Ireland Team Talk X: The Long Hard Road to a Semi. MOD WARNING POSTS #1, #1474, #5707

Former Observer

nice nips

clsmooth

Defensive decision making and positioning is the weakest part of his game right now. That’ll only be amplified at 15. Leave him at 11. Could see Lowe ending up at 15 going forward though with his ability to roam and step in as a second receiver. Larmour covering 23, and probably taking over from Earls eventually. Sexton is the wild card. Hopefully he can develop into a quality player. Others will put there hand up, but that’s how I see our back 3 in the next year or two.

clsmooth

stephen_n wrote: »

free photo posting

Fit is a lot better on than in some of those images, but prefer the non World Cup one.

No Canterbury logo on the non World Cup one?

stephen_n

clsmooth wrote: »

No Canterbury logo on the non World Cup one?

It’s behind the phone on the right breast

ionadnapokot

clsmooth wrote: »

Defensive decision making and positioning is the weakest part of his game right now. That’ll only be amplified at 15. Leave him at 11. Could see Lowe ending up at 15 going forward though with his ability to roam and step in as a second receiver. Larmour covering 23, and probably taking over from Earls eventually. Sexton is the wild card. Hopefully he can develop into a quality player. Others will put there hand up, but that’s how I see our back 3 in the next year or two.

Agree with that synopsis of the back three.
Can’t see Stockdale anywhere other than 11.
Would love to see 15Lowe; Larmour, Stockdale

Shefwedfan

Wegians89 wrote: »

Having a better understanding of what a full back wants from a winger, playing different positions helps round out skillsets. For example playing at 15 for a while would naturally lead to having to improve under a high ball and having to make better decisions with his kicking. Taking these extra skills back to the wing could improve his overall game.

Maybe when your a kid. The Australian push for all players including the forwards to play all positions when kids to improve skills. I think NZ do the same....

Once you are a pro it is better to concentrate on a single position and master it.....moving players from one position to another doesn't help them at all, look at Madigan. Unfortunealty Larmour is getting pushed into this as well and having to switch positions....


Stockdale is only playing 2 years at the top level, he still has some issues on the wing, what would Ireland gain from switching him? we lose one of our topclass wingers and we are a bit short on them. Plus you confuse a very young player with having to teach him 2 game plans.....


The Henshaw to FB would be a better option, he is more experienced and we have decent cover at centre

Former Observer

Desperate for my rugby fix. Any recent interesting podcast? Maybe world cup related?

sydthebeat

Former Observer wrote: »

Desperate for my rugby fix. Any recent interesting podcast? Maybe world cup related?

for short n sweet ones.. check off the Off the Ball rugby podcasts on every team in this RWC

each episode is mostly a conversation with an ex player of each country

https://www.offtheball.com/podcasts/rugby-on-off-the-ball

otherwise "interesting " is subjective... buit i think its worth listening to both Stuart Lancaster and Andy Friends "coaches corner" podcasts

https://rugbycoachscorner.podomatic.com/

Dog Botherer

Former Observer wrote: »

Desperate for my rugby fix. Any recent interesting podcast? Maybe world cup related?

Second shout for the weekly Newstalk podcast, although the title and, as a result, the intro, are a massive cringefest. The Rugby Coaches Corner is also good. I think if you dig a bit you can find some podcasts Stuart Lancaster did for Newstalk on the subject of leadership.

I highly recommend Rugby Reloaded with Professor Tony Collins. Short, usually around 10-15 minute podcasts about various aspects of rugby history.

Green & Gold Rugby and The Rugby Ruckus are two Australian podcasts still putting out stuff in the lead up to the Rugby Championship.

Finally, if you’re a fan of Blood & Mud, they’re doing weekly podcasts on their premium feed over the summer, although I think they’re bringing back the free weekly show for the RC.

Christy42

Former Observer wrote: »

Desperate for my rugby fix. Any recent interesting podcast? Maybe world cup related?

Squidge rugby has a youtube series on each of the world cup teams and what they bring. Most of them are done. I have enjoyed them so far, especially the lower ranked teams you never hear about.

