You'd have to think unless there's a big change in form that James Lowe shouldn't be in an Ireland 23 come the 6N. Despite Leinster winning tonight he was woeful. Tommy O'Brien conversely was decent. With Stockdale playing well also it's time to see if Andeh has the conjonhes to drop a former star who's playing like a drain.
**** comment. Stockdale was the stand out player for Ulster in a facile win against connaught. Involved in all but one penalty try. Fielding and defences was very good and was a threat all night.
The Irish players teams and coaches are utterly useless at adapting to the new kicking strategy used by most other teams. The kicks themselves are either to short or to far. The kick chase non existent. When a kick is employed it tends to be the last resort.
We are not using this part of the game correctly at all. Some of the kicks in both the recent interpros were utter sh1 te.
the likes of Graham,Freeman, etc the only thing they think of or play for when they get the ball is themselves, not the team
Sorry but this is nonsense and a great example of someone only seeing what they’re told to see by pundits who harp on about how Hansen “comes off his wing” as if he’s the only winger in the history of rugby to do this. Freeman and Graham are both class players who contribute just as much if not more to their teams as Hansen does.
after watching those 2 games last night there is no doubt that Ireland are in serious trouble. For whatever reason lineout and scrum look very poor and most worrying of all there is a serious lack of creativity in the loose.
The senior Irish players form has gone off a cliff and the young bucks don’t seem to up to the standard required.
Andy Farrell has some tough decisions to make , either go with the tried and tested and hope those players hit a golden patch or go with next in line and hope they can develop quickly.
The most worrying for Farrell must be our back line especially 9 and 10, the two key spots for his style of play. Gibson park was a great player but is on the way out but all other choices at both 9 annd 10 are just average players. Add in Henshaw ringrose Aki Lowe are all finished at top international level but still are probably the best we still have , that is very worrying.
It’s always worrying in transition until new generation takes their stride. Never different on that front, always a similar story. 9 & 10 will be fine once the new generation gets game time for confidence
I don't see why we have to blindly follow this shift in meta. It's not like our playstyle from 22-23 wouldn't be effective any more. It's more a reflection of the diminished quality in skills and player throughout the squad.
I think it is less effective. There’s a reason why teams are kicking so much and why both Leinster and Munster looked more comfortable without the ball last night-it’s very difficult to go through phases. It’s a lot easier to put a kick up and try to reclaim the bouncing ball. Even Leo Cullen suggested as much in the post match interview saying going through 20 phases regularly isn’t really possible under current law interpretations.
What has changed in the laws? The shepherding change was in place back in 23. I think what has changed is our coaching at Provincial level has gone off of a cliff, and key players are older or retired. I have zero doubt that the team from 22/23 would be able to beat the current Springboks team, just as it did back then.
Our players loss of skills has been a massive detriment and something that the IRFU need to aggressively tackle. It's not acceptable for Leinster to continue to decline in the way they have under Nienbar.
Croc roll was banned in mid 2024 making it harder to clear out poachers and hold onto to your own ball. The access for kick chasers was also brought in at the same time. We conceded a penalty from a kick off against NZ in the AI last year for one of their chasers running into Porter who had their back turned watching the catcher. Initially players were trying to buy penalties by running into ‘blockers’.
Was the access rule not in place for the WC? The croc roll one has been a challenge to the high possession approach alright, take your point there. The ruck remains a disaster.
Nope, just came in last year, we started seeing it in the NH during the AI.
You might be thinking about 50/22 which was trialled in 2021 and came in fully in July 2022. That was a great addition to the game stopping teams putting 14 in the defensive line and creating more space out wide. England in particular seemed to struggle once that was introduced. Beforehand it was very difficult to beat their rush defence.
Few reasons I suspect it will be the tried & trusted.
Outside of Paddy Mc,Stockdale & Stuart Mc becoming regular starters it will be much the same 23
We are 17 tests out from RWC, Ahern/Cormac Iz may get minutes in the 6n's v wales/Italy. 6n's may come a bit too soon for Gleeson.
Outside of that I don't see much else change coming.
