Ireland vs Wales 24th Feb 2:15

Didactic Ninja wrote: »

Ardillaun wrote: »

Great win and many positives but our defence worries me.

If a team like England or even Scotland get the lion’s share of possession, how are we going to sustain, say, 60 minutes of defence given what happened today? Our main weapon against the other team scoring seems to be to hold onto the ball and not score ourselves.

you will win the grand slam. its 2009 all over again, flattering to deceive but still getting over the line. infighting within the fans on the board, rub of the green with the refs. lots of flaws but opposition don't expose them.

Better than the opposition and wins the championship.
Reminds me of 2014 and 2015

IIGeminiII wrote: »

Wut? Every kicker has an off day. I remember watching Halfpenny playing Scarlets last year and he couldn't kick a goal for Toulon to save his life. Sexton's goal kicking is one of the reasons he's so valuable ffs.

Not today - was clear in the warm up that he wasn't kicking well, was clear from the first kick. Clear from the captain's run. It is different having an off day and having an off day when there is a niggle that is known about. I'm comparing Sexton with Sexton and the best goalkickers ala Farrell.

Got the ball taken off him twice today as well when he went running into contact. Yes, did some things very well, played close to the gainline, released the outside guys, lovely crosskick for Earls at one stage, but knowing the guy he is, he would be disappointed in that performance

Jack Kanoff wrote: »

No, sorry, you are incorrect...do look at the game again.

So tell me where he had a bad game apart from the tee? You still can’t answer that because it didn’t happen. His pass for Stockdales first, cleaning up Murray getting isolated in the build up to Healy’s try, his go forward there created the try. Support for Leavys try. Kicking from hand including his restarts all to notch. Basically you either need to go to spec savers, rewatch the game or are full of it.

That said for an international 10 to miss those kicks is unforgivable, but that doesn’t equate to a bad game.

stephen_n wrote: »

So tell me where he had a bad game apart from the tee? You still can’t answer that because it didn’t happen. His pass for Stockdales first, cleaning up Murray getting isolated in the build up to Healy’s try, his go forward there created the try. Support for Leavys try. Kicking from hand including his restarts all to notch. Basically you either need to go to spec savers, rewatch the game or are full of it.

That said for an international 10 to miss those kicks is unforgivable, but that doesn’t equate to a bad game.

that restart for Farrell to catch was measured to perfection! Superb kick

awec wrote: »

Also Ulster Rugby I hope you took a serious render after the man of the match was announced today you bunch of incompetent tits.

I guess there was a lot of centre talent there a while back.

Stheno wrote: »

Dont tell me Farrell moved to Munster from Ulster?

Went from Ulster to Grenoble in 2014 and then to Munster in 2017

awec wrote: »

Good performance. Great result. A real mixed bag from Ireland today. Wales found it pretty easy to create an overlap out wide. Do that against England and well get destroyed.

Sexton has an off day but meh, that’ll happen. He’ll have more of those as he gets older, it’s up to the other lads to start pushing him now.

Murray balls of steel to nail that kick.

Overall, they dominated in the collisions and matched a very good pack at scrum-time. I thought we might have problems there.

For people comparing Sexton, Farrell and Halfpenny:

Stats for the last 6 years in 6 nations,

Halfpenny 83.7% (108 out of 129)
Sexton 80.6% (83 out of 103)
Farrell 77.8% (112 out of 144)

Sexton is one of the best place-kickers in the competition, just have off days as does every kicker.

Stheno wrote: »

Aww nice to see Devin giving his jersey to the ball boy

A disgustingly nice person.

Cowboy848 wrote: »

Even Tony Ward and other journalists agreed that the pressure came from online trolls until it was insurmountable. I’m not alone in knowing this was the case

Oh if Tony Ward said it must be true.
Matt O'Conner lost his job for the same reason he'll lose it at Leicester.

So what you and others are doing here is campaigning?
You overestimate the power of a few cranks on the internet.

I'm out of here anyway, leave you to your campaigning.

Didactic Ninja wrote: »

you will win the grand slam. its 2009 all over again, flattering to deceive but still getting over the line. infighting within the fans on the board, rub of the green with the refs. lots of flaws but opposition don't expose them.

Really don't feel like we got the rub of the green from the refs at all so far. Thought France got away with murder at the breakdown against us. The ref spent the game roaring at Wales to stay onside and they were inches from a yellow for repeated infringements near the line, a yellow that never came.

This feels a bit like sour grapes. Ireland have been pretty excellent so far, dominating posession with clutch interventions from big players, whilst struggling a bit in defence, which is a worry, and dealing with injuries to some pretty key players.

top 3 in the tables going into Round 5 depending on Scotland vs England result

Scotland BP win/ England LBP
1 Ireland 14pts
2 England 10pts
3 Scotland 9pts

Scotland BP/England no points
1 Ireland 14pts
2 Scotland 9pts
3 England 9pts

Scotland win/england LBP
1 Ireland 14pts
2 England 10pts/9pts (no BP)
3 Scotland 8pts

England win
1 Ireland 14pts
2 England 13pts/14pts (BP win)
3 Wales 6pts
4 France 6pts
Scotland 4 or 5pts/6pts (BPs L and/or Try bonus)

good reading for Ireland