That's shocking. In the last 10 matches against the big 3, Ireland have scored 6 tries in total. In the last 4 matches against France just 1 (one!) try.
Keep in mind Schmidt is the attack coach.
Blaming the ref or individual players is missing the point. Irelands attack is shyte. They're coached not to take any chances and it certainly shows in the try scoring record.
Looking at it another way - The last 4 years against the 'Big 3'.
We have scored 4 tries against England, England have scored 4 against us
We have scored 3 tries against Wales, Wales have scored 5 against us
We have scored 6 tries against France in (including 2 in the World Cup). France have scored 5 against us.
So I guess everyone's attack is shyte.
That win at the weekend was the first win away against any of those 4 teams since 2014. In 2014 we beat France away by 2 points. So 2 wins for a grand total of 4 points.
Not to mention losing to Scotland last year although I'd acknowledge that was a one off.
So basically what's happening is Schmidt picks a team to be ultra defensive. (You can be defensive by just holding onto the ball too and generally taking no risks). The game becomes a tight battle which means the referee becomes the most important man on the pitch. Ireland will get the majority of the decisions when playing at home and the minority of the decisions when playing away. Schmidt's home and away records show this.
Going into the France match we had everyone in the media talking down France and up Ireland. Let's face it, Schmidt owes Sexton for that. There's discussions about HIAs, refs, wet weather now but I'm looking a continued pattern.
And we have also lost only once at home to those teams since 2014.
Are you trying to talk down Ireland or talk up the others or what exactly is the point here?
Laighin Break wrote:POM made the42's Team of the Week. Eh....
I can't wait for PO'M biopic trailer when the epic movie voice narrates "This February, one man angry faced and fist pumped his way into the heart of a nation"
Peter O'Mahony The Movie "you're gonna like him when he's angry!"
Owens had a poor game - the block on Kearney, pinging Aki for not rolling away in first half and then allowing French to lie all over the place, multiple penos not given in that final 41 phase drive leading to the DG. Yes, he's usually good, but Raynal and Gauzere were excellent in the two other games - so let's ease up on this "best ref in the world" nonsense for Owens.
Laighin Break wrote:POM made the42's Team of the Week. Eh....
I can't wait for PO'M biopic trailer when the epic movie voice narrates "This February, one man angry faced and fist pumped his way into the heart of a nation"
Peter O'Mahony The Movie "you're gonna like him when he's angry!"
paddyor wrote:From where I'm standing, he cherry picked a few opponents (no mention of any of the SH teams). Like most teams, we struggle in wet conditions (10-9 vs France, 13-13 vs Wales, 13-9 vs England, 13-15 vs France). You seeing a pattern there? Even the England away game we lost we left chances on the field (VdF getting held up).
I picked those teams because it highlights a big weakness in Ireland's game. Those teams are our big rivals.
The last time we met a SH team in a competition was Argentina in the world cup. Argentina being the weakest SH team.
France have finished bottom of the table since the early part of this decade. We lost once to them since then. Their hoo doo on us in Paris aside, they're not our biggest rivals.
I'm old enough to remember when we outscored them on tries and lost all the same. Was it 3 tries to 1 that day
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
Laighin Break wrote:POM made the42's Team of the Week. Eh....
I can't wait for PO'M biopic trailer when the epic movie voice narrates "This February, one man angry faced and fist pumped his way into the heart of a nation"
Peter O'Mahony The Movie "you're gonna like him when he's angry!"
I think "The Invisible Man" would be better.
Or "Who watches the watcher?"
They had Bundee Aki at 13 and Henderson and Sexton as their other Irish picks: clickbait picking a player from each province, whether they played well, or indeed even in that position.
Ireland didn't play well. That was not a good French team. We made the mistake of giving a sucker an even break. But we won. The Six Nations isn't about entertainment, its about winning.
If we play like that against Wales or England (or Scotland if they get a fit front five on the park) though, we'll lose.
Ireland's attack was seriously blunt, wet weather and rain or not. And part of that is down to selection as well as tactics I think.
Yes we should have kicked to the corner rather than our endless "contestables", but would that have been effective? Our lineout wasn't actually any good yesterday and delivered bad ball unsuitable for attacking. Our maul was worthless also. As predicted we missed Toner there. Would have helped with the scrum too I think. I know we conceded a scrum penalty with him on but there is a reason that Archer is ahead of Ryan this season.
