You mean both SA played Japan in a neutral venue thousands of miles from their own countries in meaningless international and it had poor attendance? Well I'm totally shocked and appalled!
"Also 12:40 is a great time for a family attendance esp with families" yeah great if your from D4 not so much if you have travel from Sligo, Cork etc
I'd take a 4pm kick off anyday.
So you'd prefer to travel from sligo/cork for a 4pm Sunday game rather than a 12:40 Sat kick off with kids...you are braver than I am considering early start Mon a.m for them but thats v age dependant as well.
Yeah you're wrong
No you're wrong, he's been the best lock these last number of years. Who do you think is actually better ?
If you're travelling from Sligo or Cork for a 12:40 kick off, hit the road at 8am and you'd be there in plenty of time.
Mod edit
Sure we'll keep on playing Henshaw and Aki so we'll be proud of having the slowest backiline as a tier 1 nation and we'll also play Porter for the guts of every game sure that won't shorten his career🙄.
Mod
SA can play an older squad as many of the key players don't play grinding club rugby for the season, they're either on a holiday in Japan or winging it for their club like the Sharks. We can't do that in Ireland as the provinces would lose support rapidly.
And you're a master debater.
Well done
LOL that all you got townie?
🤦
Stop digging, it's embarrassing at this stage.
Pretty sure @sydthebeat is a country boy. Offaly or Laois I think.
If you can't debate the points that Ireland are too conservative with selection and play crocked players till their legs are gone I feel sorry for the delusion you suffer from. But heh Vodafone team of us blah blah
Very much so!!
Lineout is a shambles... who looks after it needs a good kick in the ass...
Sam will be the 10 against Australia, he’s made all the difference today
Lineout needs huge improvement along with securing our own ruck. Second half showed we could score trys if we could maintain our own set piece ball.
Prendergast did very well at bringing the ball right to the line before releasing. Committed an extra Japanese defender before putting a teammate into space. Japan tired a lot in the final 30 minutes, but we showed some accurate, structured attacking play later on.
Sloppy performance with poorhandling and passing stopping us in our tracks, the scoreline flattered us a bit I suppose. The lineout continues to be a problem, although I think Kelleher was obviously impacted by it today.
Doris and Tommy O'Brien were comfortably our best two players. Doris was a class apart up front. Most of the bench made a big impact as well, particularly the two Prendergasts and Gus McCarthy.
The 10 debate is live again next week and there is an argument for Gus McCarthy to bench behind Sheahan.
I guess Jimmy O'Brien to come in at 15.
Stockdale at 15 I would have thought?
Don't think that performance will have done him a huge number of favours in that regard. Though JOB wasn't even in the original squad so who knows.
Based on today's performance that would be a very poor selection.
Our scrum was generally very good. Dominated Japan's for most of the game. Baird and Doris were the pick of our forwards and the latter looked especially good for someone who hasn't started a game for six months.
Centres and scrum half are a concern. Henshaw was solid, but he no longer has the pace to punch holes in defence. Farrell was ok, but was similar to Ringrose last week in rushing up to make a tackle, missing and leaving other players exposed.
Casey and Blade both looked unauthoritative. Could see them changing their minds on their decisions, taking a different option then getting battered by the defence. McCloskey and JGP go straight back into the side for the next two games.
Large gap from JGP to Casey
Yup and worryingly JGP will be 35 by the time the WC rolls around. And Caolan Blade looked poor enough out there too.
At least there's some decent options coming through
Why is Ronan Kelleher still in the equation. It must be 10 years of poor play. When does it stop
Like how he started today and failed to stake a claim? Should we reward a brutal performance against Japan with a start against Australia?
How about the alternative plays consistently well for his club and then follows it up by making the most of his chances with the national team 🤔
Yep. This is the big leagues. And especially when you've a player as good as JGP has been in the same position.
Lowry should be in consideration too. He's been very good this season.
good maul try from Spain there.
5 - 7
7 mins gone
Without Googling it - how many caps do you think Craig Casey has for Ireland?
10 years of poor play for the 27 year old?
