Women's World Cup 2014

donfers

An annihilation....let's not patronize these girls with "they did their best/great effort/so proud" etc. The only reaction should be, let's remember how bad this feels, let's aim for the standard set by England, learn from it, that was nowhere near good enough but let's win 3rd place and put in an improved performance

Guy:Incognito

Thought we were poor on the wings defensivly. Wingers pointing to the centre to take the inside player on a 2 v2 then not trusting that they'll make the tackle and staying far too close giving the English winger a head start and space to go around the outside instead of starting in line with them.

Ectoplasm

Very disappointing but great experience and a fantastic boost for the women's game by making the semi-final.

Rightwing

donfers wrote: »

An annihilated....let's not patronize these girls with "they did their best/great effort/so proud" etc. The only reaction should be, let's remember how bad this feels, let's aim for the standard set by England, learn from it, that was nowhere near good enough but let's win 3rd place and put in an improved performance

Spot on. Need to develop a ruthless streak. Media blows them up of course, probably didn't even know the tournament was on before the NZ shock.

fryup

They should go back to the kitchen where they belong!!

Mod edit perma banned

Minjor

Zzippy wrote: »

Mod: Strazdas do not post in this thread again

Are contrary opinions not allowed anymore?

molloyjh

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I don't really get the impression your ability to break down the game really extends much further than using words like "well" and "badly" to be honest! :pac:

A real shame the game went the way it did. The English pack are just so quick to the ball and the girls just couldn't make any impact on the ground. The backs really can't do anything without that, and they weren't really set up to mitigate that sort of problem either, it made such a huge difference and we had no answer for it. Hopefully they can find an answer before the 6 Nations and we can get some revenge against these English girls next Spring.

Fair play to England, they could really go on and win. Thanks to our girls for being so brilliant throughout the tournament and making us proud.

The difference between how quickly the English forwards reacted to things compared to our forwards was noticeable. Their openside in particular was a beast. Fantastic body position when poaching, but her speed to the ball was top class too. If she hadn't been playing us it would have been a joy to watch.

thebaz

that was dire - England were good , game too far for Ireland - honestly, thought skill level was pretty poor , commitment 100 % on both sided , bit too bosh bosh for my liking

Stheno

donfers wrote: »

An annihilated....let's not patronize these girls with "they did their best/great effort/so proud" etc. The only reaction should be, let's remember how bad this feels, let's aim for the standard set by England, learn from it, that was nowhere near good enough but let's win 3rd place and put in an improved performance

Eh they've achieved more than ANY other senior Irish rugby team ever by getting to the semis?

in 1991 when England women won the RWC, I'm not even sure we had a national team competing in test matches.

Rightwing

Stheno wrote: »

Eh they've achieved more than ANY other senior Irish rugby team ever by getting to the semis?

in 1991 when England women won the RWC, I'm not even sure we had a national team competing in test matches.

Maybe we are a little harsh, just annoyed at giving England basically a bye into the final.

Larbre34

Well done Philip Doyle and staff

vetinari

Unfortunately some element of panicking / choking today.

Whatever about the power and pace of England, we made mistakes about things we could control.
Missed touches, missed lineouts, missed first phase tackles.

This Irish team is definitely good enough to be much closer to England than 33 points.

irishbucsfan

donfers wrote: »

An annihilation....let's not patronize these girls with "they did their best/great effort/so proud" etc. The only reaction should be, let's remember how bad this feels, let's aim for the standard set by England, learn from it, that was nowhere near good enough but let's win 3rd place and put in an improved performance

There was not nearly as much between the teams as you think. For example take a look at the game in Twickenham this year or Ashbourne last year.

The girls don't need to aim for a standard set by England, who are a very different side to them. They've been setting their own standards pretty impressively over the last couple of years, and it's a standard that is good enough. Unfortunately the difficulty comes in being able to put that on the field every single game, as England showed earlier in the competition with some incomplete performances.

sullivlo

Congratulations to England. Best team on the day.

Unfortunately it wasn't to be. Push for third and learn from this experience.

Old cliche but still proud of the girls. They give me something to aspire to be and they deserve all the praise they get.

siobhan08

ah not the result we were all hoping for. But I hope all the girls know that the country is very proud of all of them !!!
oh even if they lost to england... they did something the English never managed in beating the Black Ferns in the WC

donfers

Stheno wrote: »

Eh they've achieved more than ANY other senior Irish rugby team ever by getting to the semis?

in 1991 when England women won the RWC, I'm not even sure we had a national team competing in test matches.

