Ireland V Tonga. Monday 27th. KO 7:55 am. SS1

toomevara

Ireland team named. Looks strong with 10 Super League players. Pity about the injury to graham Holroyd which leaves us looking a little under par in the halves. Unfortunately Wayne Kerr and Ged Corcoran have missed out...

Ireland: M Platt (Bradford); D Blanch (Wakefield), S Gleeson (Wakefield), S Littler (Salford), P Richards (Wigan); S Grix (Wakefield, capt), K Fitzpatrick (Salford); E O´Carroll (Wigan), B Beswick (Widnes), R Tandy (Wests Tigers), B Harrison (Warrington), L Doran (Leigh), S Finnigan (Bradford).

Subs: M McIlorum (Wigan), L Finn (Dewsbury), G Haggerty (Harlequins), M Cassidy (Barrow).

toomevara

20 mins gone. Tonga 6 Ire 0. Shakey start for Ireland, but coming into it now. Tongan discipline keeping us in it,some brutal high tacking

toomevara

Tongan in the bin..tackle count 7-1, Tonga totally indisciplined...may cost em dear..off side, not square and clothes line tacking...but Ireland killing themselves with basic errors and lacklustre defence...

toomevara

Try ireland! Damien Blanch...well taken...lovely stuff. Ton 6 Ire 4

Diamondmaker

Keep the updates comin dude, our telly went on the blink and I cant watch it!
Cant go to the pub either got a match in an hour...cheers..

Diamondmaker

Whoo other try, got a stream on the RLWC site.

toomevara

Try Ireland! Platt...Ton 6 Ire 10...Haggerty having a stormer....Tongan indiscipline shocking..gave up 30 yards on last play to penalties....

toomevara

aRghhhh, almost another..robbed!!!!

toomevara

Platt from hero to villain..far too casual in defence under the high ball (been a problem since the start) try Tonga....soft

toomevara

Half time 12-10 to Tonga. Real Jekyll and Hyde stuff from ireland...started conceeding alot of silly penalties, crucifying ourselves...got to say though Tonga are there for they taking. Work rate in defence poor...great with ball in hand though, making massive yardage up the gut on every set...If we can start moving them round in the second they may flag....

Diamondmaker

SOft pennos being given away and schoolboy fielding error which led to the try moments after we could have converted in the RHS corner.

Very bad 5 mins for morale.

I dont think the guys can keep it up in the 2nd half the power of the Tongans is gonna wear them out tackling I feel.

toomevara

Diamondmaker wrote: »

SOft pennos being given away and schoolboy fielding error which led to the try moments after we could have converted in the RHS corner.

Very bad 5 mins for morale.

I dont think the guys can keep it up in the 2nd half the power of the Tongans is gonna wear them out tackling I feel.

Agreed, Platt lost the plot there, that ball should have been kicked into the Gods. He's looked shaky, think the Tongans will use the bomb more in the 2nd.

If we're going to win the game we've got to be cute...we've got to start looking for consecutive sets...using the kicking game, pushing hard for GLDO's and fustrating the Tongans....we need to start moving that ball wider and while I understand the need for a compressed defence if some of those tongan wide balls go to hand they'll run in a few...

Awful pity Holroyd injured, the halves not quite working....

toomevara

Some of that Tongan tackling is shockingly dangerous...someone's going to get hurt

toomevara

Richards,nooooo, should have been a try...got to use that kick to Richards more.

toomevara

Mateo in the bin for dissent....the guys worse than a soccer player...never seen a rugby player barrack a referee so much...

toomevara

Try Ireland..Blanch again, brilliant stuff from Gleeson..

toomevara

53 mins gone...Ton 12 Ire 14

toomevara

Great Defence Ireland..getting pumped now!

toomevara

Try Tonga...bugger

toomevara

Another Tongan try...sh1te...suddenly rampant,looking ominous

*cancel that, try denied, looked definite to me....we'll take it*

Ton 18 Ire 14 with 20 to go

Shelflife

try for blanch

zAbbo

great try

Shelflife

come on richards do your stuff !!!!!!!!!

toomevara

Hat trick Blanche...f**king briliant....level again...18 all...game of the tournament by a country mile..great stuff.

randomer

I have never watched Ireland play rugby league before, but they are awesome! Go IRELAND!

toomevara

kick good...ireland take the lead...18 plays 20

Shelflife

Ireland need to calm down and play a simple game from here on.

toomevara

Muscle up, control the game...Platt, jaysis, too casual again...soft 40/20

Shelflife

Thats a huge 40 20 kick, trouble for Ireland 72 mins

toomevara

Try Tonga...suicide by Ireland...

randomer

That had to be a forward pass. Why was that not looked into by the video ref? He passed it from outside the 10 yard line, and it was caught passed the 10 yard line!

Shelflife

big error by tonga chance here

Shelflife

Yeah randomer it was well forward , but i dont think we can complain really, we had our rub of the green today

toomevara

Thats all she wrote...gutted, no one to blame but ourselves..brilliant game, but thats no consolation, we should have won it...

randomer

Shelflife wrote: »

Yeah randomer it was well forward , but i dont think we can complain really, we had our rub of the green today

Yeah, I agree. But when it went to the video ref I thought they would have spotted that, or are they only allowed to check what the ref asks them to check?

It's a shame that they have lost, but it was an awesome effort.

Shelflife

it was there for the taking, Tonga just the better team let down by their discipline, a calmer head just before half time would have won us the game. pity really but a great game by Ireland.

