Flash Gordon wrote: ↑December 3rd, 2021, 9:39 am
Which leads to the second point, Stockdale was quite possibly the best attacking wing in the Northern Hemisphere and he was moved to fullback. It's as if wing is a less important position whereas you see the impact wings have had in Ireland over the years - Lowe, Hickie, Earls, Geoghegan, Bowe, Horgan - these are frequently our most impactful and important players. Similarly with Larmour, he played centre in school where Connacht's Peter Sullivan played 12 and covered him defensively. Then he was moved to FB where all his size and defensive frailties were most obviously tested
NZ Super Rugby teams love turning test wingers into 13s though too.
Rene Ranger and Ioane being examples of much more average 13s compared to wing ability with Umaga a definite success story.
Ben Smith doesn't count because he could play 11 to 15 easily at test level.
I'm nervous when Vakh comes on. You just wonder how many minutes it will be before he gives away a penalty. Ala'alatoa was totally running on fumes when they eventually subbed him off. At this stage, it feels like Vakh is a break glass in an emergency player, and we have to hope that emergency never arises. Hopefully he keeps improving, but we could easily see Healy switch back to TH if on of the Loosehead options come back into the mix.
“As you all know first prize is a Cadillac El Dorado. Anyone wanna see second prize? Second prize is a set of steak knives. Third prize is you're fired.”
I’ve been very surprised and disappointed by Luke McGrath the past two games. All commentators were making the point during the internationals that JGP was our second choice and Luke 1st and I would have anticipated he would come out of the blocks in these two interpros, but for me he has totally shown why JGP was picked and in my view is our no.1 now. Luke is just too slow sometimes and he put a heap of pressure on a fragile Harry Byrne during the start of the game yesterday. With defences the way they are now the scrum half role has become so important.
With regard to Porter there are just no words to describe how amazing that guy is around the field. He did one jackal close to our line after he came on that looked like he had superhuman speed the way he got in and clamped on the ball before anyone else. He is unreal. I am just loving how Sheehan is progressing the guy is so assured and when we were under pressure was bang on with his pings. Great 50-60 min performance by the team to put away a very impressive Connacht side
backrower8 wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 12:12 am
Like the media reporting on what NPHET or Government are going to decide, before they actually decide it, you are frequently premature.
Control your emissions.
Both off topic AND strangely homoerotic. Must've been a long night!
Theleinsterlad wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 9:34 am
I’ve been very surprised and disappointed by Luke McGrath the past two games. All commentators were making the point during the internationals that JGP was our second choice and Luke 1st and I would have anticipated he would come out of the blocks in these two interpros, but for me he has totally shown why JGP was picked and in my view is our no.1 now. Luke is just too slow sometimes and he put a heap of pressure on a fragile Harry Byrne during the start of the game yesterday. With defences the way they are now the scrum half role has become so important.
He was really poor at the start but tightened up after that.
He's never going to be a top class 9 and passing/errors will let him down.
But I also think he thrives on continuity and a run of games will help him.
JGP is clearly our best 9 at the moment though. Nick Mc was ropey enough when he came in also.
Theleinsterlad wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 9:34 am
I’ve been very surprised and disappointed by Luke McGrath the past two games. All commentators were making the point during the internationals that JGP was our second choice and Luke 1st and I would have anticipated he would come out of the blocks in these two interpros, but for me he has totally shown why JGP was picked and in my view is our no.1 now. Luke is just too slow sometimes and he put a heap of pressure on a fragile Harry Byrne during the start of the game yesterday. With defences the way they are now the scrum half role has become so important.
He was really poor at the start but tightened up after that.
He's never going to be a top class 9 and passing/errors will let him down.
But I also think he thrives on continuity and a run of games will help him.
JGP is clearly our best 9 at the moment though. Nick Mc was ropey enough when he came in also.
I don’t know if Nick McC been told to do this or is it a hang up from his time in Munster but his answer to nearly every situation during the “chaos moment” is to kick the ball away and it was so frustrating watching him do it last night and give Connacht control. He was really good for his support in the last try but other than that there still appears to be a massive gulf between our first 2 choice and the rest
Busby incites no confidence in me as a ref thus far.
Someone is going to get seriously hurt under his watch due to a total disregard for players arriving on their feet.
We saw it against Munster (?) last season too with him at the helm. Players realised it wasn't going to ping it and flew in off their feet at dangerous speeds.
And this is both sides. Leinster no angels here.
His comms are quite poor too. The players were getting audibly and increasingly frustrated at him and i think this is mitigated by constant communication.
wixfjord wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 2:46 pm
Rewatching the Hansen try, aside from it being a great try, it was also pretty poor stuff from Larmour.
The kick was perfectly weighted but Hansen was on his own on the wing and there were 4 Leinster men on 3 Connacht men on that side.
So no need for Larmour to be dragged in slightly.
