Kidney could learn from Lievremont

totallegend

Lievremont drops six from squad for next weekend:

'Do I feel responsible for that? No, they betrayed us, they have betrayed me and they have betrayed the French national team shirt,' he told www.planetrugby.com.
'What is for sure is that certain players have worn the French shirt for the last time.
'Do you really think that I told them to play as they did against Italy? I was ashamed. I do not have the impression we asked them to walk on the moon - I do not ask for complicated things.
'They (the players) are lacking in courage. They are good guys, but cursed with what is obviously cowardice. They are not even capable of admitting to their own mistakes. Perhaps it is a trend among the new generation.'

text from rte.ie.

Fair play to him, speaking his mind and making changes when they need to be made. Hopefully Kidney will take a leaf out of his book.
And while losing to Italy is a lot worse than losing in Wales after a dodgy try, don't forget Ireland could easily have lost in Rome as well...

Mothman

Lievremont is the last manager I'd look towards for an example.

buck65

Losing to Wales and losing to Italy ,tradition wise, are hardly the same thing.
Also Italy apart from the England game have proved that they are to be taken seriously now. If they had a kicker of any consistency they may be still chasing the C'ship!
Kidney decision to replace O Gara may have backfired as Sexton made 2 errors that in the windup cost the match, however even with O gara on Ireland looked clueless and bereft of ideas. The change was needed at the time so no fault there I reckon, Paddy Wallace should have been at home with McFadden on the bench, apart from that hard to blame Kidney for Ireland playing like novices all season.

GerM

Lievremont is a total nutter. He has always been a bizarre figure and now sits on the same level as Domenech did entering the football world cup. He doesn't have a clue what he's doing. He has cut Jerome Thion from the squad who I don't think he has even given a single start to in the 6N. Calling his players cowards? What a joke of a coach. No coach who does that should be near J1 rugby, forget about international.

I hope there's a revolt against him. I'd be quite sure that he won't be French coach post WC.

Daragh86

buck65 wrote: »

hard to blame Kidney for Ireland playing like novices all season.

I really disagree with this. I would find it hard to blame Kidney for the first two games but the last two and especially Wales game the tactics were so far off the mark. Fair enough have a tactic to kick for field position but it was as obvious as the nose on your face that the welsh back three had done their homework and played a fantastic game in relation to the field positioning.

Why then after 20 or 30 minutes of hammering away at a tactic that is not only not working but putting us under huge amounts of pressure is it not changed? I'd even go as far as leave it until half time and change tactics then but still no change. Then I thought there was a bit of hope with Sexton coming on but it seems as if he was sent on with the same game plan, kick for field position.

Also, trying grubber kicks to get in behind the welsh defence wasn't a runner either but players still plugged away at it.

Ireland are one of the best teams in the world at scoring off first phase but everytime we got quick ball off the back of the lineout we had O'Brien crashing it up in the centre time and time again just for the Welsh to know what is going to happen and commit numbers to that breakdown, slowing down ball and pretty much rendering our quick ball useless.

There are far too many world class players on that team to be playing that style of game and to have to stick to tactics until the coach says different when it's so obvious the game is slowing slipping away the whole time, looks like very very poor captaincy to me on both O'Driscolls and O'Connells part.

As much as I like Kidney and always have his style of game just doesn't suit this group of players and some of the new law interpretations. Kidney needs to change his style with the times, Munster may have carved out a win in that game but Leinster would have put it away before half time. Not a Munster - Leinster dig just a style of play comparison.

Lievremont is one extreme
Kidney is another extreme

I'd be happy with a coach somewhere in the middle

LFC5Times

I wonder who from the starting 15 will not play for France again? Lievremont is a joker and his selections have a lot to do for their poor showing.

bleg

The man picked Chabal over Harinordoquy. Enough said.

totallegend

Should have clarified in my original post that I don't think Lievremont is a good coach, just that I admire him for coming out and speaking plainly, which is something DK never does.

Also, he's giving people the axe after an atrocious performance, whereas we've used only 19 starting players in four pretty bad showings (and if there had been no injuries, that number would be 16).

tommy57

totallegend wrote: »

Should have clarified in my original post that I don't think Lievremont is a good coach, just that I admire him for coming out and speaking plainly, which is something DK never does.

Also, he's giving people the axe after an atrocious performance, whereas we've used only 19 starting players in four pretty bad showings (and if there had been no injuries, that number would be 16).

Ireland haven't the luxery of dropping players. we only have 35 players to pick from. If kidney drops players for england game and loses he would be slaughterd . no win situation. france have used over 80 players in last 3 years.

totallegend

tommy57 wrote: »

Ireland haven't the luxery of dropping players. we only have 35 players to pick from. If kidney drops players for england game and loses he would be slaughterd . no win situation. france have used over 80 players in last 3 years.

So we just leave in people who aren't playing well (D'Arcy, Fitzgerald, Heaslip) and others who aren't international class (P Wallace, Leamy) instead of giving other players a chance to impress or give the some of the younger guys a go?

For this weekend's game, you could bring in Trimble, McFadden, Boss, Ruddock or Cullen without weakening the team, and that's with Murphy, Kearney, Horgan, O'Leary, Jennings, Ferris and Flannery all injured. Depth is not the issue here.