Ireland v Scotland -Aviva Stadium - Saturday 10th March 5pm

leftleg

Its Scotlands 2 opensides Rennie and Barclay that worry me the most; considering we will have a shaky lineout; we well be looking to keep the ball on the pitch as much as possible; these 2 could have a huge bearing on this game

GerM

ttankk wrote: »

i love how people are worrying about how the line out for ireland will hold up against scotland due to o connells absence and the fact that gert smal isnt around ! its absolute nonsence we still have quality in o callaghan and now ryan who should have been starting from the very start and know these lineouts inside out yes scotland have possibly the best up and coming second row in gray and a very effective lineout in general but we will most def finish on top. also chuffed to see peter o mahony getting his chance

The difference between POC and the two starting locks is massive. His athleticism in the air and explosiveness from the deck is untouchable in this country. Ryan is decent but isn’t great getting off the deck. DOC isn’t a great jumper. If our line out is to function tomorrow, we’ll have to mix things up and keep Gray clear of the ball. I can see the back row having a busy day in the set piece. I think we’ll see POM taking 3 or 4 catches tomorrow. His lightness, athleticism and good hands will be a major plus. With that said, I don’t see us looking to play a line out game. We know we’ve the beatings of them with the ball in hand and will look to concentrate on that. We don’t need to go from touch to get our scores on the board. Drag them around the pitch and tire out their big front 5. The gaps will appear, the back row and midfield will be dragged in and they’ll defend more narrowly. The space will come.

POM should be a main contributor to the lineout tomorrow. He's good in the air, and he'll be able to compete fine.

SOB's injury could be a blessing in disguise for the defensive lineout organisation.

CatFromHue

While POC is a loss in the lineout all right we will still have 4 jumpers in Ryan, DOC, POM, and Heaslip. When you look through the lineout stats for the 3 games so far the lineout has been shared between the jumpers, almost equally in some cases. Only against Italy did POC take more lineouts than anyone else. Even then it was only 2.

There is no numbers for lineouts lost though.

shuffol

GerM wrote: »

The difference between POC and the two starting locks is massive. His athleticism in the air and explosiveness from the deck is untouchable in this country. Ryan is decent but isn’t great getting off the deck. DOC isn’t a great jumper. If our line out is to function tomorrow, we’ll have to mix things up and keep Gray clear of the ball. I can see the back row having a busy day in the set piece. I think we’ll see POM taking 3 or 4 catches tomorrow. His lightness, athleticism and good hands will be a major plus. With that said, I don’t see us looking to play a line out game. We know we’ve the beatings of them with the ball in hand and will look to concentrate on that. We don’t need to go from touch to get our scores on the board. Drag them around the pitch and tire out their big front 5. The gaps will appear, the back row and midfield will be dragged in and they’ll defend more narrowly. The space will come.

But do we have the team to hold onto the ball for long periods, we've lost our strongest ball carrier, neither DOC nor Ryan normally carry a lot of ball either and our midfield doesnt have great distributors. Scotland look well set up to counteract us, their lineout will be strong, they'll be very strong at the breakdown and their front row is one of the best units in the competition and get through a huge amount of work.

Digifriendly

Really looking forward to seeing POM start tomorrow. He could nail down a place in the team if he continues to play as he has for Munster. I predict he'll be heading with the Lions down under next year.

leftleg

shuffol wrote: »

But do we have the team to hold onto the ball for long periods, we've lost our strongest ball carrier, neither DOC nor Ryan normally carry a lot of ball either and our midfield doesnt have great distributors. Scotland look well set up to counteract us, their lineout will be strong, they'll be very strong at the breakdown and their front row is one of the best units in the competition and get through a huge amount of work.

I thought there front row took an awful pasting against the French at scrum time; so we have an edge there imo;

In open play i dont think they have anything to fear against us;

Basically our front 3 are better but thats about it.

irishbucsfan

leftleg wrote: »

shuffol wrote: »

But do we have the team to hold onto the ball for long periods, we've lost our strongest ball carrier, neither DOC nor Ryan normally carry a lot of ball either and our midfield doesnt have great distributors. Scotland look well set up to counteract us, their lineout will be strong, they'll be very strong at the breakdown and their front row is one of the best units in the competition and get through a huge amount of work.

I thought there front row took an awful pasting against the French at scrum time; so we have an edge there imo;

In open play i dont think they have anything to fear against us;

Basically our front 3 are better but thats about it.

