Ireland V Scotland Saturday 5th Dec 14.15

[outcast eddie]

Is it a measure of the disinterest in this 8 Nations Championship that there isn't even a thread for this game (until now) or is it a measure of the apathy around Ireland rugby at the moment?

[Oldschool]

Good questions because it's an important game today.
Scotland are on the up and up, a win today would underline that.
Ireland need a win to stop the slide.
The problem with Ireland at the moment is threefold.
Confidence is low.
The 23 selected is not optimal.
The coaches are finding their way, they would do well to ask themselves what does "heads up" rugby mean?
Under Joe we may have been too rigid tactically.
However it's worth considering why?
Ireland under Joe compared to Leinster under Joe played too very different styles.
The main reason for this would seem to be down to the amount of time that Joe had with the national squad.
He cut his cloth to suit.
Fez et al need to realise that the number one thing that their teams need to be is well drilled in the basics.
The number two thing is to adopt the right game plan.
The current possession game may beat Scotland today but it will be close and a bounce of the ball could change things. Stockdale will get plenty of bouncing balls.
With 70% possession we struggle to beat teams.
When that number drops below 60% we're in trouble.
Fez et al need to reassess their basic game plan after this tournament and eliminate the self inflicted wounds.
C'mon Ireland

[fourthirtythree]

Yes

[ronk]

It's a measure of the mood on the forum.

International rugby is being played but it's not really back. It's a combination of lots of things.

[dropkick]

I want to see some good attacking rugby today. There were signs against Wales at the start of the year but not much progress since then.


It's a big game for Farrell in terms of pressure on him going into the 6 nations.

[Laighin Break]

Not a great opening quarter for Healy. Conceded 3 penalties, a forward pass and missed a few tackles.

I can see the want for having Stockdale at FB as he is a great attacking threat, a good passer and has a big boot, but he needs to be solid under the high ball

[wixfjord]

Healy is all over the place. Constant threat of a linebreak when they run at him.

[munster#1]

Again Ireland look a bit off the boil, and again I just don’t understand how that could be given how long this team have been together.

They are together now nearly as long as most club teams, and they still look like they are just after meeting up.

A great positive for me however, is seeing my favourite player move into second in the all time top try scorer for Ireland.

[Laighin Break]

Better second half from Healy now!

[FLIP]

The Stockdale at fullback experiment must be over by now and marked a failure. Can't be the last line of defence, can't catch high balls, isn't in the right places.

[wixfjord]

Better second half from Healy now!

Yep much better.

Our lads have stood up well. Doris, RH & Keenan in particular.

[wixfjord]

The Stockdale at fullback experiment must be over by now and marked a failure. Can't be the last line of defence, can't catch high balls, isn't in the right places.

Utterly, utterly ridiculous to blame Stockdale for that VDM try.

[FLIP]

The Stockdale at fullback experiment must be over by now and marked a failure. Can't be the last line of defence, can't catch high balls, isn't in the right places.

Utterly, utterly ridiculous to blame Stockdale for that VDM try.

Last time I saw someone buy a dummy like that was my sister for my nephew while he was screaming his head off.

[wixfjord]

The Stockdale at fullback experiment must be over by now and marked a failure. Can't be the last line of defence, can't catch high balls, isn't in the right places.

Utterly, utterly ridiculous to blame Stockdale for that VDM try.

Last time I saw someone buy a dummy like that was my sister for my nephew while he was screaming his head off.

Man you haven't a clue.

I mean he didn't even throw a dummy.

Herring missed a pillar tackle giving DVDM a clean run. Stockdale did well to even get a tap attempt on him.

Honestly stuff like that is just confirmation bias nonsense, seeking to blame a player for anything.

[Dave Cahill]

Herring missed a pillar tackle giving DVDM a clean run. Stockdale did well to even get a tap attempt on him.

Its not even the missed tackle thats the worst thing, players miss tackles, its that he misread the situation completely - he looks at whats happening and goes to take a step to the right and leaves both a gap and himself on the wrong foot when vdM goes through it.

[Twist]

That was a fair bit better than I expected. All of our recent failings were back in the opening half and then we seemed to flick a switch and improve significantly.

Our scrum solidified, lineout was better and rucks got faster. It helped that the referee actually applied some semblance of the laws to Scotland - that didn’t happen in Twickenham.

Our maul still wasn’t much of a threat, in general we were still a bit blunt inside the Scots 22. But it was an uptick on recent weeks.

Eric O’Sullivan looked the part when he came on. Porter has been an absolute laoch this season. I dunno how much he’ll have left in him when we go to Montpellier because he’s put in a huge effort. POM won’t get much credit here but on first viewing I thought he was excellent today. Shame about the non-try

[Blueberry]

Utterly, utterly ridiculous to blame Stockdale for that VDM try.

Last time I saw someone buy a dummy like that was my sister for my nephew while he was screaming his head off.

Man you haven't a clue.

I mean he didn't even throw a dummy.

Herring missed a pillar tackle giving DVDM a clean run. Stockdale did well to even get a tap attempt on him.

Honestly stuff like that is just confirmation bias nonsense, seeking to blame a player for anything.

+1 Entirely Herring's fault. End of. Stockdale isn't a fullback and Keenan should be there but this wasn't his fault!!

[cormac]

Roux deserves some of the blame for that try too.

[Dundalk 1]

The elephant in the room is that our standard is the second division of international rugby
We have second rate imports who were nowhere close to being internationals in their Southern Hemisphere homelands with the possible exception of Lowe and the jury is out on him at international level
Roux, Herring, Bealham and Aki definitely way below - I do know that both Bealham and Herring qualify on the parent/grandparent rule
Stander and Gibson Park would have required luck and lots of injuries to be considered
So my conclusion is that if these guys are our best available players we are in trouble
Of course Farrell could be wrong and we do have better players for their positions

[ronk]

We should be realistic about our standard right now. England made it to the RWC final. France are the best they’ve been for about 20 years. We’re beating everyone else but we both haven’t adapted to the new bar and have been badly affected by missing players through retirement (forced or otherwise) and injuries.

Ireland can’t directly replace Best, Cronin, Toner, O’Brien, Kearney with like for like players and it forces wider changes. The loss of Jack McGrath as an option at this level and Kilcoyne to injury have exposed us to any loss of form/fitness for Healy. Toner mightn’t have always started but he would have come in useful. Henderson and Baird have both been missing with injuries.

Doris has improved competition in the backrow but we are still missing Leavy and O’Brien is a big loss. VDF and Connors probably haven’t been rotated as well as I’d like.

Ringrose, Larmour big losses. Kearney held the backfield together and the nearest we have to a proven replacement at this level, Addison, is long term injured.