Rte Website Player ratings!

pipelaser

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/worldcup/2011/1008/rwc_ireland_player_ratings.html

Obviously written by someone while they were tired and emotional!
How could Kearney be given a 5???

GerM

pipelaser wrote: »

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/worldcup/2011/1008/rwc_ireland_player_ratings.html

Obviously written by someone while they were tired and emotional!
How could Kearney be given a 5???

Mostly fairly accurate, I think. I'd have given Kearney and BOD a 6, Heaslip a 4, SOB a 5 and think I would agree with the rest really.

razorblunt

GerM wrote: »

Mostly fairly accurate, I think. I'd have given Kearney and BOD a 6, Heaslip a 4, SOB a 5 and think I would agree with the rest really.

Harsh on Heaslip, sure he wasn't even playing yesterday ;-)

DDC1990

Earls with a 3 was rediculous as well.

I know people are saying about the Try, but he was covering off the wide ball and on any other day Healy would have made that tackle. Not a clue what Kearney was doing for that try either.

I thought he was one of Irelands better players, along with BOD and POC.

GerM

DDC1990 wrote: »

Earls with a 3 was rediculous as well.

I know people are saying about the Try, but he was covering off the wide ball and on any other day Healy would have made that tackle. Not a clue what Kearney was doing for that try either.

I thought he was one of Irelands better players, along with BOD and POC.

He was probably better than a 3 but, relative to others, he was no more than 4 in my opinion. He was targetted by the Welsh in defence. He gave Wales possession for the first try, gave a hospital pass that led to them getting possession for their final try and nearly knocked himself out trying to tackle Roberts around the shoulders. That's aside from any involvement in Davies' going through. He finished his try well but really there wasn't much good outside of it.

danthefan

DDC1990 wrote: »

Earls with a 3 was rediculous as well.

I know people are saying about the Try, but he was covering off the wide ball and on any other day Healy would have made that tackle. Not a clue what Kearney was doing for that try either.

I thought he was one of Irelands better players, along with BOD and POC.

3 is generous/fair for Earls, his defence was awful.

Brendan97

danthefan wrote: »

3 is generous/fair for Earls, his defence was awful.

ARE YOU SERIOUS! his defence was pretty good and as for davies try healy should have tackled, him earls was covering the outside man! you are always suppose to trust the man on your inside to make the tackle so as you don't get sucked in and its an easy offload and try for the opposition. he looked lively in attack i would have given him a minimum of 5.

Podge_irl

Brendan97 wrote: »

earls was covering the outside man!

Earls was covering no one. He shot out of the line (something he should never be allowed do cause he never picks the right time to do it), realised his mistake and just dithered about in no man's land. It was absolutely dreadful defence.

danthefan

Brendan97 wrote: »

ARE YOU SERIOUS! his defence was pretty good and as for davies try healy should have tackled, him earls was covering the outside man! you are always suppose to trust the man on your inside to make the tackle so as you don't get sucked in and its an easy offload and try for the opposition. he looked lively in attack i would have given him a minimum of 5.

I'm perfectly serious. Healy was obviously also at fault for that try, but that isn't the only incident. His defence for the entire game was very patchy. He was back to his RWC warm ups form again.

GerM

Brendan97 wrote: »

ARE YOU SERIOUS! his defence was pretty good and as for davies try healy should have tackled, him earls was covering the outside man! you are always suppose to trust the man on your inside to make the tackle so as you don't get sucked in and its an easy offload and try for the opposition. he looked lively in attack i would have given him a minimum of 5.

It wasn't. Watch the game again. For the opening try he was left two on one with the ball at a ruck. Kearney and Healy had pillar covered and Murray was one out on nobody. Earls should have dragged Murray out to line up Halfpenny leaving himself with Williams. As mentioned above, whilst the missed tackle was Healy's, Earls ran out of the line, dithered about the place and was standing sideways to Davies when he ran in through them. For all the tries, there were a multitude of screw ups from a number of players but to think that Earls was pretty good is way off. Healy, D'Arcy, Bowe, ROG all also played their part in a system failure.

