Ireland vs Australia match thread, Saturday 22nd Nov. KO 4:30PM

Zzippy

A fixie? Bleedin' hipster! :rolleyes:

who_me

Tox56 wrote: »

Fair point but I think there has to be some freedom and risks taken that wouldn't be in a 6N decider for example, ultimately in the grand scheme of this season this game doesn't mean much. Basically a good performance would mean more to me than grinding out a 3-0 win, although there is value in keeping that winning mentality I admit

Ideally, we'll get both

Given that there's a simple, clear gameplan that the players can go to, even if things aren't going well & mistakes are made - I expect consistency of performance. I'd be very surprised if we were really sloppy against Aus.

But I really want the win, even if it's not the prettiest. When England won the RWC, they had just beaten NZ home AND away, and won the Grand Slam after years of coming close. Did they play well in those NZ games - no idea, but I remember they won! To me, winning vs Aus, then winning the 6N (ideally a GS) is far more productive preparation for the RWC than a big performance but still losing.

molloyjh

I'm all for the win this weekend myself. I think if we win we'll have done so with a good performance. After all when was the last time we won a game playing badly? Last week maybe, but we were very much a Wolfhounds team so that doesn't really count, and we weren't bad per se last week.

ionadnapokot

Ok, going to throw a grenade here! But I have been a little underwhelmed by Irelands counter attack under Holy Joe.
Save for BOD's Sexton's brilliant (2nd) try v's France. I cant recall another Irish try from turnover ball. Please feel free to point out my ignorance! (v's Georgia?)
But in all seriousness I would like to see Ireland try and counter attack more with ball in hand rather than play for territory.
I wonder will we see this tomorrow against a sometimes disorganised Australian defence.

I should state that I have never been happier with an Irish coach! Love Joe!

stephen_n

A win would represent a huge psychological step forward for Ireland, not just the wining mentality but the fact we are not playing second fiddle to SH teams, realistically we should be expecting to win our home games. Performance matters but not in an aesthetic sense, it really doesn't need to look pretty, just be controlled and effective.

I've had my heart broken too many times to jump on the band wagon just yet, even with Schmidt at the helm.

George Hook

George Hook wrote: »

Wait... why do the get so many guys on the bench?

OP needs to be updated with:

Reserves: 16. J. Hanson, 17. T. Faulkner, 18. B. Robinson, 19. W. Skelton, 20. J. Schatz, 21. W. Genia, 22. Q. Cooper, 23. K. Beale.

Tox56

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Ok, going to throw a grenade here! But I have been a little underwhelmed by Irelands counter attack under Holy Joe.
Save for BOD's Sexton's brilliant (2nd) try v's France. I cant recall another Irish try from turnover ball. Please feel free to point out my ignorance! (v's Georgia?)
But in all seriousness I would like to see Ireland try and counter attack more with ball in hand rather than play for territory.
I wonder will we see this tomorrow against a sometimes disorganised Australian defence.

I should state that I have never been happier with an Irish coach! Love Joe!

There was a length of the field one vs Samoa in Schmidt's first game, and one of Jones's last week from our 22. Kearney's against NZ would probably count too.

Our attack could definitely be sharper, but the lack of offloads looks like a tactic so far, I would like to see us take a few more risks in attack

ionadnapokot

Tox56 wrote: »

There was a length of the field one vs Samoa in Schmidt's first game, and one of Jones's last week from our 22. Kearney's against NZ would probably count too.

Our attack could definitely be sharper, but the lack of offloads looks like a tactic so far, I would like to see us take a few more risks in attack

Ok. Fair enough.
I wud call RK's an intercept try though!

molloyjh

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Ok. Fair enough.
I wud call RK's an intercept try though!

That was definitely turnover ball. It was spilled forward rather than intercepted.

George Hook

who_me wrote: »

Ideally, we'll get both

Given that there's a simple, clear gameplan that the players can go to, even if things aren't going well & mistakes are made - I expect consistency of performance. I'd be very surprised if we were really sloppy against Aus.

But I really want the win, even if it's not the prettiest. When England won the RWC, they had just beaten NZ home AND away, and won the Grand Slam after years of coming close. Did they play well in those NZ games - no idea, but I remember they won! To me, winning vs Aus, then winning the 6N (ideally a GS) is far more productive preparation for the RWC than a big performance but still losing.

We should ask Gatland if he'd rather a good performance against a SANZAR team or a win.:p

.ak

ionadnapokot wrote: »

Ok, going to throw a grenade here! But I have been a little underwhelmed by Irelands counter attack under Holy Joe.
Save for BOD's Sexton's brilliant (2nd) try v's France. I cant recall another Irish try from turnover ball. Please feel free to point out my ignorance! (v's Georgia?)
But in all seriousness I would like to see Ireland try and counter attack more with ball in hand rather than play for territory.
I wonder will we see this tomorrow against a sometimes disorganised Australian defence.

