Summer tour of Dublin 2021

[ronk]

Ryan really lifting it for the last minutes. But over eager penalty.

[ronk]

Really rare to see players run out the clock like Keenan did. Smart play, shocking missed touch though.

[Dexter]

I know Japan play nice rugby and all but the number of soft tries conceded was criminal.

[wixfjord]

That was very mixed.
Ryan still looks like he's forcing things.

Personally I don't believe Joey is our answer at 10, but he needs games to get back to full fitness.

JGP was brilliant, particularly in 2nd half. Josh, Doris and Keenan v good too.

[Dave Cahill]

Farrell has been promoted beyond his competency level

[Dexter]

Farrell has been promoted beyond his competency level

Like most managers in all walks of life

[Ruckedtobits]

Sometimes you just can't win. We beat a team which tore us a new one at RWC2019. We attacked wide with offloads and very fast breakdown ball. We took risks in counter-attacking and it cost us two tries. We beat a good team without at least 11 front-line players.

I thought Japan would win. Despite ridiculously over-complicating the line-out in the first half. Our clean-outs were excellent; the majority of passing was very acceptable; the foot movement and short quick passing by forwards was a revelation. Lots of good things playing an unaccustomed style of play.

Easy to knock things but Hugh Cahill was my only significant complaint.

[Ruckedtobits]

BTW, that's the best RTE lead for Irish rugby coverage since the days of Bill O'Herlehy. Good work even though I only understand 50% of Jamie's "rugby slang".

[Dave Cahill]

Sometimes you just can't win. We beat a team which tore us a new one at RWC2019. We attacked wide with offloads and very fast breakdown ball. We took risks in counter-attacking and it cost us two tries. We beat a good team without at least 11 front-line players.

I thought Japan would win. Despite ridiculously over-complicating the line-out in the first half. Our clean-outs were excellent; the majority of passing was very acceptable; the foot movement and short quick passing by forwards was a revelation. Lots of good things playing an unaccustomed style of play.

Easy to knock things but Hugh Cahill was my only significant complaint.

The problem is though that under Farrell, whether it's a full selection, a second selection, a 6 Nations game, Nations Cup, or summer series game, it looks like that. Saying that we weren't as sh!t as the second shittest performance of the professional era is pretty faint praise

[Oldschool]

Sometimes you just can't win. We beat a team which tore us a new one at RWC2019. We attacked wide with offloads and very fast breakdown ball. We took risks in counter-attacking and it cost us two tries. We beat a good team without at least 11 front-line players.

I thought Japan would win. Despite ridiculously over-complicating the line-out in the first half. Our clean-outs were excellent; the majority of passing was very acceptable; the foot movement and short quick passing by forwards was a revelation. Lots of good things playing an unaccustomed style of play.

Easy to knock things but Hugh Cahill was my only significant complaint.

Yeah you sub off one your best players in a very tight game so you'd like to see your little darling get ten minutes.
Japan are here to stay.
Their ability to react and their support play is something that we need to see the provinces and Ireland add to their repertoire. For their last try they had three players supporting the breakout player and a try was inevitable.
The most surprising thing for me was that we finished stronger than they did, our last 20 minutes subs really made a difference.
JGP, JVFD, Kelleher and Keenan were our best players.
Josh just about earned mom which is a real compliment given the competition he was facing.

[Oldschool]

Didn't make the bet (don't like betting against Ireland) but the bookies lost this one. Having said that the 10 point margin they offered was an indication by them that it was going to be a tight game.

[riocard911]

The number of missed tackles by our lads was the most negative aspect for me.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Sometimes you just can't win. We beat a team which tore us a new one at RWC2019. We attacked wide with offloads and very fast breakdown ball. We took risks in counter-attacking and it cost us two tries. We beat a good team without at least 11 front-line players.

I thought Japan would win. Despite ridiculously over-complicating the line-out in the first half. Our clean-outs were excellent; the majority of passing was very acceptable; the foot movement and short quick passing by forwards was a revelation. Lots of good things playing an unaccustomed style of play.

Easy to knock things but Hugh Cahill was my only significant complaint.

The problem is though that under Farrell, whether it's a full selection, a second selection, a 6 Nations game, Nations Cup, or summer series game, it looks like that. Saying that we weren't as sh!t as the second shittest performance of the professional era is pretty faint praise

I keep saying this but my big problem with Ireland is that I don’t see much consistency from one game to the next. I didn’t expect us to be as good as we were against England but how were we so passive compared to that game? That’s just one example, the lineout is another. Back to the river dance choreography before finally getting it in after you’ve made it obvious who’s actually going to be the target. That improved in the second half but why did we regress to that?

Agree with everyone saying Joey was a passenger but he wasn’t the only one missing tackles and was out of position as it went on.

The Casey situation is exactly one of the situations that I’ve been saying we need to prepare for if we’re ever going to win a World Cup. We need to stop worrying about a young player messing up or potentially being down to 14 men for the last five minutes of a meaningless summer test against Japan that we’re winning by more than a score. So what if things wrong? sh!t happens, learn from it and be a better team for the World Cup.

We sleepwalk into this sh!t year after year.

[Fan with smartphone]

I take yer point rtb. I’m a japan fan and know they are good. I did warn about them here prior to the World Cup and thought their under 20s a few years ago were excellent. I remember thinking Fifita - who played 11 today, and their number 8 (not sure if he has come through) were sure things. All that said, I do think at home we should be doing better than that. I’d have given leeway after the 6 nations where others felt it was papering over cracks...today felt like I’m on the wrong side of that argument.

