Men's Six Nations 2022

[munster#1]

Such a shame that Ireland didn’t steal a win in yesterday’s game.
However, the better team won, and we will now have to rely on England doing us a favour.

I know I might get slated for saying this, and I obviously have the benefit of hindsight, but imo Coombes should have started that game,
He would have added some much needed go forward ball, and his pace off the back of the scrum could really have helped create a much more solid platform.

I’d also like to see Henshaw come into the starting team going forward.
He and Aki are our best centre pairing imo, and could add some much needed grunt.

I’d imagine that the English would have taken a lot away from that game, and will certainly look to put the same pressure on out pack.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

You just want them to be replaced with team photo analysis

If the foundations aren't right, the building falls down.

[Dexter]

Has anyone any clue why the ref called advantage over for the pen?

It was just a bad call. That was a big opportunity denied.

One of many. Yesterday showed Australian refereeing standards across the board are very poor.

Some very strange calls alright. France scored 18 points from PKs all the same, which is suicidal from Ireland's POV.

[blaker]

Always think back to Schmidt’s use of Boss / Reddan back in the day for games like this.
Without suggesting any fault or deficiency on the prt of the changes, I do wonder if a centre partnership of Aki/Henshaw, a second row of Ryan/Henderson and a back row of Beirne/VDF/Conan with Ringrose/Ryan/Doris on the beach to spice up the last 20 makes sense for these types of games

[pangurban1]

Such a shame that Ireland didn’t steal a win in yesterday’s game.
However, the better team won, and we will now have to rely on England doing us a favour.

I know I might get slated for saying this, and I obviously have the benefit of hindsight, but imo Coombes should have started that game,
He would have added some much needed go forward ball, and his pace off the back of the scrum could really have helped create a much more solid platform.

I’d also like to see Henshaw come into the starting team going forward.
He and Aki are our best centre pairing imo, and could add some much needed grunt.

I’d imagine that the English would have taken a lot away from that game, and will certainly look to put the same pressure on out pack.

Coombes hasn't been great of late, would have had him on the bench ahead of Petey though.

[riocard911]

Second try for England vs Italy in front of the post. 20 mins gone 0-14. The Charioteers look to have too much for the Italians....

[paddyor]

Also the Sheehan try saving tackle was outrageous, another day that might have won us the game, it gave us a shot at winning yesterday’s. Brilliant stuff.

One of the best I’ve ever seen. Up there with Gregan on Jeff Wilson, Willie Le Roux on Ben Smith, and a James Ryan one for the 20’s that I’m sure nobody remembers

Hickie vs England i 2003

[Oldschool]

Think Mike Gibson pulled off a similar tackle many moons ago. Probably wrote the spec.

[Oldschool]

+1

[riocard911]

HT: ITA 0-21. Lambs to the slaughter, one way traffic, ... whatever cliché you like. It is a totally one sided contest. Will Italy escape a duck? Looks unlikely at the moment.

[limecat]

Also the Sheehan try saving tackle was outrageous, another day that might have won us the game, it gave us a shot at winning yesterday’s. Brilliant stuff.

One of the best I’ve ever seen. Up there with Gregan on Jeff Wilson, Willie Le Roux on Ben Smith, and a James Ryan one for the 20’s that I’m sure nobody remembers

I quite like this one

[riocard911]

44 mins gone and England have the BP try. Beautiful long pass from Smith to Daly on the wing. Italy seemed to have collapsed mentally...

[riocard911]

Methinks reports of a resurgence or improvement in Italian rugby were very much premature...

[Keith]

Methinks reports of a resurgence or improvement in Italian rugby were very much premature...

They've gotten better, but so has everyone else bar Wales. Their underage results are impressive, which is encouraging.

[riocard911]

FT: ITA 0-33 England. Ireland should be planning to put a cricket score on Italy.

[Ragsy]

Such a shame that Ireland didn’t steal a win in yesterday’s game.
However, the better team won, and we will now have to rely on England doing us a favour.

I know I might get slated for saying this, and I obviously have the benefit of hindsight, but imo Coombes should have started that game,
He would have added some much needed go forward ball, and his pace off the back of the scrum could really have helped create a much more solid platform.

I’d also like to see Henshaw come into the starting team going forward.
He and Aki are our best centre pairing imo, and could add some much needed grunt.

