Ireland Team Talk/Gossip/Rumour Thread VIII - ** MOD NOTE POST #4781 **

D14Rugby wrote: »

They got a try that was more bad defense than anything else, take that out and its a 6 - 12 win in Paris, and as the linked stats show, we dominated the game.
If you've ever played with a new ball in the rain you'll know spinning it quickly wide through the hands isn't an option. As for the kicking in behind, that's just giving France's two biggest weapons the ball or at least giving them a line out, the way to beat France is use their two biggest weaknesses against them, fitness and discipline, to exploit fitness you've to move them about quick and often (not an option in the weather), so then you get to discipline and the easiest way to do that is go from ruck to ruck to ruck.

https://www.sixnationsrugby.com/matchcentre/live/france-v-ireland/#match-report

As attempts to justify how a team with > 60% possession and territory should be happy with 0 tries and 0 linebreaks go, this is extremely disappointing. The match thread was better than this.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

As attempts to justify how a team with > 60% possession and territory should be happy with 0 tries and 0 linebreaks go, this is extremely disappointing. The match thread was better than this.

Because they weren't playing for linebreaks the majority of the time, they were playing for penalties and the hard yards.

irishbucsfan wrote: »

Not only did I not criticize Joe Schmidt for not answering a question about tactics, he wasn’t asked specifically about tactics. Your inability to understand my view may be assisted by reading it I guess.

The question asked was specifically about tactics.

D14Rugby wrote: »

Because they weren't playing for linebreaks the majority of the time, they were playing for penalties and the hard yards.



The question asked was specifically about tactics.

The question was whether or not Joe felt changes needed to be made. OK, you could say that’s specifically about tactics but he wasn’t asking Joe to go into detail about tactics for this game specifically, just whether or not he felt changes were needed. Joe’s decision to talk about tactics in detail was entirely his own. He could easily have said “Were always looking to change things for the better”, thrown the mic at the floor, and walked out with his hands above his head.

Ireland weren’t playing for hard yards! What a meaningless idea! What you’ve said just makes little sense. 1. Passing is hard in the rain: True, certainly for amateurs, but it’s just a fairly meaningless fact. Especially for a coach from NZ. We dominated possession, we could have taken risks. 2. Kicking is risky: Ireland’s most important play in the entire game was a kick to over Vakatawa at a time when the slightest mistake would have been game over. There’s absolutely no reason Ireland could not have done more of that, and it would have created far more space for the midfield as the back three changes their shape to adapt. 3. France’s fitness is a weakness: Their tight 5 made 140+ tackles, we did a terrible job of taking advantage of this supposed lack of fitness if it exists.

The bottom line is our attack falters at times. It did against Wales last year and it did against France this year. It’s not heresy to point this out.

pickarooney wrote: »

Lionel Bauxis?

Fergus to come on (wearing a jersey that's too small ) score the winning try/DG and be forever known as the Paddy Beaver.

I just heard the Schmidt comments on the radio that Cummisky tweeted about earlier, he gave a perfectly reasonable answer. There's much more to it than given in the tweet.

Marina Old-fashioned Locket wrote: »

schmidt and the irfu have a relatively easy ride from all media.
But i have noticed since autumn some fair questioning of irelands tactics, which in itself is questioning schmidts job.
Add in the poor form against france, the poor finish against italy, rory best and grobler - and the media/experts have asked honest and fair questions of the irfu and schmidt.
And schmidt and the irfu have completely over reacted.
i am surprised by schmidt, usually he is well able for the media. if ireland lose 2 of the next 3 which is very possible he will find he needs the same media he has just declared war on at his side.
This championship just got real.

Scmidt was prefectly reasonable in that video. .What more could he say?

Cummiskey is a mouthpiece, even if he was right I'd still have no interest in listening to his opinion. I dunno, maybe it's the proliferation of online sports sites that rely on traffic passing through it by whatever means possible... or the general bite-sized way media is being consumed/provided, but the standard of journalism is definitely lowering.

There seems (or not, I've stayed well out of it to be honest) to be a bit of tension between Joe/IRFU and the media recently but even if there is or isn't, is it really that interesting anyway?

The Rape of Lucretia wrote: »

Possession is a very powerful weapon even without tries or line breaks - the opposition is not scoring as long as you have the ball. The match is decided by points not tries or linebreaks. Winning with three-pointers is much better than losing with five-pointers.

We must take the sting out of this Welsh team, and frustrate them. 60% possession would be great. We must also waste as much time as possible (slow to lineouts, scrums, etc, reset scrums as much as possible, delay the play at rucks to the max, etc) , play as little as possible. The shorter, the real 'in play' time, which is the risk time, the better.

The offload is our enemy - I would not be surprised if the team is sent our with a "you'll never rugby in this town again" if you offload message from Joe. Zero risks. Zero mistakes. Give away zero penalties. And play the game infront of their 22. Win penalties. Maybe a drop. Secure the defensive line as the all over riding priority and shut them down at source as quickly as possible.

It will be tough. And will take a top performance of discipline, work rate, team work, and cool heads, to implement. But we can do it. Am looking forward to the Schmidt tactical masterclass that will unfold.

Is this the template of a team with ambitions to win the next RWC ..... hardly.

prawnsambo wrote: »

Ahem. TRoL often gets that kind of response.

Seriously though .... you'd swear you were playing NZ on Saturday not Wales by some of the stuff I've been reading and hearing over the last few days.

Ireland .... 3rd best team in the world (as the media here are ever so quick to remind us all) ..... @ home ...... best half backs in the world (as we are also constantly reminded of) .... best coach in the world (ditto .... the constantly reminded of bit) ........ up against a team minus 3 lions test starters (plus another on the bench) who are rated the nth best in the world. You are all way too twitchy .... surely it's home win.


BTW .... is it me or is Joe feeling the heat a little?

joseywhales wrote: »

I know its sarcasm but some of that strategy seemed to win a couple of world cups for SA and England

Agreed .... though it was complemented with a mighty pack and a slice of luck in avoiding NZ in both instances ....

I fear Chris Farrell will be used in a similar way corpses used to be catapulted over the walls of besieged mid-evil towns to spread plague.

D14Rugby wrote: »

It does falter but against France it didn't, it went to plan, no better, no worse

I don't think there's any way to reconcile with someone who thinks our attacking game went to plan against France. This is a situation where someone is adapting their own expectations to make them fit in with their opinion of their team, rather than the other way around.