USA Eagles Vs Ireland - 8/6/13 KO: 19:45 local, 01:45 Irish time

Losty Dublin

Quick poke in reveals that I wasn't actually dreaming up some the stuff I felt saw.

• A dominant Irish scrum. America were useless in the tight.
• Zebo playing his version of tip rugby.
• Experimental laws from the referee. I like this "higher please" scrum thing.
• No great running to speak of.
• Strauss proving his line out is worse than that of Rory Best
• Good play from Madigan, last kick excepted.
• The most boring second half since Ireland-Scotland 6 all draw in the early 90's.

I felt McCarthy had a strong game as well and put in some big hits; Toner needs time but he will come good. Henshaw had a good start but he did lose his way and yes, he is young but capable of better. Not worth the staying up but next week won't be as hard given the long day of football we all had.

trouttrout

Zebo got no ball, now he probably could have gone roaming a bit more but the Irish backline in general were starved due to the awful reffing of the breakdown.

awec

Honestly it's impossible to deduce anything from that game. It was a comedy show, not a rugby game.

DDC1990

What we can deduce is that we MUST follow that referee's career.

The only way is up from last night.

Highlight for me was: "USE IT!" when the Irish scrum were rampaging forward :P

TG4 now! Game about to start again. Lets get a Zebo counter started.

How many times will he touch the ball.

My money is on 4.

Tox56

What this match deserved was some Terry Wogan Eurovision commentary, it was almost surreal at times with the naivety of the US at the breakdown and the sheer incompetence of the referee, far worse than any AIL game I've ever seen on both counts.

awec

If someone finds a video of that US penalty where he just decides to run without tapping and then hoof it, please post it up

I forgot to mention the stadium announcer too. "Penalty to IRELAND! Holding on! SCCCCRRRRUMMMMM DOWN!". "IRELAND have opted to KICK FOR GOAL! Penalty to be taken by... IAANN MADIGAN!"

DDC1990

Zebo watch, 1 touch 1 tackle.

Decent start :P

EDIT: 1 knock on from a high kick

awec

I remember Zebo kicking it once. I think.

Tox56

Swiwi wrote: »

Indeed. The rampant conspiracy theories, that he was somehow shirking his on-field duties to save himself for the Lions hold no water whatsoever in my opinion.

I'm sure he knew he was in contention, if he had been injured he would undoubtedly have considered the impact that could have. He might not have shirked his duties but maybe not pop up as much, don't do anything unnecessary and stupid. To be honest given how little platform the backs were given it's impossible to tell either way, but it would be foolish to think he was anything other than a bag of nerves from the moment Bowe appeared in a sling.

Neil3030

There once was a boy named Simon, who spent a career gathering dust on the Irish wing.... still in many people's all-time XV, mind you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc2VZb1Fm2g

ThisRegard

Spoiled the result for myself when I saw it when reading a news site this morning, forgot I had it recorded.

You have to give it to the American fans, they're having a great time at it, good atmosphere.

OnTheCouch

Well certainly was a surreal experience, the whole late-night spectacle just added to the feeling that it was a dream or something like that, one of the first matches I can remember where there were practically no try-scoring opportunities. Plus of course the 'erratic' refereeing.:) It reminded me a lot of the Ireland-Georgia game from the 2007 World Cup, where although the stakes were a lot higher back then, the Ireland players seemed on both occasions to be going through the motions and seemingly not realising how close the score was.

Beery Eyed wrote: »

Really? Speaking as someone who is currently watching the game on this side of the water I don't think it could've been a better ad for it! The atmosphere in the bar here was rocking and they were delighted to have put it up to a tier 1 country.

We didn't play to our potential, but they don't care about that. All they care about was that their team put in a massively brave effort & pushed us all the way. A much better way of selling the sport than a 30-40 point drubbing!

Would very much agree with the above. In any situation where you have an underdog or team of lesser ability trying to match up to a stronger opponent, the result is everything, the method immaterial. That could have been the worst game of rugby union ever played last night (maybe some will claim it was), but had the USA won, they would not have cared one jot and the game would have been celebrated for many years. As it is, I think they will take great encouragement at just how close they got to Ireland and the occasional farcical nature of the contest will be soon forgotten. Mind you, I don't think they ever seriously looked like winning, but whenever a game is so tight on the scoreboard it just takes one loose pass or intercept to turn a bad day into the office into a calamity.

Just out of interest, had the Americans managed to fluke a win, would that have been the biggest shock in rugby history? I can't really think of any others on that scale.

jamiedav2011

Jesus the Americans are taking the piss at the ruck so far!

awec

jamiedav2011 wrote: »

Jesus the Americans are taking the piss at the ruck so far!