He sort of lost the ball over his head for a second then and never got off the ground.
Could've been a yellow too.
Don't agree. Thought Larmour was playing exactly where he had to be and Connacht executed it brilliantly.
Watch the highlights. When Carty makes his kick Larmour is just inside the 15. His man Hansen is near the touchline.
The other Connacht man is Peter McCabe inside who is covered by both JVDF and Ringrose.
So Larmour doesn't need to be dragged in there.
He then has to backpedal at pace but can't do anything because he's in no man's land.
Hansen gets up really well and it's great execution. But Larmour was also caught and could've defended it much better.
He never even got off the ground and ended up caught directly under a guy at the top of his jump for a one on one cross-field kick. So he certainly wasn't 'playing exactly where he had to be'.
Certainly I think the performances of all Irish outhalves involved in last night's match in the RDS and this afternoon's Ulster match in Swansea vs the Ospreys, where the former lost 19-13, showed why Daddy Faz currently has HB at three in the national pecking order behind J10 & Joey. Harry's passing was top notch e.g. for both the Sheehan and Larmour tries, plus his all round kicking was pretty good, with the long range one into the Connacht backfield, which Larmour - that guy has some wheels - followed up, putting the Westies in all sorts of difficulties in their 22, the pick of the bunch.
Last edited by riocard911 on December 4th, 2021, 8:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.
ronk wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 8:24 pm
It looked like aimless kick tennis for a bit but he really caught out the Connacht backfield a few times and made some good gains.
That was it alright, kick tennis always looks aimless, but its a real game of chess and you're looking to put the opposition players in bad positions so they make poor kicks. Harry did this very well yesterday
ronk wrote: ↑December 4th, 2021, 8:24 pm
It looked like aimless kick tennis for a bit but he really caught out the Connacht backfield a few times and made some good gains.
That was it alright, kick tennis always looks aimless, but its a real game of chess and you're looking to put the opposition players in bad positions so they make poor kicks. Harry did this very well yesterday
True, what I most liked was that they left space and he was taking it. Which forced them to defend it again and create space elsewhere.
Manipulating defences like that is one of the things the very best outhalves do and it makes it much harder to shut them down.
That was the kind of response you like to see after last weekend. Rocky first 20 but we got better as the game went on and it seemed COnnacht had been working really hard in the opening quarter. Don't think larmur was particulalry bad but couldn't help but feel a younger him would have caught that kick from Byrne. HB was more choc ice than tangle twister but a huge improvement on last weekend.
Ruddock's tackle stats consistently too low for me to be taken seriously as a Six Nations blindside..... Ruddock's defensive stats don't stack up. - All Blacks Nil, Jan 15th, 2014
England A 8 - 14 Ireland A, 25th Jan 2014 Ruddock(c) 19/2 Tackles
Really enjoyed that game - a lot of good rugby played by both sides. I was very impressed by Connacht's slick passing and their excellent timing and depth, but that is just part of the game and they couldn't live with the power we brought to the table up front.
Not that we didn't have some really slick play of our own: Larmour's try, Garry's try and Max's try were all really impressive and great examples of link play ... both contrived and off the cuff. 47-19 is a big win by anybody's standards.
The quality on our front row is pretty special at the moment and was a big difference from last week's showing against Ulster. Obviously the improvement of the front row was only part of the story, because van der Flier and Doris both had big games and kept on getting Leinster on the front foot. We also saw a much improved performance from Rhys Ruddock and I thought a very satisfactory game from Ryan Baird, who worked his socks off.
It was also great to see us get through a game without losing anybody to injury. That seems like a bit of a rarity to me these days.
Blueberry wrote: ↑December 5th, 2021, 12:23 pm
On a watchback clear as day to me anyway that was an impressive performance from Harry.
His passing is excellent and showed some good tactical kicking.
Very encouraged by it and he just needs more time in the saddle now......
Think it would be good if he got the start v Bath but stuocullenopomi will make the right call.
100%, it was night and day from last week and Argentina.
He was way more controlled, did the basics well and didn't force anything, while still being an attacking force.
I'd start him next week, under the caution that 'the only way Bath can win this game is if we get really loose and Cipriani/Spencer start throwing it around, so do the basics again Harry and let your superior pack win it first'.
hugonaut wrote: ↑December 5th, 2021, 7:53 am
It was also great to see us get through a game without losing anybody to injury. That seems like a bit of a rarity to me these days.
Healy hobbled off at half-time and he was still moving gingerly when he came out to sit with subs for the second half.
hugonaut wrote: ↑December 5th, 2021, 7:53 am
It was also great to see us get through a game without losing anybody to injury. That seems like a bit of a rarity to me these days.
Healy hobbled off at half-time and he was still moving gingerly when he came out to sit with subs for the second half.
I thought it was too good to be true. I had hobbled off at halftime myself ... to buy as many pints as I could carry. What else did I miss?