I’d imagine that the English would have taken a lot away from that game, and will certainly look to put the same pressure on out pack.
[/quote

Ringrose is the best 13 in the country and a lot of our play goes from him. Conan,Doris and Van Der Flier are currently better players than Combes. Maybe on the bench for O’Mahoney.

[Xanthippe]

Update on stats after week 2 matches

[CiaranIrl]

With regard to things that are plausible, I wonder could we look at starting with Henderson, Ryan and Beirne together on the pitch and one of Conan or Doris on the bench with O'Mahony? It could well be a good way of countering the huge threat from Willemse and other power players in the French pack.

I don't think that we can counter their power, we don't have the players - even with Henderson. We shouldn't even try. What we should do is make them expend their energy trying to counter our mobility. Let them worry about us.

As it transpired though, (i) we did try to outmuscle them, by going to the maul as the default option at most lineouts, but failed to make any headway whatsoever. Willemse just stopped us stone cold, and (ii) We failed to get the ball out of the rucks fast enough or deal with their counter rucks, so we couldn't induce our better mobility on them.

I don't know that Beirne, Henderson and Ryan together would have changed anything, and indeed, we had a good 25 minutes or so with all three on the field together and it didn't work any magic. That said, I don't think we have enough muscle in the second row. Beirne played like a fourth back row yesterday, and he was super at it, but I don't think we needed a fourth back row - we needed a tighthead lock.

Henderson didn't look match sharp at all, but I think that in games like this one, we simply must have a bigger unit at second row, and ideally, a big unit somewhere in the back row. That could be Coombes in the longer run if he gets some form, or it could be Beirne. Otherwise we'll never get a chance to use mobility as a weapon.

[Ruckedtobits]

I thought Joey at times looked like he was a bit lost in what option to pick but what I liked from him when this happened (in most instances) was that he didn’t throw others under the bus with hospital passes (although we eventually got the 3rd try when he did throw one of these to Aki at the start of the passage of play so there you go ). He would try and straighten up and take the collision and get the ball back.

Like Johnny Sexton is the greatest 10 we have ever had, the guy is 36 and still making fools out of the doubters, we missed him out there yesterday and we will miss him when he is gone because we might never have anyone else close to his level but Joey did alright and there were signs there yesterday that he can get onboard with how we play, the more he is with that squad the better he will get at trying to implement that game plan which is miles (thousands of?) from what he’s being asked to do at Munster, it was a huge call for Farrell to play him because he hasn’t played or shown much form in a few years but he nearly led us to a win in Paris which we rarely do, ROG and Johnny have rarely done it and a lot of the times we have played worse French teams (I think a lot of posters are talking down France for some reason but yesterday was two class teams absolutely pummelling each other for me) and not beaten them in recent years. The future without Sexton is very scary for Irish fans but there were signs that we have someone with the capacity to play the way we want to play but maybe never to the level of Johnny, that would do me.

IMO, that's the most objective assessment of an outhalf who hasn't played enough international rugby in two years to be given the opportunity to shine in a game of that intensity.

I think there have been times JC looked and played like an international 10. He has the skill-set. What he doesn't have is up-tp-date experience, but he has time to acquire it. However, blowing smoke up his arsenal that yesterday's performance is what we need from him is bad coaching and poor player management.

Joey is not J10, can't play like him and shouldn't try. He is much more like Marcus Smith and could play like him, but only better. If Farrell (and Catt) are going to anoint him as J10's successor, get him playing in a style that suits his skills, rather than trying to get him to mimic his predecessor who is physically bigger, more abrasive and a much more forceful personality.

Joey is an intuitive thinker as an out-half. He is less likely to scheme his way through 7 phases to put his blind side winger in for an unopposed try a la J10. But he just might be the under-rated out-half who dummies a pass and grubber kicks for Ringrose to score in a RWC quarter final in Paris.

Different courses for different horses and probably the second biggest challenge facing Farrel & his fellow coaches. How do we keep our intrinsic (and successful) game plan with two such different out-halves?

The biggest problem we have is finding a top class, tall and heavyweight second row. He must also handle and jackle like Tadhg Beirne and work as hard as JVdF.

[Oldschool]

FT: ITA 0-33 England. Ireland should be planning to put a cricket score on Italy.

Who's our leading batsmen?