Fishooks12

Earls wasn't great in defence and got caught in no mans land for the Davies try but he produced a world class finish for his own try and defiantly doesn't deserve a 3

Anyway, ut's very hard to give someone a mark out of ten for something so subjective, never pay too much attention to player ratings

MungBean

Earls took his try well but other than that he was poor. I think the trouble with Earls is that people see him as a try scoring machine and a world class finisher, only problem with that is that he isnt and most of his tries in the world cup although taken well were straight run ins. But when he has no room he cant create it for others like Trimble or Bowe.

He's fast and can finish but he's not an all round good player. Bowe is the type of winger to aspire to. Fast, good hands, physical in defence, good awareness and capable of cutting in and breaking the line to create opportunities rather than waiting for space to open in front of him. Trimble is more along those lines and should have been played instead of Earls throughout the tournament.

Earls has never lived up to the reputation he has and never will. He's a good player but I dont understand why he was played ahead of a better player. Boggles the mind. Not his fault obviously, if your picked you play and he gave it everything. I just dont understand his selection. Or Murray who looked out of his depth. We went with Reddan and Boss, too experienced SH's and both took a back seat to a kid who hadnt proven himself. Also boggles the mind.

I'm not an international coach so my criticism of Kidneys choice is just an average joe wondering why player A is on the pitch despite player B being better. A quarter final of a world cup and we start an inexperienced SH. And have our form winger benched throughout the competition, getting 10 minutes in the crucial games. Not too sure this Kidney chap actually knows what he's doing to be honest.

DDC1990

5 Tries in the biggest tournament in the world suggests that he has lived up to his reputation as a World Class winger.

GerM

DDC1990 wrote: »

5 Tries in the biggest tournament in the world suggests that he has lived up to his reputation as a World Class winger.

Cueto has got 4 tries in 2 games, it doesn't make him world class. There's more to any position than one facet. Earls is a world class finisher and a very good winger. Bowe is the only world class winger we have. His handling, lines, reading, finishing etc. is all excellent.

MungBean

DDC1990 wrote: »

5 Tries in the biggest tournament in the world suggests that he has lived up to his reputation as a World Class winger.

Like I said they were mostly straight run ins. You need more than touching down a ball to show your a world class winger. He's a good finisher and he took his tries very well but its not enough to call him world class.. Bowe got 2 against USA. Are you saying Earls is twice the winger Bowe is because he scored twice the tries ? Or would you agree Bowe's all round game makes him by far the better winger ?

Fishooks12

MungBean wrote: »

Like I said they were mostly straight run ins. You need more than touching down a ball to show your a world class winger. He's a good finisher and he took his tries very well but its not enough to call him world class.. Bowe got 2 against USA. Are you saying Earls is twice the winger Bowe is because he scored twice the tries ? Or would you agree Bowe's all round game makes him by far the better winger ?

Mostly straight run ins? I suggest you watch yesterdays try again

MungBean

Fishooks12 wrote: »

Mostly straight run ins? I suggest you watch yesterdays try again

I dont need to watch it again. It was a straight run in. Slid before the line. I suggest you watch it again if you think it was anything else.

Tigerandahalf

Earls has probably been overrated. He seems to have poor hands, drops the ball but his speed is an asset and he's shown that his best quality is finishing tries a bit like Habana with SA. He isn't hugely creative but he can finish. He can step but has poor awareness of players for offloads. I think Earl's defence has improved slightly. He is more aggressive in the tackle but still seems to be indecisive when there is space in front of him. He comes across as lacking that inner self-belief and confidence seems to be a big part of his game.

Kayless

Tigerandahalf wrote: »

Earls has probably been overrated. He seems to have poor hands, drops the ball but his speed is an asset and he's shown that his best quality is finishing tries a bit like Habana with SA. He isn't hugely creative but he can finish. He can step but has poor awareness of players for offloads. I think Earl's defence has improved slightly. He is more aggressive in the tackle but still seems to be indecisive when there is space in front of him. He comes across as lacking that inner self-belief and confidence seems to be a big part of his game.

agree with this 100% I think Earls will be one our best in few years

MungBean

Kayless wrote: »

agree with this 100% I think Earls will be one our best in few years

Not if Kidney wants him at 13 he wont.

Tigerandahalf

I can't see him being effective at 13. He doesn't seem to be able to defend the space in front of him..seems uncertain. I'd leave him on the wing. We don't have a huge amount of options at 13 do we??