France V Ireland – Stade de France, Paris. Sunday 4th March 15:00 RTE2 & BBC2

teednab-el wrote: »

It's reality and my analysis is to the point. We have a kicker that can't place kick.

But it's not actually reality.

He missed a kick today, yes. He should have got it. But that doesn't mean he can't place-kick, when it's quite obvious he can.

GerM wrote: »

Fishooks12 wrote: »

O Gara wasn't on when we were camped in the French 22 at 66minutes

(that doesn't mean I agree with what that poster was saying by the way )

Nah, I'm aware. But he seems to be making arguments without even knowing the facts. The time to nail the drop was that spell, you're right. We were making ground though and I don't blame Sexton for not wanting to take a pop from 30m+ in manky conditions. They were finally reaching a position when the drop was a real option when Darce fumbled it. Beauxis, who is a superb striker of a ball and a decent drop goal man, showed how awkward the conditions were. If we wer. e going to have a go, we needed to be doing it from their 22 and no further.

He was nearer than 30m to the posts. In fairness Ireland were never going to score a try with that passage of play, they were alot of poor passes I knew they wouldn't score. If I was Sexton I would have a go for a drop at goal and if it failed then i would try something different. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Now we will never know what if.....

Piliger wrote: »

ongarite wrote: »

What a stupid statement.

Fishooks12 wrote: »

good god I hate match-day threads

That's because it's full of people who are happy to draw and make excuses for losing.

Drawing is worse than losing.

I hate this pathetic willingness to accept these kinds of performances. I really wonder why these players don't feel totally shamed when they shake hands with Wales and France after these matches. The Welsh and French are laughing down their noses at these losers.

You hit the nail on the head there. In Ireland we love moral victories, we are pathetic and its annoying here how some people could be happy eventhough we didn't even score points in the second half. If France were 17-6 ahead, they would have destroyed us, like 2010. We never had a better chance of winning and we blew it big time. I would been happier if we lost after that.

teednab-el wrote: »

Sexton missed a howler today in front of the posts, cost us 3 points and a win in Paris. Never will be as good as O Gara for place kicking. We wait on for a win in Paris, hopefully not for another 30years.

O'Gara had the ball on 3 or more occasions in his cameo and never once attempted a drop goal.

Bottler.

:rolleyes:

teednab-el wrote: »

leftism wrote: »

vixdname wrote: »

I'm not saying we lost games solely because of sexton, what I'm saying is is that Sexton is more consistently making hashes of what would be considered easy scores then anyone else, compare him to ROG, Kidney consistently puts Sexton on early in matches and ends up putting in O'Gara to try and mop up some of the ****e that been left for him in the second half.
Dont try and tell me you've never see,n this ? Or are you one of the Johnny Sexton fans that wear blinkers and thinks he can do no wrong

Your opinion of Johnny Sexton is based on the premise that an out-half's entire role in the game is place kicking... Rugby is not American Football where where specialist kickers can run on and score points before retiring back to the bench! In the game of rugby, our specialist kicker must pass, tackle and defend the line just like everyone else. I can admit that ROG is place kicking better than Johnny at the moment, but Johnny's work rate in both attack and defense is what puts him in the starting line-up. If ROG was defending against a fresh Dusatoir or Fofana from the kick-off, i would probably have no fingernails now (as it is i have very little fingernails left anyways)...

Its easy to criticise Sexton for missing the odd kick, in the same way that its easy to criticise SOB for the lack of barnstorming runs this season. The intricacies of rugby are such that we must judge players on more than just the highlights.

Sexton missed a howler today in front of the posts, cost us 3 points and a win in Paris. Never will be as good as O Gara for place kicking. We wait on for a win in Paris, hopefully not for another 30years.

what if ROG scored that penalty but missed a tackle that lead to a french try? you dont have a player that "just" kick in rugby. it simply doesnt exist and Sexton did a good nob today (fyi Im french so Im not a Leinster fan trying to support Sexton)

I keep seeing people calling for ROG to start and the justification for that is a drop goal he scored in 2009. It boggles the mind.

Sexton has had nervy moments with the boot but he he's been pretty decent kicking wise in his last few games.

Lets leave the Leinster/Munster bias out for a moment. ROG is a very good goal kicker and can manage the game well. He's also a poor defender and he constantly loses ground in the tackle. Sexton is a bigger running threat and is solid in defence. He is shakier when it comes to goal-kicking however and his game management let's him down sometimes.

But I would argue that Sexton is vital for Irelands midfield defence. A ROG/Darcy/Earls axis doesn't fill anyone with much confidence. We all know that Darcy shouldn't really be there anymore but that is an argument for another time. ROG is a poor tackler and is the main target for opposition runners when he starts. Earls is decent though but he can't make up for the defiencies of the other 2.

I think Sexton is the superior player but I've no problem if a Munster fan disagrees with me. I'd just like to hear some proper reasoned opinions other than drop goals and goal kicking. There is so much more to a 10's game than just these aspects. I'll also argue that Sexton isn't even a bad penalty taker.

Fishooks12 wrote: »

hard to report stupidity!

Let the mods decide whether it's stupidity or trolling.

Annabella1 wrote: »

can't believe the negative vibes...this was a great result against the World Cup Finalists in their own back yard.

Tbf, it was a great result if we weren't 17 - 6 up at half time, to me it feels almost like a loss. Would I have taken a draw before the game - yes, was I happy to see the french player being tackled into touch as he ran towards our try line on the 81st minute - hugely delighted but I still feel we left a win behind us.

Fishooks12 wrote: »

hard to report stupidity!

It doesn't matter, certain players were in for criticism regardless of how they played today.