Former Observer

Thanks Lads. Very much appreciated. Listened to the Russia & Japanese episodes last night.

FellasFellas

http://officiating.worldrugby.org/index.php?page=appointments&id=116

Barnes, Garces, Gardner and Berry for our group games.

Shefwedfan

Barnes best ref at the moment and Leinster player used to him, not sure if Munster had him recently?

We seem to have issues with Gardner last few times so players need to wise up to him....would have preferred Graces for the Japan game as it would be free for all at breakdown and we should win

molloyjh

It shouldn't matter either way, but Barnes in that game suits us fine. Hes one of the best out there at the moment & we're well used to him. Be grand.

AbusesToilets

FellasFellas wrote: »

http://officiating.worldrugby.org/index.php?page=appointments&id=116

Barnes, Garces, Gardner and Berry for our group games.

That's a pretty fantastic group of refs, possible the best in the business. Which means we'll probably get Peyper or Jackson for the 1/4

Shefwedfan

AbusesToilets wrote: »

That's a pretty fantastic group of refs, possible the best in the business. Which means we'll probably get Peyper or Jackson for the 1/4

I though the P ref name was banned from all forums !!!!:p

South Africa are a much more competent team than they've been the last few years. Australia were poor but they still have plenty of talent and would trouble most teams. With the names missing from South Africa I think the tests between them and NZ are going to be wars.

That first pool game has huge consequences for our world Cup but I'm no where near as confident about facing South Africa in a semi and I'm not even certain it will be them at all.

irishbucsfan

[Deleted User] wrote: »

South Africa are a much more competent team than they've been the last few years. Australia were poor but they still have plenty of talent and would trouble most teams. With the names missing from South Africa I think the tests between them and NZ are going to be wars.

That first pool game has huge consequences for our world Cup but I'm no where near as confident about facing South Africa in a semi and I'm not even certain it will be them at all.

We’re very much a momentum team. If we win our way through to a semi I believe we could well be capable of beating any team in the world if some other things go our way. I think I’d actually prefer the strongest semi final opposition possible at that point. But if we get there despite underperforming and struggling through weaker opposition then I fear it’ll be the same result again for us.

irishbucsfan

irishbucsfan wrote: »

We’re very much a momentum team. If we win our way through to a semi I believe we could well be capable of beating any team in the world if some other things go our way. I think I’d actually prefer the strongest semi final opposition possible at that point. But if we get there despite underperforming and struggling through weaker opposition then I fear it’ll be the same result again for us.

I actually meant quarter above, it will be SA or NZ in a quarterfinal depending on who tops our and their pool.

We had a better route to final last RWC with Argentina / Australia.

hahashake

irishbucsfan wrote: »

We’re very much a momentum team. If we win our way through to a semi I believe we could well be capable of beating any team in the world if some other things go our way. I think I’d actually prefer the strongest semi final opposition possible at that point. But if we get there despite underperforming and struggling through weaker opposition then I fear it’ll be the same result again for us.

As an ignorant kiwi I would have thought the opposite, capable of beating any team on your day but not sustaining that same form over the course of multiple games.

irishbucsfan

[Deleted User] wrote: »

I actually meant quarter above, it will be SA or NZ in a quarterfinal depending on who tops our and their pool.

We had a better route to final last RWC with Argentina / Australia.

I realized but I had already written the post so I committed in the hopes we could pretend

irishbucsfan

irishbucsfan wrote: »

I realized but I had already written the post so I committed in the hopes we could pretend

The world cup was last year and we won.

molloyjh

hahashake wrote: »

As an ignorant kiwi I would have thought the opposite, capable of beating any team on your day but not sustaining that same form over the course of multiple games.

I think IBF is right. Look at the last 2 6Ns for example. We started badly but found a way to win in Paris last year and went on to win a deserved GS. We started badly and couldn't find a way to win against England this year and that was the story of our tournament.