Eh? Our back 3 and half backs are comfortably better than theirs.

Also they gave the worst centers in the 6 Nations

leftleg

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Eh? Our back 3 and half backs are comfortably better than theirs.

Also they gave the worst centers in the 6 Nations

I absolutely agree with that but this isn't Leinster at HCup time; this Ireland under Kidney.

irishbucsfan

leftleg wrote: »

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Eh? Our back 3 and half backs are comfortably better than theirs.

Also they gave the worst centers in the 6 Nations

I absolutely agree with that but this isn't Leinster at HCup time; this Ireland under Kidney.

When Sexton and Reddan have started together in the past we've played well. I anticipate the same this weekend.

Just don't expect it to be rewarded if it happens.

Fireball07

leftleg wrote: »

I thought there front row took an awful pasting against the French at scrum time; so we have an edge there imo;

In open play i dont think they have anything to fear against us;

Basically our front 3 are better but thats about it.

Yeah but they don't beat us anywhere in the backline and I don't think their backrow is actually better than ours. They won't fear us, but we won't fear them either.

leftleg

Fireball07 wrote: »

Yeah but they don't beat us anywhere in the backline and I don't think their backrow is actually better than ours. They won't fear us, but we won't fear them either.

Exactly thats why I'm nervous about Scotland; If the lads play out of their skins for a full 80 and beat the daylights out of Scotland, fair play to them, because if you ask me there's more pressure on this team for this game than there was for the one in Paris last week. C'mon Ireland!!

shuffol

leftleg wrote: »

I thought there front row took an awful pasting against the French at scrum time; so we have an edge there imo;

In open play i dont think they have anything to fear against us;

Basically our front 3 are better but thats about it.

Scrum wise I think it'll be fairly even but in open play the Scottish front row is very good, they've been fantastic for Edinburgh in the HC this season.

Their centers arent great, particularly De Luca but to be fair neither are ours, Morrison can be a real handful on his day though, in this fixture 2 years ago he gave D'arcy a pretty torrid time.

padraig.od

shuffol wrote: »

Scrum wise I think it'll be fairly even but in open play the Scottish front row is very good, they've been fantastic for Edinburgh in the HC this season.

Their centers arent great, particularly De Luca but to be fair neither are ours, Morrison can be a real handful on his day though, in this fixture 2 years ago he gave D'arcy a pretty torrid time.

D'Arcy always struggles against Morrison. Its one of life's little mystery's.

shuffol

Fireball07 wrote: »

Yeah but they don't beat us anywhere in the backline and I don't think their backrow is actually better than ours. They won't fear us, but we won't fear them either.

On paper our players look better but this Scottish side is greater than the sum of their parts, they're playing very good rugby without any reward so far, this is a game that they'll really be targetting. Our performance against France was based on intensity and linespeed, we've never been able to repeat that type of performance in the past and we've only a 6 day turnaround minus 2 of our top performers in France. I think there's a lot to suggest that this could be a difficult afternoon for us.

Tox56

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

That's a poor bench, even for a provincial team, never mind an international.

padraig.od

Tox56 wrote: »

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

That's a poor bench, even for a provincial team, never mind an international.

Don't be silly.

MLC61

Digifriendly wrote: »

Really looking forward to seeing POM start tomorrow. He could nail down a place in the team if he continues to play as he has for Munster. I predict he'll be heading with the Lions down under next year.

I'm also looking forward to O'Mahony's start tomorrow, but for a different reason. I have watched him play a couple of times this year for Munster and can't see what the fuss is about. I truly hope to be proven wrong and that he has a great game.

Big Nelly

Tox56 wrote: »

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

That's a poor bench, even for a provincial team, never mind an international.

Explain? All players but McCarthy are in HC quarters with there respective teams. 3 have won a HC(not sure if O'Leary was part of Munster HC win).

Cronin has been a great impact sub in HC all season for Leinster. Court has done very well for Ulster, not as stong as usual but nowhere near a poor bench

pappyodaniel

leftleg wrote: »

I thought there front row took an awful pasting against the French at scrum time; so we have an edge there imo;

I think Euan Murray was at mass that day :pac:

thomond2006

Tox56 wrote: »

Replacements:

16 - Sean Cronin (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
17 - Tom Court (Malone/Ulster)
18 - Mike McCarthy (Buccaneers/Connacht)
19 - Shane Jennings (St. Mary's College/Leinster)
20 - Tomas O'Leary (Dolphin/Munster)
21 - Ronan O'Gara (Cork Constitution/Munster)
22 - Fergus McFadden (Old Belvedere/Leinster)

That's a poor bench, even for a provincial team, never mind an international.