Our pack there should be formidable. But, James Ryan looks like he is still struggling with that injury. He’s a man who has had 2 concussions in internationals in the past and here we are pushing him for a game like this. Caelan Doris: 2 concussions in last year - do we need to be playing him here? Particularly with Coombes on the bench.

JGP I’ll accept had a decent game, though I don’t trust his kicking just yet. He’s clearly working on it, but you have to question that fit to the gameplan. Kicking is a big part of our game, particularly early on. Joey Carbery, I think that’s good for him today. And though 80 minutes wouldn't have been the plan - it’s good he got that. In the centres - one of them might make it ok, but together it doesn’t look like working. Fair enough - that’s something we discovered. But i do think that was discovered a while ago!

Maybe it’s just the (apologies for using this phrase) golden generation has come and gone and then a bit of a golden era has also came and went. But I’m falling into the feeling we just aren’t using our players well.

[Ruckedtobits]

If we can retain (or add to the performance v English) the two elements I liked best from today's performance, a) speed of clear outs at breakdown and b) movement of feet by forwards coupled with short offloads, I will consider that the games against Japan and USA have been worthwhile encounters from the National team perspective.

When I watch Doris perform as a ball carrier against a team as renowned as Japan for the quality of their tackling, I recognise that Jack Conan timed his Lions' selection-run really well. Disappointed that Coombes didn't get a decent run today. The game against USA will probably see him get a selection and decent minutes but they're a long way off the quality of Japan as international opponents. Certainly Doris made mistakes but at least a couple of them were trying for the offloads the Coaches are demanding.

Overall assessments:

Excellent: Keenan, McCloskey, JGP, Doris, Baird, Van der Flyer and Kelleher;
Competent: Stockdale, O'Mahony, Ja Ryan, Killer, Bealham
Below Expectations: Daly, Carbery, Burns, Dillane.

Not Ranked: Larmour, Herring, Casey, Coombes, Farrell, John Ryan, Ed Byrne

[the spoofer]

Farrell has been promoted beyond his competency level

Agreed. Catt too.

[ronk]

I'd pick Burns ahead of Carbery on current form. Next week is one for Harry Byrne though.

If Carbery had been 100%, I'd have moved him to fullback and rotated Daly into outside centre.

[dropkick]

Some good things some bad things. Farrell should be feeling the pressure now. Since he took over the only good performance was the last match against England.


I like Farrell and like what I hear about him wanting to speed the play up a bit but actions speak louder than words. They play great stuff in patches but a lot of the time it looks muddled and they resort to aimless box kicks. Today was a poor overall performance but one of the tries came from some lovely tip on passes.


If you want to play fast exciting rugby then pick the players for it. All the Japanese backs have quick feet and look for soft shoulders to attack. They keep changing direction which gives them opportunities to offload. They don't have to 'win the collisions'.


The conditions helped ireland in the end and it's another win under Farrell but a lot of those have been lucky. They need a big performance next week.

[ronk]

Backs (17)
Will Addison (Ulster/Enniskillen) 4 caps
Robert Baloucoune (Ulster/Enniskillen) uncapped
Caolin Blade (Connacht/Galwegians) uncapped
Billy Burns (Ulster) 6 caps
Harry Byrne (Leinster/Lansdowne) uncapped
Joey Carbery (Munster/Clontarf) 22 caps
Craig Casey (Munster/Shannon) 1 cap
Andrew Conway (Munster/Garryowen) 24 caps
Shane Daly (Munster/Cork Constitution) 1 cap
Tom Daly (Connacht/Lansdowne) uncapped
Chris Farrell (Munster/Young Munster) 14 caps
Jamison Gibson Park (Leinster) 9 caps
Hugo Keenan (Leinster/UCD) 11 caps
Jordan Larmour (Leinster/St Mary’s College) 29 caps
Stuart McCloskey (Ulster/Bangor) 4 caps
Garry Ringrose (Leinster/UCD) 34 caps
Jacob Stockdale (Ulster/Lurgan) 34 caps

Forwards (20)
Ryan Baird (Leinster/Dublin University) 3 caps
Finlay Bealham (Connacht/Buccaneers) 14 caps
Paul Boyle (Connacht/Buccaneers) uncapped
Ed Byrne (Leinster/UCD) 4 caps
Gavin Coombes (Munster/Young Munster) uncapped
Ultan Dillane (Connacht/Corinthians) 18 caps
Peter Dooley (Leinster/Lansdowne) uncapped
Caelan Doris (Leinster/UCD) 7 caps
Dave Heffernan (Connacht/Buccaneers) 5 caps
Rob Herring (Ulster/Ballynahinch) 21 caps
Ronan Kelleher (Leinster/Lansdowne) 11 caps
Dave Kilcoyne (Munster/UL Bohemians) 43 caps
Ross Molony (Leinster/UCD) uncapped
Peter O’Mahony (Munster/Cork Constitution) 75 caps
Tom O’Toole (Ulster/Ballynahinch) uncapped
James Ryan (Leinster/UCD) 35 caps
John Ryan (Munster/Cork Constitution) 23 caps
Nick Timoney (Ulster/Banbridge) uncapped
Josh van der Flier (Leinster/UCD) 31 caps
Fineen Wycherley (Munster/Young Munster) uncapped

Having picked such a large squad and a conservative selection in the 1st test, we should expect almost total change.

[ronk]

I think Addison is still banned. Hume is in instead of Ringrose.

12 uncapped players at the start of the "tour" plus Daly on 1 then no uncapped hookers more or less picks a starting team if Faz wants to catch up on development.

In terms of where new players could be important in a RWC timeframe then priorities are Dooley, O'Toole, Coombes, Casey, Byrne and Baloucoune. I almost included Hume but depth at centre makes that harder. I think they should all start.