some of aki's passing in the past was pretty shocking for someone playing international rugby, that's largely been ironed out recently - which is fantastic, it means he's moving closer to someone like nonu, which wasnt really the case in the past
for henshaw's try, if he was running at 12 and aki was at 13 i dont see it going the same way. henshaw doesnt have the timing of pass to put someone into a hole that aki had, i see him probably going himself if he were at 12 (and powering over most likely)
i mean, you can disagree with it, thats fine. the evidence imo shows otherwise.
and yes i would have said JD was a creative centre
aki has definitely improved his passing etc recently
This infuriates me. Aki could always pass, we just hadn't seen it in an Ireland shirt before Farrell took over. Connacht won a Pro12 playing scintillating rugby with Aki and Henshaw playing together.
the walk-in try on sat is a good example of this - the space was created by sheahen and aki (there was alot more to it obviously but just going on the scoring phase) and henshaw ran a great line to take him even further away from defenders.
No, that's just how that move played out. Just because in that particular play, other guys created the space and Henshaw had an easy run in, does not mean that Henshaw is incapable of creating space. He absolutely is.
in short - henshaw is a 'reactive' centre rather than a 'proactive' centre
Yeah I just fundamentally disagree with this. I know Henshaw was used as a bosh merchant for years, but he's so much more. And I feel like people have a warped perception of him because of this. He has an incredibly well rounded game.
he runs good lines - exactly, he runs good (great even) lines but he rarely creates the space/hole for himself. the walk-in try on sat is a good example of this - the space was created by sheahen and aki (there was alot more to it obviously but just going on the scoring phase) and henshaw ran a great line to take him even further away from defenders.
saying he isnt very creative isnt meant to be a slight on him by any means. tuilagi gets called one of the best centres in the world when hes fit (dont agree personally but thats a different story) and he isnt creative. i wouldnt class DDA as a creative centre either and hes up there with the worlds best. chris farrell is a great centre too but he isnt creative. the key to a great centre pairing is a combination of both - hence why as fantastic as DDA and Farrell were for Munster, their attack was arguably better with scannell at 12 and either of those at 13. aki has definitely improved his passing etc recently but henshaw and ringrose is still the best combination. i would like to see them swapping occasionally in games though and get henshaw running off ringrose rather than the other way around, if even just to keep defences guessing
in short - henshaw is a 'reactive' centre rather than a 'proactive' centre like ringrose, hume, conrad smith etc
also, does he have a really good passing and kicking game? i wouldnt say his passing is poor or anything like that but i wouldn't say it would be one of his strengths all the same. i dont think i can recall him kicking anytime recently either to be honest
hes not creative enough for 13
I hear this said a lot and I don't get it. What does Ringrose "create" that Henshaw doesn't? What do people want Henshaw to be doing to be defined as "creative"? He's runs good lines, he's got great feet, power, and a really good passing and kicking game. What exactly does Ringrose do better?
Would someone like Jonathan Davies in his prime have been more creative than Henshaw? I don't think so.
at his best ringrose is better than him at 13 but his form can be patchy. henshaw and ringrose are the best combo though by some distance as good as he is with aki. a combo with a 12 like frawley could work well for henshaw but hes not creative enough for 13
And he's such a sound young man, very humble and unassuming, best openside in the world hands down.
When you have a player as good as Henshaw, you play him in his best position. I've been saying he should be our first choice 13 for a while but hopefully Saturday has ended this debate. He's does a great job at 12 because he's a phenomenal player. But you get way more impact from him at 13, in attack and in defence. He's top three 13s in the world, play him there.
Ah okay, interesting. I didn't know that. I think on that basis, Josh has a legitimate case to be the current leading candidate. Obviously Northern hemisphere players currently have the advantage, given the RC hasn't been played, but the three candidates for 6N Player of the Tournament were Aldritt, Dupont and VdF.
Dupont and Aldritt both got the summer off, so to me Josh would be the guy right now.
WPOTY is judged on international only I am pretty sure.
Yeah, he's been absolutely incredible, at almost all parts of the game.
To me, he's World Player of the Year at this point. He likely would have suffered a little by Leinster's lack of trophies, but his performances in this winning series should offset that.
The main opposition in the YTD is Gregory Aldritt, who had a superb 6N and Champions Cup, winning both, but he was rested for the Japan tour this summer.
