14 men if O'Gara wasn't playing, so they could well get some forward monster to take him out. And, who knows, they could even get away with it. They are past masters at intimidating referees.

Not to mention citing commissioners with planes to catch.

Ah well IMO we're already fcuked if we have to play NZ in the quarters - it means we've already failed to beat the French (or the Argies) - if thats the case we haven't a bollixing notion of beating them.

Only other place we can play them is the final and I don't think even the All Blacks would risk being down to 14 men (even for 10 mins) by going blatantly and illegally after ROG - it means too much to them. Now if it just happened normally in the game we would be rightly screwed

Stev_o

Snickers Man wrote:

I think the Blacks would fancy their chances of beating us even with 14 men if O'Gara wasn't playing, so they could well get some forward monster to take him out. And, who knows, they could even get away with it. They are past masters at intimidating referees.

Not to mention citing commissioners with planes to catch.

Again why do people think that teams enter the pitch with a predefined plan to injure a play. Trust me it rarely happens. Ask any player who has played at any level who injured a opposition and they'll say that it just happened out of the blue they didnt say in their mind "Great chance to remove a player here" they just go and do things without thinking and SOMETIMES it results in the opposing man getting injured. If you dont like it grow up and play football because injuries are expected in rugby you can prepare for them you just gotta make do

Tim Robbins

Snickers Man wrote:

I think the Blacks would fancy their chances of beating us even with 14 men if O'Gara wasn't playing, so they could well get some forward monster to take him out. And, who knows, they could even get away with it. They are past masters at intimidating referees.

Not to mention citing commissioners with planes to catch.

In the second test in 2006, they deliberately targetted O'Gara's weak tackling and sent McCallister right down at him. It was like watching an U14 player trying to tackle an U18 player.

zAbbo

Tim Robbins wrote:

In the second test in 2006, they deliberately targetted O'Gara's weak tackling and sent McCallister right down at him. It was like watching an U14 player trying to tackle an U18 player.

While McCallister doesn't look big, he's got 50lb's on ROG, while being a bit shorter. Some nice bulking there, he's probably the heaviest NZ back as well.

Steffano2002

Diamondmaker wrote:

Both perfect plans IMO. Can a mod now please remove this thread so as we dont make it too easy for the competition!:D

Too late. I sent Bernard laporte the link to this thread and he printed it...

zAbbo

Steffano2002 wrote:

Too late. I sent Bernard laporte the link to this thread and he printed it...

Doesn't mean he'll read it

If Laporte knew what he was at, France would be a team to be reckoned with

Inquitus

kevmy wrote:

Ah well IMO we're already fcuked if we have to play NZ in the quarters - it means we've already failed to beat the French (or the Argies) - if thats the case we haven't a bollixing notion of beating them.

Only other place we can play them is the final and I don't think even the All Blacks would risk being down to 14 men (even for 10 mins) by going blatantly and illegally after ROG - it means too much to them. Now if it just happened normally in the game we would be rightly screwed

QFT, assuming we beat Argentina, our RWC hinges on the France game in Paris. We will either limp out in the Q/F or have a better than evens chance of making the Final imo, all depending on that one result.

dan719

gosplan wrote:

Watch it happen if we meet the All Blacks.

First few attacking runs of theirs will be drives straight into O'Gara to test him.

When he gets the ball, one goes high, one goes low and CRUNCH!!!

If Ireland play the All Blacks perhaps Eddie would do the clever thing(again) and slot O'Gara in at full back for defensive scrums around the middle of the park. At breakdowns position become pretty much irrelevant anyway.