LBB's 2nd try shows everything that's wrong with McCarthy's game at the moment. JGP gathers a **** ball, and McCarthy casually forms a ruck way too high. Lets Boudhent and Ramos blow him off and turn over the ball. He's so poor at rucking, mostly from lack of effort. WC QF, fresh on the field and gets shrugged off by Whitelock, who's played 80+ mins. This joke of an effort here. Ryan is infinitely better at this aspect of the game.
https://yourrugbycatchup.top/2025/03/08/ireland-vs-france-2025-03-08/
Full match here.
15th min : Sweeps blind off of an attacking scrum on the French 22. Gets the ball away to Keenan, then follows through in ruck by holding off 2 French defenders to maintain possession.
17th minute : Rips ball free from French carrier in a tackle. Ireland unlucky to not claim the ball.
18th minute : Stops Barassi behind the gainline, in the subsequent phase gets in the passing lane of the French player, causing the ball to go to deck where Doris steals. After a phase, he clears the ball deep. France kick it back, and Prendergast puts it out around the French 10m line.
19th min : France put up a high one from the lineout, Osborne challenges for the ball but it spills and goes to deck. Doris steals the ball again. Osborne clears deep into the French half but France keep it in and counter attack. McCarthy does his brainless **** and gets YC'd.
24th min : Ireland attacking lineout around the 10m line, on a sweep back, Osborne puts in a poor kick that France easily mark.
28th : puts in a good clearing kick from a defensive lineout in our 22
31st min : France kick through, Prendergast catches it and makes a break down the left wing, where he breaks a tackle by Penaud and gets around Barassi. Gets a messy offload to Osborne, who beats 1 tackler before getting taken down. Throws an offload from the deck that is batted into touch by a French player.
32nd min : From the lineout Prendergast sends up a (poor) contestable, which Osborne bats back to Beirne. Osborne gets the ball from the subsequent ruck and is hit hard.
33rd min : From the scrum, Osborne sweeps around and gets a cut back pass from Aki. He carries to the line and puts kick through, which takes a fortuitous deflection into Nash's hands. Osborne is on his shoulder and takes the offload, carrying to the French 22. He's tackled but gets passes the ball back, and Henshaw gathers. Ireland score from a penalty after this sequence.
34th min : catches the restart. Gardner blows for blocking. An absolutely ridiculous call imo. Penaud was nowhere near competing, and wasn't impeded at all.
38th min : France kick from a quick lineout, Osborne catches a puts a deep kick in behind Penaud. Chases hard and tackles the nonplussed winger. Doris arrives to compete, as Penaud holds on to the ball and is driven off the ball from a side entering Barassi. 2 penalties in the space of as many seconds not called.
That's just the 1st half. You're full of it saying he had a bad game
I see some are back to selectively using the team matches won stat again to support the performance of an individual player…
The updated squad for the final round of this year's 6Ns
I'm taking no sides in your spat with eagle eye. I'm just pointing out what happens here with a poster that goes to the bother of replying with facts. If you're in any doubt read back over the last day or so of posts.
Exactly the smart comment I was expecting.
No response to what I actually posted other than just pathetic cheerleading?
The good far, far outweighs the bad in Osbornes performance.
If you do post all his bad play then be prepared to be accused of focusing on only one player or hating him or some mad stuff altogether.
Tadgh has been passed fit but don't ser the obsession with him coming back into to the Ireland team with no game time. Ireland has nothing to gain playing him in a dead rubber. Would be tough dropping Finley after 4 decent games. Better to start Clarkson again to see his ability in the scrum
You brought three pieces of 'lots of evidence', all of which can be found in multiple articles. That's pathetic.
I've posted my evidence numerous times. However, because you can't be bothered to go back yourself, I'll spell it out to you very clearly:
That good enough for you? You still going to tell me that I didn't watch the same game as you did?
"Very poor," - what utter bollocks that is.