Iheyve made huge progress, nobody is questioning that...I hope they want more, I hope they expect more from themselves despite the platitudes that will inevitably be rained down on them

It's a rather facile comparison though to say they've achieved more than the men, totally different scenarios

iwantmydinner

donfers wrote: »

Iheyve made huge progress, nobody is questioning that...I hope they want more, I hope they expect more from themselves despite the platitudes that will inevitably be rained down on them

It's a rather facile comparison though to say they've achieved more than the men, totally different scenarios

Firstly, they do expect far more from themselves. Have you listened to any of their pre or post match interviews during the tournament?

Secondly, it's far from a 'facile' comparison. They are the first senior IRFU team to make it to a world cup semi final. That's the fact and it deserves recognition.

sullivlo

donfers wrote: »

Iheyve made huge progress, nobody is questioning that...I hope they want more, I hope they expect more from themselves despite the platitudes that will inevitably be rained down on them

It's a rather facile comparison though to say they've achieved more than the men, totally different scenarios

Comparing apples with oranges in terms of set up of the tournament (no quarters in women's rwc), but comparing against other women's rugby teams, this time we done good

Gutted, but thems the breaks in sport.

Rightwing

Another false dawn for us

Micky Dolenz

Better team won the day. Great experience for the squad though. The future looks bright.

donfers

sullivlo wrote: »

Comparing apples with oranges in terms of set up of the tournament (no quarters in women's rwc), but comparing against other women's rugby teams, this time we done good

Gutted, but thems the breaks in sport.

I agree with you, apples and oranges and comparing does neither team any favours

Outstanding achievement to get to semi finals but as the captain just said they didn't perform...do we seek to answer that question or do we just pat them on the back for getting that far? And which question of those two is more likely to lead to improvement?

irishbucsfan

donfers wrote: »

I agree with you, apples and oranges and comparing does neither team any favours

Outstanding achievement to get to semi finals but as the captain just said they didn't perform...do we seek to answer that question or do we just pat them on the back for getting that far? And which question of those two is more likely to lead to improvement?

You do realise the two aren't mutually exclusive, right?

Micky Dolenz

donfers wrote: »

I agree with you, apples and oranges and comparing does neither team any favours

Outstanding achievement to get to semi finals but as the captain just said they didn't perform...do we seek to answer that question or do we just pat them on the back for getting that far? And which question of those two us more likely to lead to improvement?

I'd like to think no Irish rugby team would accept a pat on the back and be happy with that. This team for sure. They have built on the recent success, to suggest they may rest on their laurels is off.

sullivlo

donfers wrote: »

I agree with you, apples and oranges and comparing does neither team any favours

Outstanding achievement to get to semi finals but as the captain just said they didn't perform...do we seek to answer that question or do we just pat them on the back for getting that far? And which question of those two is more likely to lead to improvement?

Knowing some of the team personally, they don't want pats on the back. They want to win. This will be a tough lesson for them today. I feel for the ones who are reaching the end - Lynne Cantwell retires after this tournament - but ultimately credit where it's due for getting this far, and lessons to be learned for future tournaments.

They will finish at least 4th - a big step up from 7th. It's all progress.

Zzippy

Minjor wrote: »

Are contrary opinions not allowed anymore?

Not when they are trolling. And any further questioning of mod's decisions, please take it to PM, not on the thread. Thank you

donfers

irishbucsfan wrote: »

You do realise the two aren't mutually exclusive, right?

Yes I do but for some people they are and an overall great tournament negates any critical analysis today.

However my belief is more focus should be placed on how to improve notwithstanding the magnitude of the achievement and hopefully that'll be the case because as you alluded to the last two matches with England were close affairs so what happened. We lost by 33 points in the biggest ever game for Irish women's rugby.

Were we satisfied to have reached the semifinals? Job done?
Have England improved hugely/prepared better/have more belief/higher expectations?
Did we choke/fail to perform on the big occasion?

Who's favourite between Canada/France?

vienne86

Deleted User wrote: »

Who's favourite between Canada/France?

France I believe. Should be a good match.

iwantmydinner

donfers wrote: »

Yes I do but for some people they are and an overall great tournament negates any critical analysis today.

However my belief is more focus should be placed on how to improve notwithstanding the magnitude of the achievement and hopefully that'll be the case because as you alluded to the last two matches with England were close affairs so what happened. We lost by 33 points in the biggest ever game for Irish women's rugby.

Were we satisfied to have reached the semifinals? Job done?
Have England improved hugely/prepared better/have more belief/higher expectations?
Did we choke/fail to perform on the big occasion?

Right but you seem to have the impression that they won't ask themselves these questions. Which is an incorrect impression.

Rightwing

vienne86 wrote: »

France I believe. Should be a good match.

Indeed, if everything goes according to script, we are looking at an Eng-Fr final.