Match preview & thread: FRA vs IRE (Sat Feb 3, 1645)

marklazarcovic

To win away to france whilst not at your best is some achievement,it was not good conditions for good rugby either,it's a great feeling that we have won a game we normally would be cursing ourselves over as typical Ireland .

Buzzing

We will play better

Sexton's missed penalty gave me horrific flashbacks to a game I thibk I dreamt that Owens also referreed vs a team in dark kits.

Credit where it's due to him for making the kick at the end but he actually let them back into it by not killing off the game at that point.

A missed penalty 6points down can be invigorating (or one 2 points down!) , and I think it helped to draw France back into it big time. I think the French defence had far too much joy from 40-60mins and we left them in with a shout for far too long. Pretty disappointed by how easily they slowed us down all day tbh. Needs serious attention as we are rubbish off slow ball (true of most teams tbh).

Example of this being phases 2-20 at the end until Sexton had to pull off a hail Mary to earls.

MJohnston

irishbucsfan wrote: »

No, that's not how it works at all. The doctor sits independently with a replay device that is totally seperate to the TV coverage and calls it based on what he sees live or on replay. It's a very difficult and intense job and its certainly not an exact science.

Why was he on the pitch talking with Owens for the second one? Was that someone else?

I thought the first one was fair but the second was absolutely taking the piss, and you could tell Nigel kept asking because he thought it too.

Boscoirl

I wouldn’t be too critical of the performance. It wasn’t clinical. And not pretty to watch. But normally it’s enough to wear down the opposition and for us to grind out the win. Today France stood up to us. And managed to get ahead. It took some balls from Sexton (with the help of the pack) to get the win but we can’t throw our toys out of the pram over it. It’s how we played the last few years.

Sure I’d give my left testicle for a line break or two but that’s what we’ve got for the time being.


I’d like to see Bundee and Ringrose in the centre down the line.

Guy:Incognito

stephen_n wrote: »

Maybe French doctors just don’t take any risks with HIA’s. It was Owens who asked first though wasn’t it?

I don't think he did. I think he was told it was a hia and was very surprised so asked a couple of times to be 100%. He seemed a bit sceptical imo.

its_phil

its_phil wrote: »

How many pints in are you?

Ok, well I'm alone in thinking France really put it up to us today then I guess. The pundits seem to agree that France delivered but I guess Ireland were terrible.

If they play like that England are going to seriously struggle and I hope they do. Not just for the tournament but it might help people appreciate this performance a bit more.

dilallio

Credit to France. They surprised most commentators by their discipline in the final quarter.
Saying that, its bloody brilliant to beat them with the final moment of the game. Sweet!

Rugbyf565

awec wrote: »

This is your last warning on this. If you make another post like:

- "people celebrating us losing"
- "you're not real fans"
- "disdain for a win"

you will be taking a break.

I encourage you to contribute more constructively rather than take sneaky digs at other posters.

That's unfair to say, he wasn't taking digs, he was simply encouraging more positivity, it's what we need to encourage our team.

Former Former

Former Former wrote: »

I'd say you could accurately measure the age of a lot of guys posting here by their level of disdain for a win in Paris.

It was NEVER going to be easy. The weather didn't help.

Let's just enjoy it. The pitchforks will keep till tomorrow.

I completely agree.

chatticusfinch

If only the winner of that match got to host the RWC

My god though, Jonny Sexton is exceptional.

Guy:Incognito

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

I don't think he did. I think he was told it was a hia and was very surprised so asked a couple of times to be 100%. He seemed a bit skeptical imo.

He should be sceptical, France did the very same against Wales last year. Once off you have to give the benefit of the doubt, twice???

PhlegmyMoses

Heap of French lads in the pub I'm in and they are so happy with their lads effort. They should be they were excellent

stephen_n

Rugbyf565 wrote: »

That's unfair to say, he wasn't taking digs, he was simply encouraging more positivity, it's what we need to encourage our team.

The bits in bold are moderation, you can’t question that on the forum, only by pm.

beertons

Catching the end of the second half on TV3+1.

Brilliant cross field kick and the catch by Earls. Deadly.

munsterlegend

No matter who you are up against it's hard to win away from home in the six nations. We have struggled to beat Italy until the last 20 sometimes with infinitely better players.

France are a big physical team with dangerous individuals and we always find it hard to win there.

D14Rugby

Rugbyf565 wrote: »

Sexton scapegoat for this loss unfortunately

Reading this back it just goes to show how 2 minutes in a game can completely change how your performance is viewed.
This was posted just after France scored the try for the record

thebaz

Wow - the drama - I might be repeating myself anyway :-

Johnny really is an Irish superstar , the one player we can not lose ;

Rarely get favours from Owens, find his celebrity running commentary a bit irritating - just the ref game;

Grew up loving French rugby, find it sad that its reduced to such bosh rugby these days, and borderline cheating - I loved the way they played the game of old - off the cuff - horrible to watch these days.

its_phil

Deleted User wrote: »

Ok, well I'm alone in thinking France really put it up to us today then I guess. The pundits seem to agree that France delivered but I guess Ireland were terrible.

