France V Ireland 6Ns 2016

[Jackie Brown]

He is also a first class defender at fullback and a fantastic attacker and positional kicker from there, his talent is really wasted in the center but as far as Ireland are concerned he is a centre otherwise we would not have got signing Piatau for next season

Frankly given the homeground talent you have at centre, I'd be looking at Payne at FB and Piatau on the wing, although that would displace one of your three international wings! Feckin' Ulster and all your quality backs!

Few of which can get a fair shot at international honours.

[Made Of Ale]

Team not good enough, tactics not good enough , use of bench not good enough .................

This one lies with the coaches.

Your first point is the most pertinent and mostly invalidates the rest. Do you think the Irish 23 was better than the French? Do you think the Irish 23 that you would have picked would have been better than the French? With absolutely everybody fit, we're maybe marginally better, but I'm not sure. As we saw in the World Cup, take out a chunk of our best players and we're not all that. Going to Paris with our third and fourth choice tight heads against a ferocious French scrum isn't a good look.

France have been rubbish for a while, but they have plenty of players that can play - the PSA era has coloured our impression and anyone with a bit of a memory won't remember too many wins against them the last thirty years.

I was at the game today and I thought it was a huge win for France on a lot of levels. They're a very emotional team and if they can pull off a win in Cardiff (and Scotland weren't too far off today) then they'll be going for a Grand Slam at home against Les Rosbifs on the last day. We can say they're rubbish all we like but that doesn't make it real. Form is temporary, etc.

[Donny B.]

I was at the game today and I thought it was a huge win for France on a lot of levels. They're a very emotional team and if they can pull off a win in Cardiff (and Scotland weren't too far off today) then they'll be going for a Grand Slam at home against Les Rosbifs on the last day. We can say they're rubbish all we like but that doesn't make it real. Form is temporary, etc.

I would expect the Welsh and English to beat them comfortably. Give them the possession and territory we had for the first half hour and they would have been out of sight. Their scrum was awful, their lineout a mess, both half-backs were terrible, overall they were totally clueless. But we didn't kill them off and when they brought on their proper props, we were too knackered to keep with them. Even with that, they had to rely on a referee who regarded taking players out off the ball as "boys being boys" and a TMO who had taken a vow of omerta.

And in a championship that's come down to points difference in the last two years, they were too dumb to take an easy three points at the end of the game, preferring to kick the ball out. They were rubbish and they didn't win the game, we lost it!

[Golf Man]

plenty of people not facing up to facts here - schmidt needs to be proactive or this team is shot - 2012 written all over it and arguably worse

Kearney needs to go - he was woeful
d Kearney McFadden and the likes gone aswell
Jackson has to come in
schmidt also needs to be reintroduced to his bench
it was all kinds of obvious what was likely to happen but still flogged a number of key players

btw blaming the ref is ridiculous Kg

[ribs]

I think the ref couldn't hear the tmo for most of the game. That's why the foul play went unpunished unless the linesman called it. That lose kick by r Kearney on 60 minutes changed the game. We never recovered from it.

[Raydollard]

Madigan was the entire and only reason that we lost. He should be sent to France immediately.

[paddyor]

Question

If Payne was injured late in the first half and Madigan is on the bench for his versatility, why did Madigan not replace Payne?

Ahh your back! Not seen in these parts since Munster got hammered in Thomund park by Leinster! I was at that game. What did you think of it?

[Made Of Ale]

I was at the game today and I thought it was a huge win for France on a lot of levels. They're a very emotional team and if they can pull off a win in Cardiff (and Scotland weren't too far off today) then they'll be going for a Grand Slam at home against Les Rosbifs on the last day. We can say they're rubbish all we like but that doesn't make it real. Form is temporary, etc.

I would expect the Welsh and English to beat them comfortably. Give them the possession and territory we had for the first half hour and they would have been out of sight. Their scrum was awful, their lineout a mess, both half-backs were terrible, overall they were totally clueless. But we didn't kill them off and when they brought on their proper props, we were too knackered to keep with them. Even with that, they had to rely on a referee who regarded taking players out off the ball as "boys being boys" and a TMO who had taken a vow of omerta.

And in a championship that's come down to points difference in the last two years, they were too dumb to take an easy three points at the end of the game, preferring to kick the ball out. They were rubbish and they didn't win the game, we lost it!

Agreed they were bad for the first half hour, but they were a different team in the second half after the substitutions. It wasn't purely us being tired. Bring Machenaud or Parra (not sure how his injury is) in and they'll be a lot better at half back. Their defence was improved from last week and I think they'll only get better for the rest of the championship. I think that win was very important for them mentally, and that's a huge thing for French teams.

Either way, I think people's reactions aren't consistent with the difficulty involved in beating even a misfunctioning France in Paris. I don't think we should be expecting to win with the amount of players we had out, so in my view a lot of the reactions on here are overboard. Not getting at you, BTW, rather some of the other posters citing coaching and selection disasters.

[Made Of Ale]

We scored a try!
http://www.the42.ie/joe-schmidt-jaco-pe ... 8-Feb2016/

Apologies for coming late to this but I'm only seeing video of the match now.

[FLIP]

We scored a try!
http://www.the42.ie/joe-schmidt-jaco-pe ... 8-Feb2016/

Apologies for coming late to this but I'm only seeing video of the match now.

Even Schmidt agrees with me about the referee.

[Made Of Ale]

Only now just seeing the Guirado hit on Kearney. It's unbelievable that the ref didn't check it. Could even have been a red card, no?

