Looking forward to the first scrum
*set the trap
Pity Wales don't wear red against us anymore
The white flag of surrender,
First try through like a knife in the end.
Now waiting for the second scrum
Some start this. Edit: Knock on
Be still my beating heart
Why can't crowley kick into the 22?
Doak was actually looking really good, could have just left him on and replaced him with JGP later if he got injured.
I never hear it mentioned, but Carre’s mum is actually from County Limerick! She only moved to Wales when she met her husband, in her late 20s! Carre would be related to Limerick GAA great John Quane, a towering midfielder who played in the 1990s and 2000s. Class try there from him
Happy to win , bonus point. And a deeper squad. Not perfect but Wales turned up more so than England which wasn’t expected
Not good enough at all. Even allowing for the disallowed tries, failed to consistently put structure on the game. Wales were reading our attack far too easily.
Happy to see Doak get some play, think he looked very comfortable. Ringrose is just an empty jersey at the moment. It's like having POC at 13, for as much as he passes.
You have a very in your bonnet about Ringrose. Our problems weren't at 13 in the slightest but rather inside that.
thats not how it works, theres a time limit
So I assume the response to this game will be the same as the one vs Italy and we all acknowledge that no 10 available to us is very good and come with their own problems.
Recognizing that our 13 is continuously delivering poor performances, when our attack is stuttering and defense is shakey, is an entirely valid observation. Not sure why you don't want to acknowledge that. He's stymieing the attack, and had been targeted in defense. Why does he get a pass on playing like a drain?
You'd think so. But the wagons are already being circled.
The 10 was not the issue, look closer at the SH and aside from his blood/HIA he got 75 minutes. Really not good enough from Andy not to be subbing him earlier.
This is different from Italy how? Are you genuinely trying to claim JGP was a bigger problem then Casey?
I didn't at all like the fact that dixon stopped crowleys kick preparation for the orbourne conversion with 12 seconds left on the clock to look at sometime.
And then re started the clock with only 12 seconds left for Crowley to kick. That is completely unfair as the whole setup is a routine.
Did they not clarify recently that of the shot clock was stopped to check something the kicker gets the 60 seconds back? Maybe that's just in super rugby?
And as for tempo on TMO, that guy should be told to shut the hell up unless there's something very obvious in the clips.
Most worryingly, both of our 10s seem to have the goal kicking yips. Wonder if a change of kicking coach is needed?
No, I'm claiming JGP was miles below a standard we saw him play v England.
If Doak was as poor as JGP was tonight we'd be told he didn't grab his chance.
Yet JGP gets 75 minutes, it's bizarre
It was weird by the TMO… but at the same time (and I'm a big Crowley fan) you can't be missing those. I genuinely thought he might when I saw the camera shot from behind.
He's struggled at times with the new sped-up kicking clock - plenty of times he's kicking conversions with with <5 or <3 seconds left - maybe he needs a change of routine to be able to settle, setup and kick quicker. Something's got to change anyway. As someone said, he'll be looking over his shoulder otherwise.
Is Sexton getting them to change their kicking style.
In fairness ( I know this won't be accepted) but Crowley had received a bang to his head for his first miss kick and for the last one the TMO/Ref interrupted his prep and he had 12 seconds left on the clock.
yes
JC laid the ball alot 'flatter' previously, not a million miles off how halfpenny would position the ball and had a slightly more 'stabbing' swing
SP would also have the ball flatter and use a different type of tee, i can remember too much of his swing but it was a slower run up from what i remember (could be completely wrong)
both have moved to the way of kicking thought by Dave Alred and his School of Kicking (they both use the SoK tee), which is a more 'natural'/soccer like kicking motion, but can lead to worse looking misses at times. if you look at the kicks from the last two games, JC's ball flight is pretty perfect when he catches it properly but it unfortunately can go to sh!t when he doesnt. On the other hand i think SP's misses against italy were more of a mental thinig to be honest.
much as i understand why some are criticising the coaching (and im not a big fan of sexton being involved so soon after retiring to be honest), they are being thought the exact same things that DA though Wilkinson so i dont really know who would be an improvement in that regard. from what i can see wilkinson himself is doing the exact same drills with the england squad
both SP and JC need to improve their accuracy though, be it adjusting their technique slightly or fixing their confidence over the ball. JC needs to speed up his routine too
JGP is always going to remain on the pitch with a close game. And that’s the right decision as he is so far ahead and can pull rabbits out of the hat at key times. If Andy pulled him off and Ireland lost he’s get lambasted why take the risk to take off your best player?
He wasn't anywhere near being our best player tonight, it's only a few games back where he was dropped because he was below par. That dropping made a difference in his game against England, maybe we need to see him getting the shepard's hook more often.
Farrell (rightly so) was full of his praises for him after England but I bet he won't be too happy with what he delivered tonight
It's not smart man management though. For one, it means we're not taking advantage from a fresh player coming on and being able to up the tempo if needed. It means Doak or Casey aren't getting sufficient game time to develop. If JGP isn't playing well, then the rest of the team struggles massively. We should want to have an option to bring on someone to change things up.
A side note...
This is a crazy time for a rugby match ...Dublin traffic at a standstill for last 2 hours.
Friday night in Dublin...match shouldn't get licence for that time...
Sure Garda agree...
On my viewing of the game, Crowley kept the ball in play moving much faster than Sam Prendergast did in his recent run of games and it was just Wales being more prepared for a fight that meant a lot of the attack (that maybe should have been varied a bit more) did not make as much progress as I would have liked to see.
Crowley scored a well taken try and was instrumental in other players scoring tries and while he should have converted some not very difficult (for this level of rugby) kicks I think his all round play makes up for these shortfalls in expectations. His over all play still makes him the best option in that position to keep the Irish back line working well.
The frustrating thing in my mind is that his kicking was more reliable and whatever is going on in the background this season seems to be making his kicks less reliable than in previous seasons. If it is the influence of Sexton's coaching then maybe it is just a transitional effect and hopefully Crowley's kicking gets back to matching his all round play.
Using a bonus point win to take sniping comments about the number ten position seems a bit nonsensical to me.
