Tour to NZ 2022

[LeinsterLeader]

What's the point in bringing Conan on at the death?

Coombes had been down a couple of times with an injury.

That's Fair enough so!

[LeRouxIsPHat]

That was far worse than I expected. Pack generally anonymous, tackling poor all round, dropped balls…terrible.

Piss poor planning not to have another LH and hooker in the original squad and it’s come back to bite us already. I reckon we need two LHs, a second row, and a back row to travel now.

My main memory of this game will be Loughman coming back on. Hard to see how it wouldn’t have been spotted that he was so unsteady on his feet, should have been no question of him coming back on and hope he’s okay.

[Oldschool]

Don’t agree with the JOB criticism. He probably has been told to kick long and in fairness did a spectacular tackle at then end of the 1st half only for no support player to do likewise

JOB kicking too long is an observation of fact.
You're probably correct re instructions.
However at some point the "heads up" rugby imperative has to come into play.
It's not all on JOB either, there are other players who can surely analyse what's not working and make corrective suggestions.

[sunshiner1]

Looking at the injuries we've definitely lost Healy and probably Hume with Loughman and Coombes a maybe.

[jezzer]

by Dave Cahill

Logorrhea wrote:

Frawley didn't look too bad at 10.

I thought he was so mediocre that at one point he looked like a member of coldplay

He hasn't played ten in forever and the pack were beaten up so badly it's hard to judge if he's any good there but yes not a good performance.

I didn't think the pack were beaten up. Not by the opposition anyway. Just cr@p execution and attitude.

[Oldschool]

Big Joe having a bit of a nightmare with the offsides or shooting up and leaving space. I think it’s a good thing that he’s so eager and also that others should be alive to how quick he’ll be off the line and go with him, but the video review will be excruciating for him and he needs to make better decisions. Not worried about him in the medium and long term but it’s a big problem at the moment.

Hopefully it's part of his learning curve and the reason he's on this tour.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

I think it was OS and Hugo who were talking about leadership in the pack yesterday. When Hume was down in the first half they had the chance to gather themselves but they looked completely lost and Heffernan was standing miles away waiting to take a lineout throw that clearly wasn’t happening for ages. It was Casey who seemed to pull them together and give them a talking to.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

by Dave Cahill



I thought he was so mediocre that at one point he looked like a member of coldplay

He hasn't played ten in forever and the pack were beaten up so badly it's hard to judge if he's any good there but yes not a good performance.

I didn't think the pack were beaten up. Not by the opposition anyway. Just cr@p execution and attitude.

They were destroyed. The scrum got walked backwards, they couldn’t steal any ball, missed clear outs, missed tackle, only made a handful of good carries…a bad day at the office.

[Oldschool]

Hard to see many positives there. Coombes looked good with ball in hand. Aki looked class. Frawley didn't look too bad at 10..................... that's all I got. Anyone got anything else?

Biggest positive is that we didn't fold in the second half.
On previous tours we'd have been shown the door at 32-10 down at HT.

[jezzer]

I think it was OS and Hugo who were talking about leadership in the pack yesterday. When Hume was down in the first half they had the chance to gather themselves but they looked completely lost and Heffernan was standing miles away waiting to take a lineout throw that clearly wasn’t happening for ages. It was Casey who seemed to pull them together and give them a talking to.

The whole game the Maori looked relaxed, composed and prepared. Ireland looked like they were facing a firing squad.

[jezzer]

He hasn't played ten in forever and the pack were beaten up so badly it's hard to judge if he's any good there but yes not a good performance.

I didn't think the pack were beaten up. Not by the opposition anyway. Just cr@p execution and attitude.

They were destroyed. The scrum got walked backwards, they couldn’t steal any ball, missed clear outs, missed tackle, only made a handful of good carries…a bad day at the office.

Missing clearouts is not being beaten up. Missing tackles is not being beaten up. Not making good carries is not being beaten up. Dropping the ball is not being beaten up.

