Ireland v. Wales, Fri 13 Nov, 19.00

[Pilotman123]

The team looks like a stronger side now

[ronk]

Stockdale and Henderson out, Conway and Roux into the starting XV. Keenan moves to full back and Beirne comes on to the bench in place of Roux

Odd to promote Conway ahead of Earls.

Two stars from Ulster are a big loss.

[Leinsterimp]

Couple of cheap shots from Tipuric during the POM AWJ handbags, surprised it wasn’t looked at

[wixfjord]

Couple of cheap shots from Tipuric during the POM AWJ handbags, surprised it wasn’t looked at

Yeah it was dirty. What was he at? Hit two lads in the kidneys after the whistle.

POM thought it was AWJ I think.

[wixfjord]

A lot of our lads playing really well. Porter, JGP, Doris, Lowe all having v. good starts.

[Peg Leg]

Conway taking the ball into touch a lot is a tad annoying

[dropkick]

Playing well but once they get near the line they're making some poor decisions.

[odyboody]

What was the crack with the funeral march version of Irelands call.
Hope it gets lost never to heard again.

[Fan with smartphone]

Ireland just the sharper in nearly every play. Wales not at the pitch of this. Doris particularly doing everything well.

[odyboody]

Did I miss the rule change where its only the ball carrier that needs to release and not the tacklers

[Fan with smartphone]

Will Connors with a great cameo too: offloads, tackles, clear outs, linespeed, concentration and just general toughness.

[Twist]

Did I miss the rule change where its only the ball carrier that needs to release and not the tacklers

So much this, as the kids used to say but probably haven’t for 10 years

[Twist]

Those two schemozzles at the start were both started by cheap shots from Wales. Annoying they werent picked up

Anyway, lots to be happy about. Ive always thought Roux & Ryan would be a good lock partnership. Ryan is at his best when he’s at loosehead lock, imo

Keenan, Lowe & Conway look like a really good back 3.

We’re still not clinical enough though. It sounds mad to say a 23 point win against Wales isnt enough, but they’re in a bit of disarray just now and we left a couple of tries behind

Dislike the new breakdown interpretation. Is it designed to make the game safer?

[backrower8]

Raynal was brutal. Let Wales away with murder at breakdown, offside and cheap shots early on.

James Ryan took over the captaincy but POM still told him to take the 3 points early in 2nd half. That’s ok.

Andy Farrell tries to please in his media engagements, but he is not comfortable doing it.

Murray did well at 10. Centres looked sluggish.

[Pilotman123]

Wonder who would start next week if Sexton is injured

[Ruckedtobits]

Did I miss the rule change where its only the ball carrier that needs to release and not the tacklers

+1, +1
Refereeing of the breakdown and of tackler was very poor all through.

[Ruckedtobits]

Ross Byrne or Jack Carty are the two who've been in camp. We can't play J10 with a hammy and Billy Burns presumably will be HIA'd out. Selecting Conor Murray might be a media call but it would be totally blown out by the Squad.

JGP or Porter were my MOTM. Both had very good and Hugo K gave our best full-back display performances in 18 months.

[Ruckedtobits]

Ireland spent the first 9 mins playing "Farrell-rugby" and proving to the Welsh that they aren't soft. AFter that they proved they'd done their homework on the Welsh line-out, on Carre at scrum-time, on the Welsh mid-field defence and on M. Reynaud's breakdown interpretation.

We spilled two clear tries in 25 mins but we created the opportunities. Our forwards need to get used to how quickly JGP presents the ball from breakdowns. The back-rows have to recognise that smaller players like Keenan, JGP & Conway need really fast support in the tackle. All three of them need to fight harder to present the ball quicker when double tackled.

We are certainly playing high-tempo attacking rugby but that requires more precision in our passing and clean-outs.

Happy, but nearly ecstatic, with that first-half performance. However, we must react better in 3rd quarter when team's adapt to our game plan. Perhaps it requires a different set of match tactics from us at the beginning of second half.

Well done Faz and coaches. Improved, but not yet optimum.

[Twist]

Just on the new breakdown interpetation, it really encourages teams to take 3 points instead of going to the corner. Its so
advantageous to the defending team, like we saw with the soft pen for France just before HT

[dropkick]

It was a strange game. Scored 32 points against a physical Wales team and still should be disappointed for blowing so many chances. The attacking strategy is a good one imo. Especially in the first half they showed a nice variety in the way they attacked and they had plenty of options to take. Lowe offers a new dimension to the attack. Himself and JGP always looks cool and composed.
​​​​​

Next thing they need to work on is attacking near the try line. They seemed to take bad options. When there was a chance to go wide they kept it tight etc. There were other chances blown by handing errors.


They got stuck into the Welsh early on when the Welsh were starting their pushing and shoving. That was good to see.


Keenan looked more assured at fullback than Stockdale. Not sure about the centers yet. They lack a bit of creativity. Conway's place could be under threat as he has been disappointing over the 3 games. Sexton had a good game but his body breaks down easy these days. JGP was very good. Ran the show smoothly without doing anything spectacular. He was quicker than Murray has been. Murray did great coming on at 10.


The pack were very good. Different class of athlete to what the Welsh had. Only disappointing thing is Kellehers lineouts. Connors was a big improvement on VDF and will probably start against England. POM was back to his best and Doris showed that 8 is his best position. Roux had a good game doing the donkey work.


Wales were poor. They look like they don't know how to get their attack going. The big, slow pack doesn't help. I think their glory days are gone for a while though. Doesn't matter what coach they have, nearly all their top players are past it. It reminds me of the last days of munsters golden generation.


Next week will give us a clearer picture of where ireland is at. I think Farrell is doing fine so far but we need to see an improvement against the likes of England.