EDIT: Before any smart arse decides to quote this with some sarcastic remark of Osborne turning in a 'world class' performance or whatever other words you want to put in my mouth, don't.
I'd give Nash a break on much of his performance, not sure he would have been running in any of the prep over last week, its a very tall order to come in cold on the wing against France. The card was on him but I wouldn't be holding his feet to the fire over much else given his prep.
Poor show all around and then some poor fortune no to get over the line early on, though some of the decisions there lacked the kind of patience Ireland of a couple of years ago were so good at. I've no doubt we aren't the team we were for obvious reasons, but Saturday's team was sub optimal even for where we are at. Aki taking a bad knock early on, Rinigrose absent, Nash a very late call up compounding a very novice Osborne on the other wing. And French tactics absolutely spot on, plus their spirit and work rate was insane and pitch perfect for the full match.
For me I wish Crowley had more time at ten, but it's been clear for a couple of years that he is not trusted fully by Farrell. That's been obvious since the 1/4 when he was left on the bench. He has been used at ten where there was no real alternative but once Prendergast was judged to be even nearly ready he was moved aside, for good or bad. That was Australia and since then they've nailed their colours to the mast with him. Fair enough, it's why a lot of us are often disappointed about when young players don't get promoted as quickly as they might. Longer term I hope it doesn't mean Crowley is no longer given opportunities there as he does have qualities that make him a better selection is some cases than Prendergast, though I don't think it would have changed the outcome on Saturday. France have better players and our game was off across the team at the weekend, tiny margins in some cases but enough to compound French advantages in personnel.
Overall there are a few real alarm bells ringing for Ireland. Our bench is full of guys who are Leinster subs, its noones fault that the second or 3rd best in any position is behind their Leinster team mate so we are relying on guys who don't play much high level rugby. Our attack hasn't been great this tournament, even against weaker teams. We have never been a team to tear the opposition teams but we aren't getting bonus points at the rate we were, these are trends and they bode ill for the future. We need a big reset before the next WC which is happening one way or another due to a large number of players aging out. The next few years might be ugly.
Give me the evidence he had a good game please.
I've gave you three examples of bad play by him. I'm not going to sit here and type all his bad play. I already brought evidence.
Nash was poor on Saturday, the whole team was. Nash also played all (?) the 6Ns last season and we won that so he's not as poor as some would portray or hope.
Nash apparently carried an injury into training last week and he spent the full week as the opposition winger rather than training to be playing for Ireland, again, if this is true then it's poor management as anyone that is in the matchday 23+ should be doing Irish drills and just being opposition player or tackle bags.
In saying that, he should have been better and might have let his chance slide as it seems those on the peripheral of the squad can drop off it a lot faster than those in the starting 15.
Did Declan Kidney handle the Out half situation better than Farrell/Easterby.
When he took over in May 2008 Ronan O'Gara was the 10 in situ.
In November 2009, when 24 Johnny Sexton made his debut against Fiji and kept his place v South Africa and broke his hand in that game. O'Gara started the first 6 Nations game, Sexton came on as sub. The next 3 games Sexton started and O'Gara came on as sub.
Farrell brought Prendergast in at 21, if you are good enough, you are old enough, did the Irish Coaches had a duty to bring him along in the same manner as was done with Sexton ?
I am trying to write this as a neutral, but question the selection and management decisions. both on and off the pitch. They must be the first international Managers to sent a player out to the media mid week and drop him for the week end.
Did Andrew Porter need to play 250+ mins in the Autumn Series, did that help develop Props
Did Doris need to play was it 42 consecutive internationals.
We alternate 3 players between 12 + 13
Did we need Healy & O'Mahony, I can understand Murray as Casey was out.
Rather than spending so much time arguing Prendergast or Murray, should we be looking at the teams that are beeing selected and the succession policy
Basically no one was "good". maybe Doris, though he seemed to get on the wrong side of the ref (unjustifiably so for my money).