They played shite. The Maori pack was nothing special and it showed the few brief moments we took them on.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Missing clearouts is not being beaten up. Missing tackles is not being beaten up. Not making good carries is not being beaten up. Dropping the ball is not being beaten up.

They played shite. The Maori pack was nothing special and it showed the few brief moments we took them on.

They dominated us in all of those physical exchanges so yes they beat us up. We only started to match them and get possession when we were 22 points down and even then the forwards only made a handful of carries and we kept getting turned over because we lost collisions.

[Dave Cahill]

Whether we were beaten up or incompetent (the difference between sh!t and shite at the end of the day), very few players came out of that game with their reputations intact, never mind enhanced. Coombes, Aki, Scannell - thats about it

[enby]

It's all part of a cunning Faz plan to lull NZ into thinking we are sh*te.

[the spoofer]

I'd love to know who's plan it was to travel for 5 games in NZ with 40 players. I'm sure the coaches wanted more so it's either NZ Rugby or IRFU(Nucifora)

[Logorrhea]

Yeah Scannell made a good impression.

[paddyor]

Wow, I think this is a massively exciting team, loaded with players capable of big-game moments.

Hugely interested to see how they go. A lot of determined, hungry characters in there who won't be happy to stay dirt-trackers.

It’s as weak a starting pack as you’ll see. It’s half guys with potential(TOT, maccarthy, prendergast &coombes) and half(and this is maybe harsh) guys who look like placeholders. Playing in this type of team isn’t a great opportunity for either of those groups.

Biggest opportunity here is for JOB to nail down the understudy at 15 however the game pans out. If he can put in a solid game with few errors even where we play badly he’s in the box seat until Lowry likely gets a shot in the 2nd Māori game

Sounds like we should call it off before someone gets killed.

I wouldn't have gone that far, but that scoreline is interesting.

[Flash Gordon]

Don’t agree with the JOB criticism. He probably has been told to kick long and in fairness did a spectacular tackle at then end of the 1st half only for no support player to do likewise

JOB kicking too long is an observation of fact.
You're probably correct re instructions.
However at some point the "heads up" rugby imperative has to come into play.
It's not all on JOB either, there are other players who can surely analyse what's not working and make corrective suggestions.

Whatever the reason, they scored 3 tries off some aimless kicking. The tactic was a disaster. The pack weren't competitive at all, scrum was creaking, didn't compete well at the breakdown and we carried poorly- the knock on on the pick and go was a microcosm of how poor they were. Our discipline was awful and we were error strewn. Nobody really put their hand up for the test squad.

Our depth is really concerning as the Maori were no great shakes to be honest. I know people are talking about the fact that we should have have brought more front rowers and that might be true but the likes of Loughman is a bench player for Munster who are have been a pretty average team this year. Ultimately, the lack of productivity for the other academies over the last 5-10 years is the core issue and why the provinces need a level of accountability for the international players they produce or don't.

Our first 23 might compete vs the All Blacks but we'll ship injuries and the second string aren't anything like at that level.

[Oldschool]

Anyone (I've a few suspects in mind) know-
Typical how do the Maoris do when they play NZ.
How did Ireland perform against the Maoris the last time they played them.
How have other touring teams performed against the Maoris in the last five years.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Whether we were beaten up or incompetent (the difference between sh!t and shite at the end of the day), very few players came out of that game with their reputations intact, never mind enhanced. Coombes, Aki, Scannell - thats about it

Yeah fair play to Scannell, even if he'd had a nightmare I'd have given him a pass because that was a seriously tough ask for him. Maybe the rest of the team should have flown in yesterday too.

I was just thinking how we've been in camp for weeks and yet that was the best we could manage, but on second thoughts maybe we were actually a little undercooked. There'll be more Leinster players playing on Saturday so we should be sharper from that POV but obviously the test will be much harder, even allowing for NZ's covid issues, so it'll be interesting to see how it plays out.