Cant understand why anyone is bothering to target any performances in that game. The only reason to focus on one player is an agenda, especially given the lack of performances elsewhere in the pack, and the backrow.suisse wrote:Too many excuses being made there, I'm afraid. Heaslip had a poor game. His contribution was very, very limited, irrespective of what armband he was wearing.
The entire Irish team were poor (aside from Healy) for the majority of the game. The only difference between the first and the second half was that the Boks gave us the ball and loads of kickable penalties. We did nothing with the ball in either half, never looked like making a clean line-break never mind scoring a try.
Zebo did nothing, stop talking up his performance. He was fine, made no real mistakes but offered nothing else. I have no problem with him being tried again, but he did nothing special in this game. Same for Bowe, Earls, and Darcy. Sexton needed to offer a little variety to challenge the defence and that never came. He was solid but thats about it. I've never been happy with Murray, have never seen him offer anything really. Sure hes a fine tackler but he cant do the basics of the job well enough, doesnt offer the tempo Reddan does and kicks far too poorly for this level. Still, he'll remain first choice until another coach comes in.
The front five were absolutely destroyed once the Boks were given the ball and while I though the likes of Strauss, Healy and McCarthy tried, it was in the loose and the the breakdown where they excelled. In the tight they got mullered. Hard to talk up any performance after a performance like that.
Finally the back row. Isolated a few springboks in the first half, offered nothing in the second. All three struggled to match the physical power of the Boks and you could see how badly we were missing Ferris and O'Brien.
The only Irish forward that would get a sniff in that Bok pack would be Healy. Others could include O'Brien, POC and Ferris. The rest (including POM) would be laughed out of the conversation.