If they play like that England are going to seriously struggle and I hope they do. Not just for the tournament but it might help people appreciate this performance a bit more.

They had the top two inches today which is brilliant to see but overall quality was poor and they shouldn't have been allowed have a lead in added time.

PhlegmyMoses

I still think Nige was ****e today. Best ref in the world, but hated how he refded the breakdown tbh

Former Former

awec wrote: »

This is your last warning on this. If you make another post like:

- "people celebrating us losing"
- "you're not real fans"
- "disdain for a win"

you will be taking a break.

I encourage you to contribute more constructively rather than take sneaky digs at other posters.

To clarify.

This was an observation on how far we've come since I started going to games in the grim 90s. It wasn't a dig at younger posters.

It's great that we all have such high expectations but they need to be tempered with reality and we need to put things in context. France were never going to lie down and Brunel was always going to have a very well drilled team. Pissing rain for 80 minutes throws a lot of prep work out the window.

Maybe Joe has been his own worst enemy in raising expectations but he's now won 67% of the games he's played in Paris. Good Irish teams have played rubbish French teams before and come away with nothing. Eddie's Golden Generation? No wins. Kidneys Grand Slam unit? No wins.

Ban me for this if you like but you're misreading my post so I think I deserve to be heard.

mfceiling

What is the crack with the "false HIA" at the end?

Can it be reviewed after? If the player says he took a bang to the head is that the last word? If it shows on replay that contact took place nowhere near the head can he be held accountable?

NollagShona

That was fcuking epic! 41 phases!

irishbucsfan

Deleted User wrote: »

I disagree, I think you are under appreciating the performance by France by a long way. We were one dimensional but France did that to us to a certain degree. I expected France to fold early, they didn't at all.

We were very good in many aspects of our play. You will rarely see that level of composure at this level and on a stage like that.

We'll be better, but we also won't face as good.

This is an incredible sandbagging effort, to be fair. Extremely committed effort to sandbagging.

MayoSalmon

awec wrote:

That France used to be really good and Ireland didn't?

awec wrote:

What's the reason?

awec wrote:

We need to get over this small time mentality.

The reason being that when we arguably played the worst French team in their history we still needed a miracle to get us over the line.

Needed a hatrick from BOD 20 years ago aswell, the point being no matter what France team is put in front of us, in Paris we struggle.

Just the reality nothing small minded about it, it's a hard place for us to go always has been.

awec

Former Former wrote: »

To clarify.

This was an observation on how far we've come since I started going to games in the grim 90s. It wasn't a dig at younger posters.

It's great that we all have such high expectations but they need to be tempered with reality and we need to put things in context. France were never going to lie down and Brunel was always going to have a very well drilled team. Pissing rain for 80 minutes throws a lot of prep work out the window.

Maybe Joe has been his own worst enemy in raising expectations but he's now won 67% of the games he's played in Paris. Good Irish teams have played rubbish French teams before and come away with nothing. Eddie's Golden Generation? No wins. Kidneys Grand Slam unit? No wins.

Ban me for this if you like but you're misreading my post so I think I deserve to be heard.

More than happy to discuss this with you on PM, but don't discuss mod decisions on threads. You know the rules here.

Bridge93

Good defensively apart from the try. France excellent defensively too.

Both pretty poor in attack. We were cruising, it should never have come down to that but a win is a win and winning away is very difficult to do. We’ll need to add more in attack or we won’t be winning in London.

Some poor performances and some very positive ones.

A lot of crap will be posted so I’ll leave it at that. Serious bottle from Sexton at the end and accuracy to keep the ball alive for 40 phases in those conditions

The HIA stuff was farcical. France have history in this and I hope it’s investigated further. Using a protocol that’s in place to prevent horrendous long term injuries to basically cheat is disgusting

Owens was poor today in my view. Gets too caught up in his own interpretations of things instead of just refereeing by the rules. Very inconsistent too. One that stood out was Aki getting done for not rolling away in the first half then in that last passage of play one of the french lads was given nearly 10 seconds to move himself from the wrong side

eigrod

Haha (apologies if already posted)

https://twitter.com/ugomonye/status/959860914257309696

.ak

Ah jaysus me heart....

Burkie1203

https://twitter.com/jameslowenz/status/959877104862158848

mfceiling

mfceiling wrote: »

What is the crack with the "false HIA" at the end?

Can it be reviewed after? If the player says he took a bang to the head is that the last word? If it shows on replay that contact took place nowhere near the head can he be held accountable?

I think we could tell from Owens' tone he wasn't happy. But he is put in a position where he is not entitled to do anything but what he did by the doctor.

However, the doctor is also put into a position where he is not entitled to do anything but what he did by the player.

I think there is nothing we can feasibly expect to be done to avoid these situations. Even though it sits like a bag of sick with me.

If the player says head, the doctor says hia, the ref says sub allowed. That rule cannot change imo. It is up to the players not to abuse it.