[All Blacks nil]

Question

If Payne was injured late in the first half and Madigan is on the bench for his versatility, why did Madigan not replace Payne?

Ahh your back! Not seen in these parts since Munster got hammered in Thomund park by Leinster! I was at that game. What did you think of it?

Thanks paddy
Glad you noticed my absence
Nothing wrong with my back but I did unfortunately have a major medical issue on Stephen's Day which let me pretty much incapacitated for 5 or six weeks.
Obviously checked the result as soon as I was capable and was most disappointed if not shocked. Two poor sides. You will forgive me for not reviewing the game five weeks later. A good win for. Leinster.
Thumbs, Daverage and RK must have had stormers and
be playing out of their skins since.

Yesterday was disappointing in that Ireland lost. Tactically there were no expectations. A penalty kick here or there would have the "In Joe we trust" brigade justifying the tactics, team selection etc.
The Joe I trust seems to have lost his bottle. The Joe I trust had Leinster playing a brand of rugby which he has not attempted to replicate since. The one exception was last years Six Nations v Scotland where. Ireland had to score points. That went well and we didn't sacrifice our defensive integrity.
A new question although asked before.
Will Ireland open up?

[Raydollard]

Jackson has to be brought in - he is the answer to everything. Johnny was diabolical throughout the second half.

The truth is that that backline wouldn't score in a brothel.

[All Blacks nil]

I am concerned to see Joe pinning blame on the ref. Sure a couple of incidents went unpunished with the attack on DK pretty heinous. A red/yellow card every day of the week. Maestri's sly dig on JS was stupid. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
However Joe ignores the fact that Ireland conceded four scrum penalties in quick succession under the posts without a yellow card. As POC said in the BBC, he was glad the ball popped out of the scrum as Ureland were looking down the double barrelled gun of P TRY and A yellow card.
One other point on squad selection.
Would Joe please pick a sub out half who can kick the ball off. A well flagged weakness in Madigan's game. With Joe's reputation for being into every minute detail it is astonishing that in six seasons under Joe this particular "work on" has been ignored either by Madigan for not working on it or by Joe for picking Madigan despite that major deficiency.

[Oldschool]

I think the ref couldn't hear the tmo for most of the game. That's why the foul play went unpunished unless the linesman called it. That lose kick by r Kearney on 60 minutes changed the game. We never recovered from it.

I take it you know nothing about modern technology.
Either that or the people providing the coms for the ref know nothing about modern technology.
There is an alternative. The TMO ould put what he's saying up on the big screen.

[nc6000]

the real shame is until Luke got injured the plan was Luke & Henshaw in midfield, and we could well have had Payne at 15 in the first match at least

Did Luke himself not say he was due to be on the bench against Wales?

[Oldschool]

I am concerned to see Joe pinning blame on the ref. Sure a couple of incidents went unpunished with the attack on DK pretty heinous. A red/yellow card every day of the week. Maestri's sly dig on JS was stupid. He had nothing to gain and everything to lose.
However Joe ignores the fact that Ireland conceded four scrum penalties in quick succession under the posts without a yellow card. As POC said in the BBC, he was glad the ball popped out of the scrum as Ureland were looking down the double barrelled gun of P TRY and A yellow card.
One other point on squad selection.
Would Joe please pick a sub out half who can kick the ball off. A well flagged weakness in Madigan's game did Joe not know?

My main concern about the ref is that he didn4t give the players on the pitch the protection they are entitled to.
Hiigh tackles, concussions etc etc are the HOT topic world wide in all contact sports and the ref didn't even meet minimum requirements. I haven't seen the interviews but that's what Joe should have been saying.
France bullied their way to that victory because there was no sanction against them.
Had we retaliated our players would have got binned.

[simonokeeffe]

the real shame is until Luke got injured the plan was Luke & Henshaw in midfield, and we could well have had Payne at 15 in the first match at least

Did Luke himself not say he was due to be on the bench against Wales?

Without digging up either interview Joe did say on Henshaw Payne combo we were looking at playing Luke and Henshaw together but when Luke got injured we went with the experienced (together) combo

with Earls, Bowe and Zebo fit I dont know what miracle wingers people are/were expecting

A lot of the bench had to be used early due to injury

going by meeja today, DK is out of tournament, McCarthy was concussed so I'd be surprised if he made the England game given his history

but like a lot of us were saying before the tournament, Jackson has to be ahead of Madigan

[enby]

It is beyond comprehension that Madigan should make such a hames of the restart. I am regularly amazed how highly paid professional footballers are incapable of taking a corner kick in such a way that it gets past the first defender. A corner for a footballer and a restart for a 10 should be practised and practised until it becomes second nature to land the ball where it is intended to go. You rarely see snooker players mess up a break-off shot or indeed pro golfers hit a rubbish tee shot. Sadly yesterday's calamitous c~*k-up ( which deflated any possible reply to the French score) was not IM's first such.

[Golf Man]

Without digging up either interview Joe did say on Henshaw Payne combo we were looking at playing Luke and Henshaw together but when Luke got injured we went with the experienced (together) combo

with Earls, Bowe and Zebo fit I dont know what miracle wingers people are/were expecting

A lot of the bench had to be used early due to injury

going by meeja today, DK is out of tournament, McCarthy was concussed so I'd be surprised if he made the England game given his history

but like a lot of us were saying before the tournament, Jackson has to be ahead of Madigan[/quote]


he didn't said he had Lloyd at McCoskey payne and mclosky Marshall as well as incumbents -Fitz at 12 was never mentioned apart from bench cover