Mexico Vs Ulster ultimate epic super build up thread.

Clegg wrote: »

The match is in less than two weeks and there's a lot of questions for Leinster. Will Sexton rediscover his best form, does SoB deserve a place in the 23. Will VdF, Ruddock, Leavy Henshaw and Luke McGrath be fit?

After a crap Six Nations there'll be a lot of lads wanting to make up for it. With a full strength team Leinster blow Ulster out of the water. But there's a lot of form and fitness worries. I still think we'll win, but it's not a foregone conclusion like it was pre Six Nations.

I'm hoping Sexton's lack of accuracy was down to the quality of ball he was getting. I also hope that the callowness Ireland showed at the breakdown is an Ireland and not Leinster issue.

I've seriously tempered my expectations for this season. Plenty of talent in Ireland but not firing on all cylinders. Will wait and see how we look in the warmups before I get too excited.

If Leinster or one of the provinces can turn over Sarries or at least make a final I'll be happy enough.

James Ryan is a very special player. Most mature performance on the pitch yesterday.

Clegg wrote: »

Watch out with the Ryan praise. Not allowed do that.

But seriously, you're dead right about the breakdown. Leinster's forwards blew away Toulouse and Wasps at the RDS and Wasps again in Coventry. It's also notable that Leinster's forwards come onto the ball at a run rather than standing still like they do with Ireland. It might be down to the fact you're afforded even less time on the ball at test level, but Leinster definitely have more success playing through the backs than Ireland have as of late.

I think a lot of Ireland's more cynical activity at the breakdown came under the microscope this six nations and we paid a bit of a price for that in terms of perceptions of our discipline. To be fair Wales were also a victim of this, particularly against France.

I'm reserving judgement on Sexton until I see him play outside JGP or McGrath. He had absolutely no time on the ball this tournament and whilst line speed has it's part to play I felt that Murray's descent into Laidlawism could have had a part to play and the lack of fluency and accuracy of his passing meant the ball was dead or lost by second receiver much of the time regardless of whether Sexton got his hands on the ball or not. It's amazing to me that a team with Ringrose and Aki in it never saw the ball reach them in a whiff of space.

I actually felt very sorry for Murray, when he threw the pass to no one with less than 10 on the clock his body language at the resulting scrum in the Irish 22 spoke volumes about where his head space was at. He's an intelligent, conscientious player so he'll be wearing this tournaments performances on his sleeve and I hope his injury hasn't physically limited his passing. His kicking being inaccurate is something I could see being down to confidence, but his passing was patently second grade and no where near what you would expect from an international level 10. Marmion should have started yesterday.

Don't see many taking issue with the Ryan praise. Probably our player of the tournament albeit Earls would be right up there despite what little of the ball came his way.

Anyway - Leinster v Ulster, may the best team win. Don't think anyone expected Ulster to be here and Leinster had want to take their current vein of form seriously. Ireland didn't show Wales anywhere near enough respect yesterday and if Leinster do the same then Ulster will embarrass them just like Wales did Ireland.

troyzer wrote: »

I only figured out how to get the ref mic on my radio in the second half. I was treated to the utterly ****e commentary before that.

But I remember laughing when Angus Gardner spoke to Best and said something like "I'm seeing a lot of cynical play here. Slowing down the ball and being a nuisance at the ruck".

When a referee is saying that to you, you know you're ****ed. I mean, it's a core component of the game to be a ****house. Either we were too obvious or the game has changed. In either case, we have to change too. We've been much poorer at the breakdown this tournament on both sides of the ball. And as Andy Dunne says, we have more breakdowns than any other team in world rugby. It's simply not a place we can can afford to be less than perfect.

We looked incredibly vulnerable at the breakdown. If you are coming off second best in contact this is a natural result - the other team are dictating the terms of how and where the ruck will form and can compete accordingly.

This wasn't the problem with Ireland. Our forwards were winning plenty of collisions but we were so predictable that any teams with any level of competent coaching (Wales, Scotland, Italy, England) knew where and when to go after the ball and did so effectively. We were so predictable by the time we played Wales that they stole our ball at will.

France not testing us at the breakdown was courtesy of Brunel being haplessly out of his depth as opposed to what we all hoped was a turn around in form.

I don't know if there has been some breaking of faith between the team and the coaches or whether there is something with the players themselves. I'm kinda hoping that Schmidt treated these games as World Cup warm up games but that doesn't really hold up to much scrutiny when you consider how much players talk about momentum.

What I see here is an Ireland team that lost badly in round 1 and never recovered. It's a level of weakness I hoped we were beyond but it keeps the door open to Ireland 2018 returning in time for the World Cup.