VDF has been incredible this season. He was our best player in the Six Nations, the best player in the Champions Cup and the best player across the New Zealand tour. I think, performance wise, he's having one of the best seasons an Irish player has ever had.
They are also really what you would call a pre season friendly in rugby. Not sure why they count against World Ranking.
Someone mentioned we play Scotland, which I thought was crazy as they are in our group
I really hate those games. They're invariably rubbish and a case of "who will miss the WC with a serious injury picked up in a nothing match?"
Alot of the language around the squad has definitely changed alot, must be down to some of the work being done by Gary Keegan on the mental side of the game in the background imo. This new belief in their abilities is obvious in every interview being done lately. Love it.
Anyone know if it was announced who we play in WC warm ups yet?
Would guess England and Wales and maybe Italy??
3rd test. Clear as day light red. Prob TOH's last chance to make an impression in a test too sadly.
Wasn't it the second test or third test when Willie cleaned out the Irish player in the air which was a red card and wasn't given
that has happened with each of the last few coaches tbh. eos and kidney brought the team on massively but faltered towards the end and so that reflects on their tenures as a whole. could even argue that happened to gatland too but the team were poor at the start of his reign too
could argue that we were an inconsistent decision on the refs part from losing on saturday too though. porter should have been off and if we were down to 14 for the rest of the game i would think NZ claw the difference back
Especially when you consider we just rotated both props at that stage.
As a Connacht fan, Aungier isn’t anywhere near international standard yet.
That scrum on our 5 around the 75th minute was so satisfying. We took the hit and sagged a bit, then surged forward.
Or perhaps the constant moving that the Kiwis were up to ahead of the scrums in the first test was something they knew they couldn’t get away with thereafter. Look back at those scrums and how they weren’t even close to stable when the ball was going in. Then look at the other 2 tests and you’ll see the scrums were a lot more stable throughout.
I was! Porter was gash! I also said that he will get there. It has taken a lot of tests to get here, Salmo.
Most people with fairly decent eyesight could see that Porter was scrummaging poorly! So, perhaps he's turning the corner? Perhaps the coaching has improved?
I'd say, Porter will be chuffed with his last couple of efforts!
Were you not asking who the scrum coach was after the first game and calling for his head?
England are illegal sometimes, and they do get away with it. But they are powerful as a unit. Are N.Z a good scrummaging team? I reckon that should be the question.
Porter seems to have picked up a little. Our scrum was good this series.
It's been talked to death but in the England game, it was because of the red card England decided to push the limits. If you seen the first scrum Ireland hammered them. But they got away with it, then other teams started to try it v Ireland and Leinster. They also got away with it.
Ireland as Farrell said try to stick to the laws and reduce the penalty count, so they count on the ref helping them out. We have done that for years. When the ref lets the opposition away with shite like that we didn't know how to fight back
So I think two things are happening. The front row have figured out how to fight back. Well done the coaching team.
Plus we are not playing against the French/English front row. The big question will be what happens when we come up against them. Looking at the England scrum v Aus they are still at the same messing and getting away with it. An Aus commentators pointed it out they are illegal.
The problem is the ref's have decided just to let them at it.
Our scrum is good enought to hold out most teams but those bigger guys we need the refs to help us out
Simple, keep winning and keep evolving just like Sexton said in his post match interview.
Clean sweep the autumn, win the Slam and then win the RWC. If we aim to do all that we'll be fine, what we cant do between now at the RWC is take a backwards step, that's when **** will start hitting the fan.
Surely VDF is a contender for World Player of the year? I can only think of Dupont & Alderitt that would be up there with him.
Kinda wild to think we were a bad pass by Jackson away from winning all 3 tours against the Sanzaar teams
I was just noticing that Porter appears to be scrummaging better? Is he turning the corner?
Beirne and Ryan were superb!
Vdf is world class. There shouldn't be any doubt.
Doris really kicked on. He was great these last 2 tests.
Sexton is a demi God
Keenan is a top level fb
There's no fear in the squad! N.Z didn't intimidate our lads. The kiwis look lost. No ideas, no direction and I think Fozzy bear is a goner. Their pack is relatively average. Savea is easily the pick of the litter.
POM has resurrected itself from the abyss and is now amongst the rugby God's on Mt Olympus.
JGP has made the difference in our play.
Great tour!
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