All those players would start for Connacht, have to disagree there.

leftleg

RTE.ie match preview by Brendan Cole has the following statement;

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2012/0309/sixnations_ireland_scotland_preview.html

"It should also be a point of pride that Ireland protected the Grand Slam from another team by denying France the win."

We have now officially won the Moral Grand Slam; I'm over the moon; job done; who cares about the Scotland game tmw; we stopped France from getting the grand slam.

I'm beaming with ****ing pride

Irish Rugby journalism at its lowest ebb me thinks

CiaranMT

That's really scraping the bottom of the barrel for positives.

Bromium

Digifriendly wrote: »

Really looking forward to seeing POM start tomorrow. He could nail down a place in the team if he continues to play as he has for Munster. I predict he'll be heading with the Lions down under next year.

This is really starting to grow legs now are people taking the p**s or is it just good old munster bias. Hope this guy has a good career ahead of him but the way he is being talked about its like the second coming of Jesus. From what I have seen he has shown nothing to get so excited about and seems to be flavour of the month. Its going to take a hell of alot to dislodge SOB out of the squad. All the same hope he does well tomorrow.

marco_polo

leftleg wrote: »

RTE.ie match preview by Brendan Cole has the following statement;

http://www.rte.ie/sport/rugby/sixnations/2012/0309/sixnations_ireland_scotland_preview.html

"It should also be a point of pride that Ireland protected the Grand Slam from another team by denying France the win."

We have now officially won the Moral Grand Slam; I'm over the moon; job done; who cares about the Scotland game tmw; we stopped France from getting the grand slam.

I'm beaming with ****ing pride

Irish Rugby journalism at its lowest ebb me thinks

To be fair to Brendan Cole, he's nearly always that poor.

pappyodaniel

Bromium wrote: »

This is really starting to grow legs now are people taking the p**s or is it just good old munster bias. Hope this guy has a good career ahead of him but the way he is being talked about its like the second coming of Jesus. From what I have seen he has shown nothing to get so excited about and seems to be flavour of the month. Its going to take a hell of alot to dislodge SOB out of the squad. All the same hope he does well tomorrow.

Eh I think that was a case of tongue in cheek. People are excited about him because he steps onto the pitch so pumped for games that the odd scuffle is inevitable, yet he still does his job to a very high standard. Kinda like Trevor Brennan used to do.

Relax guy.

Tox56

Big Nelly wrote: »

Explain? All players but McCarthy are in HC quarters with there respective teams. 3 have won a HC(not sure if O'Leary was part of Munster HC win).

Cronin has been a great impact sub in HC all season for Leinster. Court has done very well for Ulster, not as stong as usual but nowhere near a poor bench

I was thinking more in terms of impact, with only Cronin really capable of injecting some pace, like Reddan would have in previous games, or someone like Marshall or Healy do whenever they come off the bench, something Court doesn't really offer, TOL is hot and cold, McCarthy maybe and Jennings unlikely.

Maybe a poor bench was a bit over the top, lack of impact was the word I was looking for. :pac:

MLC61

pappyodaniel wrote: »

Eh I think that was a case of tongue in cheek. People are excited about him because he steps onto the pitch so pumped for games that the odd scuffle is inevitable, yet he still does his job to a very high standard. Kinda like Trevor Brennan used to do.

Relax guy.

So I'm not mistaken - in the couple of games I have seen he has looked like a cross between Alan Quinlan and Trevor Brennan. To be fair, taking the piss hadn't occurred to me, I had assumed that it was all serious. But now that you mention it.....

marco_polo

MLC61 wrote: »

I'm also looking forward to O'Mahony's start tomorrow, but for a different reason. I have watched him play a couple of times this year for Munster and can't see what the fuss is about. I truly hope to be proven wrong and that he has a great game.

I am guessing those couple of games weren't the two HEC pool games where he went home with the MOTM awards tucked safely away under his belt.

He is only 22, in his first full season and despite only 15 odd professional starts under his belt has already captained his Province on a few occasions. Sounds like all hype and no substance alright.

Geno1111

Scotland to win by between 6 to 10 points in Ladbrokes are 14/1... First time I've ever placed a bet with Ireland to lose but I have an awful feeling that Scotland will win tomorrow.