How far in are you?

jamiedav2011

awec wrote: »

How far in are you?

16 mins. Seems to be no offside line at all and they're coming in from the side two at a time!

trouttrout

jamiedav2011 wrote: »

16 mins. Seems to be no offside line at all and they're coming in from the side two at a time!

Do your brain a favor and stop watching now!

DDC1990

Love that attempt at a modern reference from the TG4 boys.

Todd Clever apparently looks like something from www wrestling.com :P

awec

jamiedav2011 wrote: »

16 mins. Seems to be no offside line at all and they're coming in from the side two at a time!

Ha! You ain't seen nothing yet.

bilston

I assume you guys watching now know the result!

Got up and 7 this morning to watch this on Sky Plus and was disappointed/relieved to discover that Sky had decided not to record the last 8 minutes.

As for the game, the scrum went well which was encouraging for Kilcoyne. The lineouts were a shambles which is a worry for Strauss et al, POM showed a lot of aggression that on first (and only) viewing I'm not sure Henderson and Henry matched which is disappointing, although hendo did have one or two good moments. I would like to have seen a bit more direction from Boss and Madigan. I think Madigan needs to be playing 10 week in week out from here on in and hopefully he will get that next season. His goal kicking was very good. Olding showed up well in defence, he made some great tackles, had a couple of wee bursts but didn't really get away. Cave was very quiet, he really needs to mark his stamp on these games, if not others are going to bypass him at test level. McFadden was the best of the back three, Zebo barely touched the ball and Henshaw made some mistakes which you would expect.

I understand Schmidt is out there now but Kiss is still the bossman and there wasn't really anything new to the Irish performance which is no surprise if the coaches are the same, although I noticed Neil Doak handing the kicking tee to Madigan so I suppose that's one new face. Not sure if that's permanent or just temporary for this tour.

DDC1990

jamiedav2011 wrote: »

16 mins. Seems to be no offside line at all and they're coming in from the side two at a time!

Watch number 7, he spends more time on the Irish side of the ruck then his own :P

LeValle

awec

DDC1990 wrote: »

Watch number 7, he spends more time on the Irish side of the ruck then his own :P

LeValle

And he has no excuse as a T14 player.

JustinDee

DDC1990 wrote: »

Watch number 7, he spends more time on the Irish side of the ruck then his own :P

LeValle

La Valla. Former captain of Trinity College and plays for Stade Francais.

Micky Dolenz

Crap, I think I've gone deaf.

Buer

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Crap, I think I've gone deaf.

Give it 5 minutes...

connemara man

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

Crap, I think I've gone deaf.

TG4 lost sound during the match

CIARAN_BOYLE

Strauss was better at getting the ball into the lineout when he had a broken hand than he has been recently. He needs to get his throwing right.

No excuse with five jumpers in the pack.

Scrum was excellent.

Backs were half asleep

The breakdown was a mess is all I can say.

Madigan was very conservative when kicking down the line.

Will always remember Henshaw spending 30 seconds lying on the ground hitting himself after failing to take a pass.

DDC1990

As someone said last night, that was impressive from Wyles.

4 knock ons in a row!

connemara man

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Strauss was better at getting the ball into the lineout when he had a broken hand than he has been recently. He needs to get his throwing right.

No excuse with five jumpers in the pack.

Scrum was excellent.

Backs were half asleep

The breakdown was a mess is all I can say.

Madigan was very conservative when kicking down the line.

Will always remember Henshaw spending 30 seconds lying on the ground hitting himself after failing to take a pass.

I felt bad for him if you take out the 3-4 howlers the twice not reading the bounce of a ball, the taking his eye of the Mcfadden pass, I'm giving benefit of the doubt for the taking out of the USA player as it was a corbon copy of a restart he caught in the first half, he had a good enough game made his hits and showed himdelf well enough..... but such howlers wont be forgotten quickly.

Lelantos

connemara man wrote: »

I felt bad for him if you take out the 3-4 howlers the twice not reading the bounce of a ball, the taking his eye of the Mcfadden pass, I'm giving benefit of the doubt for the taking out of the USA player as it was a corbon copy of a restart he caught in the first half, he had a good enough game made his hits and showed himdelf well enough..... but such howlers wont be forgotten quickly.

Those howlers were nearly his entire contribution to the game! He's young, he'll get more chances, but realistically he should get some grounding with the Wolfhounds next season before being flung into a test match

DDC1990

That clears up the confusion from last night.

The tackle was high from Clever.

He got nothing for the Dump tackle on Toner.

Ref was checking whether he should have been sent off maybe for the two incidents combined.