We used to be a team that was capable of the big one-off performance, but over the last few years we've developed a lot more consistency. I'm not sure you could make it to 2nd in the world without that tbh. But we are still working on being able to turn bad momentum around. We haven't figured that one out yet for some reason.

irishbucsfan

molloyjh wrote: »

I think IBF is right. Look at the last 2 6Ns for example. We started badly but found a way to win in Paris last year and went on to win a deserved GS. We started badly and couldn't find a way to win against England this year and that was the story of our tournament.

We used to be a team that was capable of the big one-off performance, but over the last few years we've developed a lot more consistency. I'm not sure you could make it to 2nd in the world without that tbh. But we are still working on being able to turn bad momentum around. We haven't figured that one out yet for some reason.

And the year before the GS our bus got caught in traffic so we lost 2 games

hahashake

molloyjh wrote: »

I think IBF is right. Look at the last 2 6Ns for example. We started badly but found a way to win in Paris last year and went on to win a deserved GS. We started badly and couldn't find a way to win against England this year and that was the story of our tournament.

We used to be a team that was capable of the big one-off performance, but over the last few years we've developed a lot more consistency. I'm not sure you could make it to 2nd in the world without that tbh. But we are still working on being able to turn bad momentum around. We haven't figured that one out yet for some reason.

Fair enough. I don't think you will lose a game in your pool and if you lose the 1/4 then you are out regardless so the bad start scenario doesn't really apply - unless you somehow lose to say, Scotland, in the pool.

Looking back on the 2015 WC, Ireland was 4 from 4 in the pool with mostly comfortable scorelines then went on to get blitzed by Argentina in the 1/4. I'm aware there were a few key injuries at that stage but that's almost a given for any team.

salmocab

hahashake wrote: »

Fair enough. I don't think you will lose a game in your pool and if you lose the 1/4 then you are out regardless so the bad start scenario doesn't really apply - unless you somehow lose to say, Scotland, in the pool.

Looking back on the 2015 WC, Ireland was 4 from 4 in the pool with mostly comfortable scorelines then went on to get blitzed by Argentina in the 1/4. I'm aware there were a few key injuries at that stage but that's almost a given for any team.

I don’t go in much for excuses but it was a lot of injuries of very key players. Mostly the leaders too

hahashake

hahashake wrote: »

Fair enough. I don't think you will lose a game in your pool and if you lose the 1/4 then you are out regardless so the bad start scenario doesn't really apply - unless you somehow lose to say, Scotland, in the pool.

Looking back on the 2015 WC, Ireland was 4 from 4 in the pool with mostly comfortable scorelines then went on to get blitzed by Argentina in the 1/4. I'm aware there were a few key injuries at that stage but that's almost a given for any team.

salmocab wrote: »

I don’t go in much for excuses but it was a lot of injuries of very key players. Mostly the leaders too

McCaw, Rettalick, Carter, Reid, Kaino.

Imagine pulling those names out of a team the week before a fixture. Basically what happened to Ireland.

Squidgy Black

salmocab wrote: »

I don’t go in much for excuses but it was a lot of injuries of very key players. Mostly the leaders too

It'd be the equivalent of the ABs losing Retallick, Barrett, Read and Savea at the same time.

It wasn't just a case of testing our squad depth, we lost 3 players who were test players in the 2013 lions team and then POM and Payne who were lions later on and leaders of the squad.

I'd say it was well above the 'average' allowance for injuries through the group stages.

hahashake

Deleted User wrote: »

McCaw, Rettalick, Carter, Reid, Kaino.

Imagine pulling those names out of a team the week before a fixture. Basically what happened to Ireland.

Completely understand but I guess my point was you have to be prepared for a similar scenario in a WC. Ireland has much better depth now so I'm sure even in a worse case injury scenario they wouldn't lose as much going to their 2nd and 3rd choices as they did in 2015.

salmocab

hahashake wrote: »

Completely understand but I guess my point was you have to be prepared for a similar scenario in a WC. Ireland has much better depth now so I'm sure even in a worse case injury scenario they wouldn't lose as much going to their 2nd and 3rd choices as they did in 2015.

Oh we were undercooked squad wise alright then. Think we’re in a much better place now. Those injuries were nearly all the worst possible positions for us. It was freakish.