Ireland v Wales. Sat 24th Feb, 14:15 RTÉ2

Italy and wales are two very poor teams , would not be surprised if Italy beat wales.

if we are all being honest ireland Should be beating both by minimum 40 points.

England and Scotland are also bang average, England offer nothing but bish bosh and kick and Scotland are very average 1 to 8 and both have weak benches

we should be beating both by twenty.

Lots of refs do that nowadays

It will take a great performance to beat England by 20 at Twickenham.

That said I have a feeling that Ireland will really turn up in that game so we'll see.

Of the 240 minutes Ireland has played in this year's 6N so far, the opposition have been level with us for a cumulative 19 minutes (the first 6 or 7 minutes of each game), outside which Ireland has been leading.

The quest for the Perfect Slam continues.

Unbelievable..

Another match thread full of Irish fans bitching about the ref despite Ireland getting a bonus point win by 20 plus points without getting out of 3rd gear.

The ref was fine especially considering this was his first 6N match. I say well done to him. I think he's generally a good ref. He got the big calls right.

Beirne was on the side of the maul, changed his bind onto the ball carrier and collapsed. 100% penalty try and YC.

Ryan wasn't back 10m, professional foul = YC.

Aki try. There was a knock on by Henshaw which was a shame as Baird's touch was class. Thought Lowe's offload to JGP earlier in that move was forward but too many phases back.

Ref could have given a YC after Frawley's try but it's pretty rare that refs do that. Would love to see it more often.

He could have given Wales a yellow in the first half but that wasn't the reason Ireland weren't 10 to 12 points further ahead at halftime. The reason was Ireland were sloppy.

Ireland should've come out and buried them after halftime but they seemed to lack intensity. Much better in the final 15-20 minutes. Overall a decent performance and did enough to get the job done. I expect the focus and intensity to much, much higher in Twickenham. And I think Ireland will have too much for England.

I do think our discipline on defense will be a point of focus within the group. We’ve came out on the wrong side of the penalty count in each of the opening 3 games. That’s despite the fact we’ve been so dominant in attack winning those games by 21 points or more. But it seems like the ref is more stricter on reffing our D or maybe our discipline needs to improve. Either way, teams like Wales or England that are very limited in attack almost need a string of 3 or 4 penalties in a row to score a try from 5m out. I didn’t think at any stage Wales today were going to to string a set of phases from say 30m and go in for a try.

I hate yellow cards, think the game is being decided by yellows and even worse with reds. I hate to see my own team and even the opposition get them. A red card early and I'll bring the dogs for a walk.

I don't know what the alternative is though, there'd be messing all over the place with professional fouls. Maybe more of a player led punishment, needs to be replaced and miss next match or something crazy like that

Am I hallucinating again or do Crowley’s place kicks sound ‘off’, like some of the air has been let out of the ball?

I can see why it has taken so long for an Italian referee to get a look in, because normally I guess they would give new referees an Italy game which tend to be low profile.

I think he was a bit unlucky and I don't think he will be officially rated too badly for that performance. The yellow card issue was what you might see from more experience referees as well. Ireland scored the try and the interference did not stop a try on that phase. The Ireland interference arguably did stop a try so had to be a yellow. Wales committed offences at the right times before we got close to the line, maybe. I just think he got a bit unlucky on the day to end up being the villain of the piece.

Haha. I do enjoy reading your weekly after match bitch about Ireland fans bitching. Every week without fail.

Mind you Gatland seems to agree with the bitching Irish fans about the competence of the ref.

You're welcome. Happy to bring you some joy 😁

And I don't really pay attention to anything Gatland says.

Haha. Indeed. IMHO I thought the ref was grand.

France are a complete mess in the Italy game. They are a shadow of the pre WC team, no ideas whatsoever. Italy defending like a team with the lives on the line. If they keep France out til 1/2 time this could be their big chance.