I think VdF was not a great selection as he was being used as a ball carrier in tight, not his game really. Any discussion of our locks (who everyone agree were excellent) and back row (about which predictable disagreement) needs to involve the fact that our ruck ball was absolute muck all game. Blame Owens if you like but the players and coaches have to be considered. The addition of Sean O'Brien might have papered over the cracks in a team like that but look at the ball that, say, Sean Cronin got when he came on. A couple of carries behind the gainline from a standing start. No clever lines were on display yesterday. We were lacking in invention and lacking in a response to on pitch developments.
Conway out of the Italy game. Joe is only great at these conspiracies.
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
paddyor wrote:Conway out of the Italy game. Joe is only great at these conspiracies.
Hope Schmidt doesn't force Conway to live a lie to save his face like he did with Heaslip. That's scandalous that is. We could do with Heaslip playing.
paddyor wrote:From where I'm standing, he cherry picked a few opponents (no mention of any of the SH teams). Like most teams, we struggle in wet conditions (10-9 vs France, 13-13 vs Wales, 13-9 vs England, 13-15 vs France). You seeing a pattern there? Even the England away game we lost we left chances on the field (VdF getting held up).
I picked those teams because it highlights a big weakness in Ireland's game. Those teams are our big rivals.
The last time we met a SH team in a competition was Argentina in the world cup. Argentina being the weakest SH team.
1.There are no friendlies in rugby.
2.Overall, our attack was poor in 2016-17, definitely. But the Autumn Internationals showed it had evolved a lot. But a big French who are successfully slowing down the ball in awful conditions in Paris with a helpful referee is just not the time for throwing the ball around. I am 100% confident that if we get halfway decent conditions we'll see more attacking verve of the like we showed vs South Africa and Argentina in the Autumn.
1. The AIs are not a competition. “Friendly” or not, ranking points aside, they mean little in those terms. We should have a better attack in competitions.
2. I hope you’re right, but it’ll take more than a bonus point romp against Italy to convince me...
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
"Oh, I used to be disgusted, and now I try to be amused!"
paddyor wrote:Conway out of the Italy game. Joe is only great at these conspiracies.
Hope Schmidt doesn't force Conway to live a lie to save his face like he did with Heaslip. That's scandalous that is. We could do with Heaslip playing.
He learned everything he knows from Cheiks who still keeps CJ vd Linde in a shed on an allotment to keep up the pretence of his career ending toe injury
paddyor wrote:Conway out of the Italy game. Joe is only great at these conspiracies.
Hope Schmidt doesn't force Conway to live a lie to save his face like he did with Heaslip. That's scandalous that is. We could do with Heaslip playing.
He learned everything he knows from Cheiks who still keeps CJ vd Linde in a shed on an allotment to keep up the pretence of his career ending toe injury
There's a website that totally blows the lid on that. You couldn't guess it but it's connected to EVERYTHING. CJ forgot that he didn't use his sovereign name on the contract and insist that it be heard under maritime law. Now he's a slave. Snorting chemtrails.
That win at the weekend was the first win away against any of those 4 teams since 2014. In 2014 we beat France away by 2 points. So 2 wins for a grand total of 4 points.
Not to mention losing to Scotland last year although I'd acknowledge that was a one off.
So basically what's happening is Schmidt picks a team to be ultra defensive. (You can be defensive by just holding onto the ball too and generally taking no risks). The game becomes a tight battle which means the referee becomes the most important man on the pitch. Ireland will get the majority of the decisions when playing at home and the minority of the decisions when playing away. Schmidt's home and away records show this.
Going into the France match we had everyone in the media talking down France and up Ireland. Let's face it, Schmidt owes Sexton for that. There's discussions about HIAs, refs, wet weather now but I'm looking a continued pattern.
I agree with some of what you said. I thought our attack was pretty poor on Saturday whatever the conditions we created very little. Not sure if a better attack would have led to more tries but it definitely needs to improve. Think you are a bit off with the rest.
Talking about us only getting rare away wins which are tight in score and Schmidt setting up the team so that it is a tight battle is purposely ignoring that away wins in the 6 nations are hard earned by all teams and that the teams mentioned are all good teams. Wales think they can win the thing, England think they can win the thing, we have won three away matches in 45 years in France.