I don't like Osborne on the wing I have to say. One assumes he was there for his kicking game, but we didn't seem to be really getting our kicking game going either.
that’s fair enough actually.
They are professional players too, so however unlikely, they need to prepare as if they are going to play.
Tough one to get right mentally though as it doesn’t happen very often.
For every game there are a few players held in reserve, they will train all week as if they're in the team, they arrive to the match with the team, they get all kitted up, they warm up like they're going to play, they only get changed out of their kit after the warm up once there's been no injuries.
Nash would have known he was one injury away from playing, it's not like he would have been plucked from his hotel room before the game.
Being better than Nash at the weekend is a very low bar. Indeed, it feels like we're trying to set the bar very low here so we can claim Osborne wasn't too bad.
He wasn't terrible but he wasn't good either. He is clearly not a winger. He will get plenty of Ireland caps, but hopefully no more of them come on the wing.
Nash is a winger, though the jury is very much still out on whether or not he's up to this level.
I am fairly sure had Lowe been injured at the start of the week rather than in the warm up it would have been Stockdale starting on the left wing on Saturday.
ah in fairness Nash only found out he was playing right before the game.
He wasn’t even in the 23 😁
Talk about being thrown into a game 😂
I’d say he was looking forward to having a few pints and watching the game like the rest of us 😂
If you're going to make a claim that a player was 'very poor' because he made 'loads of mistakes' - then you better bring the evidence.
Because the evidence suggests Osborne actually had a good game despite being out of position.
This is fine. As I (and you) have pointed out, it doesn't mean he had a 'very poor' game.
I think he showed a lot more on the wing than Nash did, though.
Did you not read the last line of my post. And I'm not going to type everything he did wrong. I just gave a couple of examples.
That's it?
'very poor' based on three mistakes? Two of which I already highlighted and the third being shoved out into touch?
Holy moly he should never play for Ireland again.
Ageism at its finest.
I don't care what age a player is if he's the best we've got.
Did you watch the match? Took too long to decide about things and made a mistake when Penaud came at him, an awful kick to Dupont not giving any time for somebody to get up the field, had an opportunity to pass but decided to keep running up a blind alley and got shoved out. There was loads more.
Wasting your time asking for evidence. Empty, unsupported nonsense is the only game in town.
For all the fretting about Osborne, he wasn't exposed for pace once during the game. He had a very solid game, in his 3rd/ 4th best position. He needs to be given time at 12 or 13, wasting his talents on the wing imo.
No, I'm talking about Ireland in general, Lowe is very important to how we play but he has his weaknesses too, Aki is like a forward in defence and can challenge anyone in attack and JGP is probably the second best scrumhalf in the world.
Osbourne was decent, as a third centre and I would not be unhappy with him replacing Aki in the long run, but for me as a winger he doesn't have the instincts of a Hansen, Lowe or Nash (Or a Larmour, O'Brien or Daly for that matter)
There is no planet where Bundee was better than Osborne on Saturday, lads.
The fact nobody can list the "lots of mistakes" Osborne made is telling.
Glaring two are the kick which Dupont claimed the mark on and being beaten once in the air.
If that constitutes a 'very poor' performance then what are we really doing here?
I presume you are talking just about the France game? After I settled down I felt Keenan was our best back followed by a tie between JGP and Bundee.
If you are talking about this year then JGP, Lowe and Aki are far and away the best ones.
I hope with the Lions etc this Summer that the coaching team are looking to introduce a lot of new talent. We are 2 years out from the world cup and 2 six nations tournaments.
In all reality we are an ageing team and a substantial rebuild will need to begin this summer.
Bedhlam, Beirne, Conan, Van der Flier, Furlong, Aki, Henshaw will be 33 or older by then. Furlong will be 34 but has a dreadful recent injury record. Not to mention Gibson Park will be 35 and Lowe 34.
We looked a slow team on sat and none of the lads mentioned above are going to get any faster.