Front row, half backs &their back ups picks itself.
If Stuart Mc stays fit he stays at 12 & take your pick of the 3 usuals to partner him.
Its a balance of win ratio for coach & generating revenue.
last night was a poor Munster Leinster game. Leinster of old would have won pulling up. The biggest issue facing Ireland is the decline of Leinsters key men. they are still better then what the other provinces have but the overall standard is average. I believe What Farrell has to do is freshen up his coaching ticket with better coaches and back what he sees as the future in some positions. He cannot afford to let it mature naturally, it will take too long. he needs to call it now , back himself. if he thinks prendergast is the future, back him. If he thinks Crowley and casey not the answer, then develop what he believes is the answer.
I don’t think Irish fans can afford to be provincial going forward, and I admit I have posted some silly stuff here on that topic, but Ireland are at a crossroads. If the right choices are not made going forward the future could be very very bleak.
there is no chance that Aki, Henshaw, Lowe and Ringrose are the best Ireland have.
Farrell could do worse that just pick the Ulster 11-15 for the six nations
11. Ward
12. McCloskey
13. Hume
14. Baloucoune
15. Stockdale
Leinster 1-10 an Ulster 11-15.
Fine, their skills have been stolen by a SA wizard
Maybe the Leinster players haven't suddenly turned into useless players, maybe all the injuries, constantly changing team, lions hangover, so many in the Ireland squad all add up to temporary early loss of form.
Some of those players are on a decline long before The Lions Tour
This stuff is way overblown - Ulster created nothing against Leinster a few weeks back, scored their tries from sloppy turnovers etc. Did absolutely zero from phase play throughout the game.
It's hardly 'blindly follow'. The kicking game most of the provincial teams use is not fit for purpose. Ireland are declining at the moment due to a number of factors that have been mentioned already. Successful teams have adapted we haven't. Teams will use this gameplan against us. The least we can do is learn to defend against it.
Ulsters backs created 3 tries and are amongst the top try scorers in the league, with 1 less fewer games than most teams.
leinsters backs created 0 tries tries vs Ulster and had to rely on the Leinster maul/scrum to put points on the board.
Van der flier, Ringrose, Henshaw, Lowe are all on the wane.
James Ryan has also been disappointing this season (unless getting carded).
You’re confusing it with another game I think. Three of Leinster’s tries came through the backs, only one from a maul.
JGP spends more time looking for penalties than playing ball. Every attacking ruck nowadays he's looking for a penalty rather than trying to get fast ball.
It might be a coaching thing, get the penalty, down the line and hopefully get a try
JGP was piss poor v Munster in Croke Park, he was ok, just ok last night.
along with Aki from an Irish perspective
Based on the November tests, Aki seems to have slipped down the pecking order significantly so probably not an issue
That’s funny - I must have imagined the try where James Lowe plays a beautiful pass to put JJ Kenny in space and Kenny then absolutely stitches McIlroy with a step and burned in to try.
I similarly must have imagined the Harry Byrne pass to width for James Lowe to try, or Rieko Ioane carrying Rob Baloucoune over the try line.
The Ulster backs did absolutely nothing of note against Leinster - Leinster had 80m more of carries than Ulster and considerably more clean breaks (7 v 3).
To me that is hyperbole he was good last night , kicking very effective bar the loose one straight out, and passing as effective as ever. Against Munster at home scrapping for every second he did well. Huge work rate off the ball too
He's a brilliant passer and kicker but he's delaying the ball at rucks looking for penalties, he ran off with the ball with the ball another time after we got a penalty. It's a trait that's is coming into his game and I think it's blunting our attack
Big-Al you should rewatch the Ulster game. They were incredibly conservative in their play and didn't use their backs anywhere near as much as they have in other games.
They had 38% of possession yet kicked the ball 28 times to Leinster's 27. They didn't want to engage Leinster's rush defence so elected to kick to us to try and regather in the air. It's actually a good tactic in the current game and something I'm surprised that Munster didn't attempt more of last night. But the Ulster backs certainly weren't shining in last weekends game at the Aviva
