I doubt he came down too hard on Joe Mc for smashing into a ruck, even if it was a ridiculous penalty to concede.
I'd be surprised if he didn't, come down hard on Joe Mc, tbh, even if it hasn't resulted in him being dropped here. It wasn't even a remotely marginal penalty, where the timing was off, say. And it's far from his first silly penalty.
Wanting more intensity and fight, and not giving away daft penalties are not mutually exclusive.
Was going to say Johnny O'connor. Remember George Hook wanted BOD to move into the back row at one stage!
I posted here earlier in the week about each of the no.10s kicking percentages, plus that of Nathan Doak. It ranged from 71-79%.
Thomas Ramos is 88.5% in the top 14 and 100% in the champions cup. Incredible really.
It's another area of skills where we have fallen behind in recent times.
Sexton, for whom goal kicking was arguably his weakest skill, had an 80% kicking percetage for Ireland in his final season. It's an interesting angle to show how our skill levels in general have dropped.
Ryan got into a scuffle with half the French team after that tackle, was notable that not a single Irish player joined in (that I saw).
I disagree that it’s a no win situation. the reality is Ireland are a good bit behind France and England. Beating Italy Scotland and wales will a job well done by Ireland. Beating England would be a great result.
There has been times we struggled against Italy and our players were in general good form. That’s not the case anymore.
And I think Farrell is Struggling to manage this. This happens a lot of coaches - they are good when their players are good but they cannot manage an average team , they just don’t have that mentality.
Fine line between controlled agression and giving away too many penalties/ yellow cards. I thought Ryan was lucky to get away with that late hit on Jailibert.
Johnny Concrete! Now that's a blast from the past!
King of the Castle
I think we have tried Ryan and Beirne in the past and it is just too light a second row pairing. I imagine that is what has saved McCarthy in this case but everyone is going to be on a pretty short leash I'd say.
Trying to continue the O’Toole to loosehead experiment is just insane to me. It’s been clear for the last 18 months that Ulster have no interest in playing him there. They were willing to go out and splash big money on Angus Bell before they tried O’Toole at LH. Therefore, he’s never going to be a long term option there for Ireland if he’s never playing there for Ulster. Milne went well off the bench last week. Should be pumping more minutes into him, getting him up to speed. Just a baffling call by Farrell.
Farrell has been doing his own thing for years, he's been lucky with the players he inherited and a few talented players that he brought in. Now that he has to shuffle the broken deck chairs on the Titanic he and the players are being found out.
Good clip of O Driscoll talking at an OTB event up in Belfast. thoughts on this?
https://x.com/offtheball/status/2022064418771616048
He is spot on re our style.
With the way the game has gone with escort laws kick contestables etc we need to bring something different.
The worst thing to do is to compete against teams in a style that they are good at.
Its why we never play loose v NZ or France as they will shred you in open play.
We never had the grunt to beat up a SA but we did it a different way.
If we go to Twickenham & play a kick contestable game we will get ripped to shreds, England a beatable just don't play them at what they are good at.
True. But size isn't everything either. If it were we'd be sorted with Alan Spicer!
Anyways, hopefully Edwin can step up to the mark and show he is capable of international test rugby.
Clip of SP's tackles. There's a few on the gainline (a couple of good tap tackles that stall momentum) and a few that have been mentioned - the tackle is technically 'made' but there's huge post-contact metres. That's the nuance that some on here are referring to in response to 'he made X tackles'.
Its insane how determined some people are to undermine Sam. To go to all the effort of making a video like that is bizarre to me.
Although that channel is probably the most biased Irish rugby YouTube channel out there.
I really don't know how it undermines anyone, the clip is a collection of all Sam's tackles from the game and they're available in some highlight packages and on a rewatch to anyone who wants to see them.
I was disappointed with that too and I’d hope Farrell noticed it and gave the rest of the team a chastising over not backing their own.
It's a fairly pertinent topic. Would be the same as highlights of Crowley's kicking performace from the tee vs. Italy last year. Player doesn't do well in some facets of the game and it's analysed. It's not doctored footage in anyway. Just reality.
But yes, you would rather see highlights reels of Irish players doing good things. Turnovers, dominant tackles, line breaks, 50/22s etc. These things just currently aren't happening in any volume.
Here's one of hopeless tackle attempts from O'Gara:
Not as if this sort of thing is exclusive to Sam. 10s getting steamrolled and people making compilation videos is nothing new......
MOD this ends here. 10s have been targeted and many have been shite tacklers since time immemorial, no more bringing up clips discussing ROG anyone else like this.
he's been lucky with the players he inherited
Wow, memories are short and/or selective. "The players he inherited" had just lost to Japan and been crushed by NZ in the 2019 RWC. Whatever he's achieved, it absolutely was not handed to him.
and a few talented players that he brought in.
Isn't that literally his job? He's taken a number of guys from relative obscurity to world class in his tenure. Aren't we supposed to applaud that?
Slating him now that things are on a downward trajectory is fair enough, but trying to deny his many achievements is just spiteful and unfortunately a recurring theme here.
Casey has hardly set the world alight in a green jersey!!
He hasn't been given the opportunity bar the summer tour which he captained
That tackle was fine. He might well have known he'd reach him after the kick was away but he was fully committed while Jalibert still had possession, even the French fans weren't complaining about it online. Players will always react in the way the French players did to a hit like that, even if it's legal. Irish lads leaving Ryan to take it alone was a bad look.
Never said he has, point I'm trying to make is that Osborne hasn't either. Yet, one guy is being written off as not good enough for this level and the other guy is apparently a star in the making. And we haven't seen any evidence of either of these extremes from either player.
Both are international standard currently, it's hyperbole to suggest that Casey isn't good enough for this level just as it is hyperbole to suggest Osborne is going to be the next 100+ cap Irish great. Neither claim appears to be grounded in any material evidence.
Yeah, I was worried at the time that he was late but on the replay he was fine. Not sure I'd be using that moment to justify him starting this week all of a sudden, mind. Didn't spot the lack of people joining in the scuffle, that's terrible if so.
There's a lot of stuff has regressed with the team, someone mentioned skills above… fresh blood in the coaching box or on the pitch are the only things going to shake things up in my view
not a fan of JS being involved in the coaching setup so early myself, but to be fair to him from any videos of him ive seen as kicking coach he is just doing the same stuff as Dave Alred who is generally regarded as the best kicking coach in the world. Some of the videos coming from the England camp show Wilkinson doing the same things with their kickers. Crowley has definitely changed his style to fit in with the Dave Alred method and i'm pretty sure Prendergast has too, they likely just need to refine it a bit more and the results should improve
Looks like a pretty solid display of tackling to me. I'd hardly knock a player for getting driven backwards by a 3 man maul.
Bowe doesn't get enough flack for his **** ups at the end of the 2nd test in 2009.