Well done lads

toomevara

randomer wrote: »

Yeah, I agree. But when it went to the video ref I thought they would have spotted that, or are they only allowed to check what the ref asks them to check?

It's a shame that they have lost, but it was an awesome effort.

Video ref is not allowed to adjudicate on forward passes, because of camera angles etc....unfortunately

Shelflife

Cant go to the video ref for forward passes , but that one would have been an easy call as you had the line as a reference.

toomevara

Shelflife wrote: »

it was there for the taking, Tonga just the better team let down by their discipline, a calmer head just before half time would have won us the game. pity really but a great game by Ireland.

Well done lads

Yeah well done lads, but thought Tonga's attitude was appalling, they were petulant, ill-disciplined and, imo, did their best to injure a number of Irish players in some scurrilous tackles...don't think they made themselves any friends....

Shelflife

Cassidy gave away at least 3 pens which put us under a lot of pressure, he undos a lot of his work with silly pens.

toomevara

Shelflife wrote: »

Cassidy gave away at least 3 pens which put us under a lot of pressure, he undos a lot of his work with silly pens.

Yeah, when he was good he was very very good..when he was bad he was horrid...

Serenity Now!

toomevara wrote: »

Yeah well done lads, but thought Tonga's attitude was appalling, they were petulant, ill-disciplined and, imo, did their best to injure a number of Irish players in some scurrilous tackles...don't think they made themselves any friends....

I thought the Tongans when they actually got on with the game looked fairly handy. Their hooker and five-eighth were excellent with ball although the latter obviously the latter has a huge attitude problem with referees.
Some colossal hits by both sides. Hopefully that wasn't Ireland's "big game" for the tourny. Samoa will whallop the Tongans. If you thought today was crunchy, you ain't seen nothing yet.

Ireland could have won that, for sure and they're understandably gutted. Make most of the break, watch the Manu v Tonga and then do the groundwork.

Disappointed in supposedly RL-mad western suburbs not showing up at the Parra stadium for the game. A world cup game at their doorstep and these so-called fans opt to stay in and watch it on the TV?? Pathetic.

toomevara

Serenity Now! wrote: »

Disappointed in supposedly RL-mad western suburbs not showing up at the Parra stadium for the game. A world cup game at their doorstep and these so-called fans opt to stay in and watch it on the TV?? Pathetic.

Yeah I was really dissapointed with that...I, like you, thought the pace would be jammed with eels supporters looking for a fix....poor.

Diamondmaker

Ragin, just back from losing by 2 ourselves against favourites....

Just watched 2nd half hi lights, looked a rippa' !

Wish there was a game on here Brizzy! Hopefully will have a TV for next one.

Good show I barely knew Irish Rugby league beyond Carney. Maybe 1 or 2 will be picked by the NRL after this. Thats what the press are saying here. It maybe a joke of a comp with regards to competitiveness but legends such as Carney would never be discovered without it.

( I never knew he was held in sush high esteem until I came here ! )

So how do the Samoans rate compared to Tonga ?

Diamondmaker

toomevara wrote: »

Yeah I was really dissapointed with that...I, like you, thought the pace would be jammed with eels supporters looking for a fix....poor.

I reckon it would have been ram packed on a Fri, Sat or even Sun arvo.
The Irish exoles and back packer crews would have hit it hard. I think that would be fairly obvious, so long as it did not clash with the international rules games.

I was at the Aus Irl game in Melbourne, Sat night and it was packed with Iri just along for the buzz. No reason why Sydney could not have done the same if they played the Irish games at better times.

The Samoa ganme aint much beter on a weds...it obvious they should have tapped in on the Irish weekender boozers in Sydney...

Serenity Now!

Diamondmaker wrote: »

I reckon it would have been ram packed on a Fri, Sat or even Sun arvo.
The Irish exoles and back packer crews would have hit it hard. I think that would be fairly obvious, so long as it did not clash with the international rules games

Shouldn't have made a difference. It was a World Cup game. Plenty of RL out that side of the city. If the ARU can fill the stadium in Tassie (a distinctly un-Rugby Union state) with supporters in 2003, a supposed RL heartland region should have chocked up the stands in Parramatta at least. Inexcusable.

Frowzy

This is kinda off the point, but I was reading the match report on Sky news active where the Irish team are referred to as "Blarney's Army" so I checked the website where they are referred to as "Irish Wolfhounds". Does anyone else take offence to these kind of remarks or am I being Uber sensitive today?

F

Amz

Hardly the worst name in the world, but a bit dismissive.

Serenity Now!

Frowzy wrote: »

This is kinda off the point, but I was reading the match report on Sky news active where the Irish team are referred to as "Blarney's Army" so I checked the website where they are referred to as "Irish Wolfhounds". Does anyone else take offence to these kind of remarks or am I being Uber sensitive today?

It doesn't refer to the team.
Its a monicker for the fans just like it was for the fans who travelled to the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup, which they thought up themselves.
Harmless.

juvenal

Full repeat of match on Sky Sports 2 now.

Just started. Surprised at the low attendance as mentioned earlier.

Stealdo

On the forward pass issue - here's an interesting video on the matter. While this relates to union, when debating this with a friend who's more informed about league than I am he was of the opinion that accounting for this physical anomoly is more explicit in the rules of league and so the 10 metre line is irrelevant to whether it was a forward pass or not. I couldn't make out from the replays whether it was a forward pass based on this logic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgMlDy2jP9s