I should state that I have never been happier with an Irish coach! Love Joe!

There's a lot to be said about limited oppertunities. Have we had the space available to counter attack? Most of our games have been tight affairs. We haven't had the space to run a big counter attack.


But yes, it's there, when teams afford it. We did it against NZ, Samoa and Georgia all off the top of my head.

ionadnapokot

molloyjh wrote: »

That was definitely turnover ball. It was spilled forward rather than intercepted.

technically yes! but....;)

Everyone knows Zebo is the reason behind the lack of counter attacking

bilston

.ak wrote: »

There's a lot to be said about limited oppertunities. Have we had the space available to counter attack? Most of our games have been tight affairs. We haven't had the space to run a big counter attack.


But yes, it's there, when teams afford it. We did it against NZ, Samoa and Georgia all off the top of my head.

Can't remember off the top of my head but did we score any counter attack tries against Italy or Scotland?

.ak

bilston wrote: »

Can't remember off the top of my head but did we score any counter attack tries against Italy or Scotland?

I can't remember. I remember we pretty much had the ball for the entire Italy game so we never really had the opportunity.

molloyjh

We came close against Wales late in the game. Turned ball over in our 22 and Jackson got down around their 22 but their chase back managed to prevent the pass back inside for the try.

EDIT: Yep, 1:44:20 into the below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvsZvVPA164

ionadnapokot

.ak wrote: »

There's a lot to be said about limited oppertunities. Have we had the space available to counter attack? Most of our games have been tight affairs. We haven't had the space to run a big counter attack.


But yes, it's there, when teams afford it. We did it against NZ, Samoa and Georgia all off the top of my head.

I agree. You can only counter attack when its on. i.e NZ kick as much as any team. But NZ counter attack allot more than we do. They are of course one of the best teams at identifying, or exploring, the space available. I would like to see Ireland try and do this a little more. Cant learn it if you don't try. Even by throwing the "two passes out" and seeing if its on.

.ak

NZ tend to suck in far more defenders and also teams play tighter phase ball against NZ to stop interceptions, so naturally on turn over ball they usually have oodles of space to work with.

Tox56

bilston wrote: »

Can't remember off the top of my head but did we score any counter attack tries against Italy or Scotland?

There were a good few counter attacks against Italy but I don't remember any resulting in a try. Maybe unsurprisingly most of our counter attacking has come against the weaker teams

ionadnapokot

bilston wrote: »

Can't remember off the top of my head but did we score any counter attack tries against Italy or Scotland?

no im pretty sure the tries were all from our possession (phased)

timaru89

Cronin v Italy?

vienne86

Just as I was about to check who the ref is for tomorrow, I read this:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/leftfield/top-rugby-ref-nigel-owens-finds-himself-centre-of-twitter-attention-over-flight-delay-30762865.html

Aer Lingus haven't come out of this too well.

ionadnapokot

.ak wrote: »

NZ tend to suck in far more defenders and also teams play tighter phase ball against NZ to stop interceptions, so naturally on turn over ball they usually have oodles of space to work with.

yes but they always try and exploit it when they have numbers, its their mindset. Their players are switched on immediately. For example, and im nitpicking here, but when Ireland turned over that SA lineout deep in their territory, we had a 4 on 3. SA were down to 14 men but Henshaw chose contact. I would like to see Ireland try and exploit the space more. Change the mindset a little.

CatFromHue

I don't know how Twitter works.

Did Owens ask them directly what's happening or was he just whinging?

who_me

CatFromHue wrote: »

I don't know how Twitter works.

Did Owens ask them directly what's happening or was he just whinging?

More like emailing the world, but cc'ing Aer Lingus.

shuffol

I thought we were a functional clinical side last year. Lots of experienced tactically astute players, difficult to play against and were able to put teams to the sword when required. We weren't a free flowing attacking side, we just didnt have the players for it, both our centers were in their mid thirties, we'd a lot of back 3 injuries and were short our best ball carrier in the pack. We played great rugby though.

molloyjh

vienne86 wrote: »

Just as I was about to check who the ref is for tomorrow, I read this:

http://www.independent.ie/sport/leftfield/top-rugby-ref-nigel-owens-finds-himself-centre-of-twitter-attention-over-flight-delay-30762865.html

Aer Lingus haven't come out of this too well.

Cheaper than Quantas too. Well played Ryanair, well played.

dtpc191991

Tox56 wrote: »

There were a good few counter attacks against Italy but I don't remember any resulting in a try. Maybe unsurprisingly most of our counter attacking has come against the weaker teams

The last two against Italy came of good counters from deep if I remember correctly.

sydthebeat

dtpc191991 wrote: »

The last two against Italy came of good counters from deep if I remember correctly.

Bods 'out the back door' pass for the try came from a deep turnover iifc