Our attack needs to be better but what score were you thinking it would be? Are home matches not easier to win then away matches generally in sport? Do you think we should bag a load of tries in the final game at Twickenham? Is it reasonable to think we should get a few tries and win comfortably ? I would think the home advantage would make them favourites in that match?
"Horrocks went one way, Taylor the other and I was left holding the bloody hyphen!"
I thought we should have kicked in behind France or gone for crossfield kicks more often, we were just a bit predictable and it's not like those tactics would have been stymied by the weather. Luke Fitz said on commentary that France were covering the back field well, but even then we could have kicked to contest more often.
It is very annoying that we keep making the same old mistakes in the opposition 22, not worried about elsewhere on the pitch. I thought we'd evolved but apparently not, and I don't think the conditions were much of an excuse for it. In general I do have sympathy with how we attacked because of the weather and Owens, but running into brick walls or going the wrong way in the 22 are old habits that need to be cut out. It takes a lot of players to go through the phases like we do, which means that we get narrow and can't spread the ball. Maybe we need to be a bit more patient and take an extra second to get a pod ready so that others can move out and form a back line for when we do get momentum. The really frustrating thing for me is that we actually CAN make hard yards if we leech or put on a bit of footwork, but too often we just try and use brute strength which gives defences more of a chance to hold us up and then slow the ball down once we go to ground.
I don't mean to pick on CJ because he put in a huge shift and there was a huge onus on him to get us going forward, but contrast the pick and go in their 22 when he went the wrong way and we ended up losing the ball, with the last carry of the game where he used great footwork to steal an extra metre or two and gave us the momentum for the drop goal. A very small increase in that kind of play in the 22 and ensuring that we keep our width could make a massive difference IMO.
What I'm doing is pointing out a trend. Has Ireland improved in recent years? Other teams have and I was hoping for some signs at the weekend but despite all the excuses it was the same Ireland as usual.
People talk about the November results. To answer that I say look at Wales' and Scotland's results in November. They were so different that people were seriously talking up Scotland as 6 nations contenders.
I also don't buy the talk that you can't play more attacking rugby at international level. NZ, Australia prove otherwise especially compared to the Boks. England are doing it now too and have been successful. If you have the ball then you should be looking to hurt the opposition, not keep the scoreline down. The Ireland players are capable of more if they're allowed.
Kicking to the corners wasn't on.
The French fullback made two great long raking clearance kicks to touch and that was that as a plan.
The issue for Ireland is once again of the mental variety.
Odds on favourites and once again we blew it.
Going 41 phases without mucking up to set up that DG tells us that we had the ability so how come we only did it once.
We should have put France away a lot earlier so why didn't we?
We got off to a quick start and had France struggling but each time it looked like we were going to pull away we coughed up a cheap score.
Wales thrive on being favourites but we wither every time.
People criticise JS for our robotic performances.
JSis hoping that muscle memory will get us past the favourites heebee geebees.
Those last 41 phases prove he has a point.
Whatever want thru the players minds in those last plays is something JS needs to investigate and tap into.
Is feidir leo.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
dropkick wrote:What I'm doing is pointing out a trend. Has Ireland improved in recent years? Other teams have and I was hoping for some signs at the weekend but despite all the excuses it was the same Ireland as usual.
People talk about the November results. To answer that I say look at Wales' and Scotland's results in November. They were so different that people were seriously talking up Scotland as 6 nations contenders.
I also don't buy the talk that you can't play more attacking rugby at international level. NZ, Australia prove otherwise especially compared to the Boks. England are doing it now too and have been successful. If you have the ball then you should be looking to hurt the opposition, not keep the scoreline down. The Ireland players are capable of more if they're allowed.
Clutching at straws maybe but we would have lost that game two seasons ago.
So that is an improvement.
Mirror, Mirror on the Wall who's the greatest player of them all? It is Drico your majesty.
I think it's remarkable how little is being said of Kearney's error coming in for Teddy Thomas's break when Aki had him covered. If it was Larmour, his "inexperience" and "naivety" would be shouted from the rooftops. Stockdale seems to be taking most of the heat on this one when it was the more experienced Kearney who caused it all.
I'd like to drop POM but he's vital for the lineouts and O'Shea would probably go after it big time if he saw a backrow of Leavy, Stander, Conan. That said, I still think we should manage. Cummiskey's 7 to POM over the initial 6 given to Ryan was laughable.
Ryan rightly getting lots of plaudits but have to say Henderson was absolutely fantastic.
