Sgreed! He's athletic and strong and makes yards but, he's raw.
Who is? Quote or say Who you're referring to dub…
Mccarthy id say. I dont think he made many yards yest though id be interested to see the stats
Third highest yardage amongst starters in the pack, but it was an underwhelming 11m off 6 carries. Only Sheehan (28m off 8 carries) and Doris (42m off 15 carries) had decent numbers amongst the starters, while Kelleher (38m off 8 carries) and Baird (30m off 3 carries) had good numbers.
POM (3m off 2 carries) and Furlong (3m off 5 carries) were poorest, but both starting centres also had poor numbers and so did Calvin Nash (who the game really seemed to just pass by yesterday).
Where do you get the match stats these days?
Usually ESPN Scrum are quite good, but they haven’t posted yet. These numbers are from Irish Rugby, under the ‘Performance’ section.
Would also say some of the stats look a little unreliable having watched the game back - i.e POM is down for 1 missed tackle total, but there’s a sequence currently on Murray Kinsella’s instagram account where he misses two tackles on DDA in the space of around 10 seconds.
If this series teaches us anything, it's that we might have a solid backup for Keenen. Jamie Osborne has played the majority of his pro rugby at inside centre, but the relative lack of familiarity with that position didn't seem to bother him yesterday.
He was solid under the high ball, made a few decent cover tackles and took his try well. I'd like to see him get more involved in attack. He has an excellent pass off either hand and is also very good at offloading out of contact. Yesterday we struggled to build much in attack due to the Boks suffocating pressure in the first half. But if Osborne gets a chance at 15 next week I hope we'll see more possession and a greater chance for him to influence the game.
Hansen's absence is a big loss to the dynamism of this team,every yard gained now is a hard yard in his absence.
Yeah, I think this is accurate. Match stats say that Nash had 2 carries and 2 passes, vs 6 carries and 8 passes for Lowe. Hansen's involvements are normally much closer to Lowe's.
Nash is a very good winger but Hansen is great at popping up everywhere and making things happen, and I think he's a huge loss.
McCarthy
Jessie Kriel played a stormer. Watched it back and was really impressed by him. The book centers are like back rows. Physical and dynamic. Our centers were poor, I thought.
Like to see Osborne or Frawley at 12 next week. Aki was poor yesterday.
Aki hadn't played in two months, maybe not surprising he was off the pace.
Huge sample size alright, one grand game 😂
all.rugby have him starting more games at 13 than at 12.
But yeah, it was a promising showing from him. Hopefully he's good to go next week and he starts at fullback again.
I opened the entire point with "might". Implying that we still need to see more from the player before being sure of it.
I've no idea what you find exception with.
Aki is a player that needs to be playing all the time
I think Faz should switch it up next week.Beirne to blindside, Timoney at open side, Ringrose back in and Larmour on the wing. Prendergast on the bench. Baird also on the bench.
Porter, Kelleher, Furlong
Ryan, McCarthy
Beirne, Timoney , Doris
Murray, Crowley
Lowe, Aki, Ringrose, Larmour, Osborne.
O'Toole, Herring, Jager, Baird, Prendergast, Blade, Frawley, McCloskey
Sheehan ACL
Casey concussed
Henshaw concussed
Porter split webbing on his hand
Aki knock to shoulder
Lowe knock to thigh
Osbourne groin issue
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/rugby/2024/07/08/lengthy-injury-list-emerges-after-irelands-first-test-loss-to-south-africa/
That’s a **** disaster- especially Sheehan’s injury. Why was he left on the field so long after he originally hurt the knee?
While a lot of these are contact issues and could theoretically happen anytime, I still think this is exactly the thing a lot of us feared about going on a tour to one of the most physical places to play rugby at the end of an effective 13 month season.
We'll get to test our depth now
Terrible news on Sheehan, but just thinking of next weekend I think Porter and Osborne are the most important. Kelleher and Herring are good replacement hookers. And then Murray for Casey, Ringrose for Henshaw, McCloskey for Aki, and Stockdale for Lowe are quality players to bring in.
McCloskey/Ringrose next week? Still a very good centre pairing.
was always a risk of getting a lot of injuries at end of a huge season
Big chance for others now to show what they can do
Sheehan ACL is an absolute disaster
Sheahan, feck. That's a huge loss.
If there's any silver lining at all, atleast Tom Stewart might get some senior international action over the next nine months, which'll be good for positional depth.
McCloskey is ideal against the Boks, great opportunity for him if he plays next week. I thought Nash was a bit slow for the kind of pace they have out wide as we need impeccable winger defense against these guys. And I thought we missed a trick not playing more wide ball ourselves in their red zone, very hard to bish bosh through this SA team. Lots of people have pointed to how little joy Beirne got carrying but that's predictable, I guess missing JGP/Mack means we lack some of the attacking patterns that we saw during this teams peak but that's what we need now. Ireland did well given the altitude and how well prepped SA were. Very interesting how little they kicked, we looked more like the boks in the regard. I can see us taking them next week.
Jaysus this series is a write off, play the young lads for the second test now tbh
yeah I’d love to see that and McCloskey deserves it. Give me Cormac Izuchukwu at 6 too please! 🙏🏻 Imagine the balance of 6. Izuchukwu 8. Doris 7. VDF, with Timoney off the bench. It’ll never happen but I’d love to see it.
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