Views on RWC Warm Up Games?

theboss80

So I've been thinking about the warm up games and im in two minds really. It is a good thing that we will have a few tough games before the team departs for down under but for confidence I'm not too convinced YET.

So we have 4 games , 1 daunting enough trip to Scotland where we generally struggle to produce convincing preformances, a game against France where I would imagine there will not be many player/position experiments by either team and then a home/away clash against the old enemy.

I reckon we should win 2 of these games (Scots away and England at home), but where does that leave us really? If anything disasterous happens and we lose more than 2 games surely confidence will be low heading to NZ?

What are yer thoughts? In regards to the teams we play in the warm ups and what kind of results would you expect?

JustinDee

Don't think you should worry so much on results per se as much.

Four games will be excellent having had none since May and no intls since March.
Better to be coming off four squad performances than just two warm-ups.

twinytwo

theboss80 wrote: »

So I've been thinking about the warm up games and im in two minds really. It is a good thing that we will have a few tough games before the team departs for down under but for confidence I'm not too convinced YET.

So we have 4 games , 1 daunting enough trip to Scotland where we generally struggle to produce convincing preformances, a game against France where I would imagine there will not be many player/position experiments by either team and then a home/away clash against the old enemy.

I reckon we should win 2 of these games (Scots away and England at home), but where does that leave us really? If anything disasterous happens and we lose more than 2 games surely confidence will be low heading to NZ?

What are yer thoughts? In regards to the teams we play in the warm ups and what kind of results would you expect?

If we want the WC to go well.. we would want to win all four games or at least put in really good performaces in the away games. We need to see the team clicking the max really, lineout, scrum, set piece etc. We do however also need to find a full back.. im assuming that both murphy and kearney will still be out. This is Jones' chance.

i find it funny that sky have england 8/1 to win the WC and us at 28/1 even though england cant and wont be beating us anytime soon

Teferi

Headline: Sky in English-bias shocker?

CatFromHue

twinytwo wrote: »

i find it funny that sky have england 8/1 to win the WC and us at 28/1 even though england cant and wont be beating us anytime soon

england have won the cup and been in 3 finals. 2 of which were in the last two tournaments.

ireland have never made it past the quarters and with our best team ever bombed at the last tournament.

england are the current 6 nations champions so the odds dont seem too fancyfull after all

steve9859

twinytwo wrote: »

i find it funny that sky have england 8/1 to win the WC and us at 28/1 even though england cant and wont be beating us anytime soon

England have a track record of peaking at the right time whereas Ireland have a woeful record, even with a good team. That must be worth a lot when considering the odds. The england team that went into the 2007 RWC was awful, but reached the final and came close to winning. They are 6 nations champions. If I recall, England have a relatively straightforward run to the semis. The odds might be a little too unfavourable to Ireland rather than too favourable to England.

Who would NZ or Australia be more scared of in a RWC semi final? Ireland or England? I would say England

Given that, I think home and away games against ENgland are the perfect preparation for the world cup. England will be there or thereabouts, so if ireland can beat them twice they will go to new Zealand with amazing confidence

sock puppet

Assuming the pool stages and quarter finals go as expected England would play France and Australia to get to the final, teams they've had a lot of success against recently. I don't think they'd win in a final against New Zealand or South Africa though.

steve9859

sock puppet wrote: »

Assuming the pool stages and quarter finals go as expected England would play France and Australia to get to the final, teams they've had a lot of success against recently. I don't think they'd win in a final against New Zealand or South Africa though.

I agree. Which more than justifies their 8/1. Why are Ireland so long? A tough quarter final?

Kaka10

Because Ireland can never beat SH teams away from home and Kidney is going to play O'Leary.

skregs

steve9859 wrote: »

Why are Ireland so long?

You've watched Ireland play before right?

England are consistently better than us. The fact that we dragged up the courage to beat our most hated rivals at home doesn't mean we're going to demolish the saffers in a QF. England will probably get further than us in the tournament.

Teferi

We regularly beat England now...beating them is not the season saver it used to be. We're in and around top tier now.

steve9859

You really can't say Ireland are top tier till they beat NZ or the get past QF of the world cup. A few wins in Europe doesn't really count I don't think - even a grand slam in what has been a crap 3 or 4 years for European rugby

skregs

Teferi wrote: »

We regularly beat England now...beating them is not the season saver it used to be. We're in and around top tier now.

We're not even in the top tier in Europe.
In the last ten years of the six nations, France won 4, with one grand slam, England won 3, with one grand slam, Wales won 2, both of them grandslams.

Podge_irl

I'd back England to beat us in a RWC game.

Teferi

steve9859 wrote: »

You really can't say Ireland are top tier till they beat NZ

As I said - in and around. NZ are the last of the gatekeepers.

skregs wrote: »

We're not even in the top tier in Europe.

