Nah not concerned there at all to be honest.
So you are not worried then!
Gatland appointment i think will just refocus Ireland. Currently 6 point favorites. When Byrne is announced as starting outhalf it will come into 5 or maybe 4.
Amazingly Ireland haven't won in Cardiff since 2013!
Ireland by 11...Which would be our biggest win there since 2001 (6v36).
Losing to Wales would be an appalling defeat. It would be terrible for us and completely derail things.
It can’t happen.
Ireland are entering this tournament with too many some serious weaknesses to be contenders
Ross Byrne is not up to test standard and that's harsh but true, Crowley is not even munsters first choice out half and is un proven at any level
It's a squad with too many key players carrying injuries, others out of form and others who are finished at test level
I have a feeling Scotland and Wales will be extremely tough going and we could lose both
It's like 2019 again.
ah but we've joe Murphy ... so all will be ok ...
🙄
Joe Murphy, the u20 boss,,? Is he involved
You must find your own posts unreadable.
I am not doing this, I am not going to get involved in some weird petty argument
You don't own this rugby forum , I know you and others on here think in your brains that you do own this space, you don't and you should accept that fast
Haha good man....
Make sure that mask don't hit your toes...
My natural tendency is to worry when it comes to Ireland. But like I said, when I sit back and think about it, we should beat them relatively comfortably barring something going askew.
Do any of their players get into our first 15?
Nothing weird or petty. He quoted you, just because you don’t read your own posts to know what he was referencing.
If you don’t want people to respond to your posts or pick up on what you post. I would suggest being on a public message board and posting is the wrong place for you. That’s not people thinking they own anything.
Ireland’s best rugby podcast discuss the squad selection
I wrote Murphy instead of Mccarthy and so what , the only reference to be taken from both your posts is that your argonance is on a par with your ignorance
Oh my. How to set one's self up without trying.
You may need this.
ha... good one.
Gas??????😉
re welsh match,we have better players,in a composite team we would have a big majority of players ,but how many times have we seen the lesser team prevail on emotion,support and good fortune.Its a definite banana skin,the question is ,is it England 2001 or England 2003 match.
Gatland was a master at creating a pared back game plan where everyone knew their exact role. Under Pivac, it seemed like the players never really had faith in the system and performances suffered.
Gatland will simplify things and the squad will buy into the game plan because he's an excellent motivator. Wales will probably kick long, chase hard and put us under extreme pressure. There'll be extremely fast line speed in defence where they'll try and hit our linking passes well behind the gainline.
Ultimately, I'm unsure that he'll have the same success as his first reign. The best Wales players under Gatland's reign are still the best Wales players now. Only 3 years older and not as good.
I'm sure they will be. But they're just not as good as Ireland.
If we play like we did in the summer, we'll take Wales to the cleaners, regardless of how well they play.
If our form from November continues into the 6N, it could be a very tricky game
Wales are getting a boost with Ospreys playing well. If we play like we did v Oz, we could be beaten.
Unquestionably, the coaching changes in England and Wales has brought more unpredictability to this coming Championship, and even on a practical level must make those sides harder to prepare for and analyse.
Rugby can be a strange game, but we absolutely have to be able to go in there this year and get the win.
Their set up has been in chaos for a year plus now, their domestic clubs are largely floundering and we have so much more quality in our side.
Ospreys have been going okay for a few weeks, but that’s it.
And bear in mind that a near full strength Ospreys, who form a majority of the Welsh squad suffered a bonus point home defeat to a largely second string Leinster side a few weeks ago.
They made life difficult and awkward for a while but ultimately fell away leaving Leinster with a comfortable enough win.
I feel the Welsh game will follow a similar pattern.
Did Wales get a new defence coach?
Yep, he fired Stephen Jones (attack) and Gethin Jenkins (defence), retained Neil Jenkins (skills, kicking) and Jonathan Humphreys (forwards) and has added the former Wasps out half Alex King as attack coach and Mike Forshaw as defence coach.
I don't know anything about Forshaw, but he’s been Sale’s defence coach since 2013, but he’s a former rugby league player who apparently was with Connacht around 10 years ago for a few years.
Minor correction but Leinster didn't get the try BP against Ospreys. Point still stands though, Ospreys are a good and gnarly side, playing a tough brand of rugby. But I'd back Ulster or Munster to beat them in a must win game, and I'd back Leinster to beat them by 25+ if they had to.
There is a bizarre thing in Welsh rugby forever where they're better than the sum of their parts, and have an incredible ability to produce performances in Cardiff. There's always tough to score on have a real habit of sticking in games. But there is no way they're close to Ireland in terms of talent, and the panic train will be fully out of the station if we don't win there.
A new defensive system takes time to bed in. It will be hard for them to mount a strong defensive performance. Though at the same time, we won’t be able to study or exploit weakness. So it will have to be very heads up. I think we can do that though.
England are interesting. In the 12 6N tournaments between the 2003 World Cup and Jones taking over they only won a Championship under Johnson in 2011 and a Triple Crown under Lancaster in 2014. Will they revert to not really winning much? - or can Borthwick maintain something like the success of Jones (3 Championships including 1 Grand Slam in 7 tournaments)?
I was thinking that this will be the last 6nations for some of our lads. Be nice to win it.
It's a pity for Pivac. He tried to bring in a new style and new lads. Perhaps Wales are not a good fit for him. Funny enough, he had Scarlets flying a few years ago. It's a pity. No idea where he goes from here.
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