Poppycock.

twinytwo

Podge_irl wrote: »

I'd back England to beat us in a RWC game.

wouldnt think so... we could play them anywhere on the planet, hell we could play on the moon and still wouldnt lose to them.

twinytwo

skregs wrote: »

You've watched Ireland play before right?

England are consistently better than us. The fact that we dragged up the courage to beat our most hated rivals at home doesn't mean we're going to demolish the saffers in a QF. England will probably get further than us in the tournament.

now that our scrum/SH isnt going to kill us. we have a quality backrow, hopefully jones can take the rains at FB and if we could sort our our lineout. along the fact that for most of the team this is there last wc .. we might with a bit of look play to our potential for once in the wc.

We should be aiming for a semi final spot. Ater that anything can happen

CatFromHue

twinytwo wrote: »

hopefully jones can take the rains at FB

against quins was jones's biggest game for munster. it was a bad mistake throwing the forward pass to howlett for the dissallowed try and i thought there was one or two other errors he made.

at the moment assuming kearney gets fit i would have him as his understudy. if munster make it to the magners final that would be another two games in knock out rugby to test him with. there is the potential for him to make a case for bigger part

Podge_irl

twinytwo wrote: »

wouldnt think so... we could play them anywhere on the planet, hell we could play on the moon and still wouldnt lose to them.

Perhaps. I'd most definitely back them to get further in the competition then us though. Ireland have still never really taken a scalp when it mattered, despite several chances to do so.

CatFromHue

teams ireland have beaten in the world cup:

namiba, georgia
argentina, namibia, romania
romania, united states
wales, japan
japan, zimbabwe
canada, tonga

teams we have lost to in the world cup:

france, argentina
australia, france
australia, argentina
new zealand, france
scotland, australia
wales, australia

thats a far from awe inspiring record.

since the disaster in 2007 irish teams have won
2, hopefully to be 3, heineken cups
2, hopefully to be 3, magners leagues
1 six nations

so there is something to be hopefull about though.

totallegend

CatFromHue wrote: »

against quins was jones's biggest game for munster. it was a bad mistake throwing the forward pass to howlett for the dissallowed try and i thought there was one or two other errors he made.

at the moment assuming kearney gets fit i would have him as his understudy. if munster make it to the magners final that would be another two games in knock out rugby to test him with. there is the potential for him to make a case for bigger part

Jones butchered another try opportunity in the first half, took a man on about five metres out when he had a teammate outside him, got tackled, chance lost.

If Kearney is fit, he will go. Bringing Jones would be nice, but it means dropping someone else. Personally, I would view Earls as the understudy FB.

IMO, the nailed-down backs are:
BOD
D'Arcy
Wallace (yes, DK will bring him :mad:)
Bowe
Earls
Kearney
Trimble

which leaves one from:
Murphy/Fitzgerald/Jones/McFadden/Horgan

Could you really bring Jones ahead of all of them? Especially since he can cover one position whereas the others (except Horgan) can cover multiples.

hardCopy

CatFromHue wrote: »

teams ireland have beaten in the world cup:

namiba, georgia
argentina, namibia, romania
romania, united states
wales, japan
japan, zimbabwe
canada, tonga

teams we have lost to in the world cup:

france, argentina
australia, france
australia, argentina
new zealand, france
scotland, australia
wales, australia

thats a far from awe inspiring record.

since the disaster in 2007 irish teams have won
2, hopefully to be 3, heineken cups
2, hopefully to be 3, magners leagues
1 six nations

so there is something to be hopefull about though.

Wow, we really suck at World Cups! :eek:

daveharnett

totallegend wrote: »

IMO, the nailed-down backs are:
BOD
D'Arcy
Wallace (yes, DK will bring him :mad:)
Bowe
Earls
Kearney
Trimble

Is Trimble really a certainty?

OldRio

I recieved an e. mail from Scottish Rugby regarding tickets for the Ireland match on the 6th August.
Ticket prices are £10 and £20 adults.
£5 and £10 for under 18's.
Good prices. I wonder what the pricing policy will be for the home matches in Dublin.

ormond lad

OldRio wrote: »

I recieved an e. mail from Scottish Rugby regarding tickets for the Ireland match on the 6th August.
Ticket prices are £10 and £20 adults.
£5 and £10 for under 18's.
Good prices. I wonder what the pricing policy will be for the home matches in Dublin.

RUGBY WORLD CUP WARM-UPS: HOME GAME TICKET PRICES

Premium: €50
Category 1: €40
Category 2: €30
Category 3: Family Ticket €60 (adult €20, child €10 based on two adults and two children)
Category 4: €20
Schoolboy/girl: €10
http://www.irishrugby.ie/news/22469.php

daveharnett

daveharnett wrote: »

Is Trimble really a certainty?

abso-****ing-lutely.