Ireland v France

[ror]

Interestingly BOD spent some time after on the pitch with his extended family getting photos....!

[Mexicola]

Interestingly BOD spent some time after on the pitch with his extended family getting photos....!

Unfortunately, this has been on my mind an awful lot!

[ror]

There my be some motivation to overtake Radges caps but its unlikely.....

[fourthirtythree]

Doubt he gives a toss about that to be honest. I think we all saw that his mind was made up out there. Real pity he had to waste seasons with the team regressing under the village idiot.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Not really sure what people's issue with Golf Man's suggestion is.

I wouldn't make the call myself given that Heaslip has had a tough championship but played well on Saturday and could do with another game as captain but there are benefits to it.

We need to look at 7s so trying someone else there would be a good call. We don't really have an obvious replacement for Jamie who's playing every week so playing SOB there could be useful in the long run.

The championship is a write off so why not experiment?

I'd add the caveat that the number of changes should be influenced by how many enforced changes are made. Plus as I said, I wouldn't make the call myself. Pity Henry is injured, it'd have been a perfect game to play him and would be an obvious change to freshen up the back row.

[bamboozle]

I had Reflink on Saturday - I definitely heard Walsh say that he was happy with the shoulder to shoulder part - all the time he was looking at the replays on the big screen - tbh I'm not entirely sure what he can can't do during a TMO in the 6N - but he was definitely definitely leading the TMO

Scrum was poor - giving away the same free kick/penalty time and again is dumb - that said the scrum that Walsh turned over to France before their try looked a bit oiffy to say the least. Also Murray or Heaslip, think it may have been one each had options to get the ball out of a couple of scrums before penalties/free kicks were given - seemed completely stupid not to given the way the scrum had been going

The contact between Debatty and Earls was in the field of play and therefore was not something that the TMO should have adjudicated on anyway. Is that not right? Anyway I seem to be the only person not to think it was a penalty.

The decision by Walsh on the scrums that lead to the French try was a joke. The "through 90 deg.....scrum to France" was because the French TH whipped the scrum around backwards while the LH moved Ross forward less than a meter. Healy ended up on the ground cause there was no French scrum to push against. The following Scrum the French TH just stood up.

So our tactics to play france were Kick the ball - hope the opposition make mistakes and the driving maul. Half the reason why we've been so poor in the second half of games this season i think is that our tactics are so one dimensional once our opposition get to grips with them we are found out for having no plan B. With over 70 minutes on the clock and the match level one of our pack can be heard 'kick it paddy' why on earth we thought with time running out hoofing the ball would yield us a result was beyond me...kicking the ball when chasing the game is bad enough, kicking away posession with 4 or 5 minutes left on the clock is just idiotic.

Our tactic of kicking the ball away was spot on and showed we had learned from the English game. Ironically it was the French adoption of the same tactic in the 2nd half that brought them back in to the game. Their own supporters might have been booing them when they kicked it away but it was the right tactic.

i'll have to disagree with you. Any team which reverts to kicking the ball away in the last 5 minutes in the hope the opposition will make a mistake does not deserve to win.

[kendalgerty]

Wouldn't normally do this but since it's been mentioned in the thread, here's our analysis of the performances of the backrow.

http://whiffofcordite.com/2013/03/11/th ... s-backrow/

All three had pretty good games I thought, and most people's preconceptions about the numbers really not matching the roles are spot on.

Heaslip's clearing out work is really excellent. O'Brien does a lot of carrying.

POM showed up really well this week. I thought he was rubbish against Scotland, and it was the debate around his work rate and role in the team that inspired us to do this, but he put in a pretty varied performance. He put in some of the 'big plays', two brilliant turnovers which were both important and a superb catch of a French kick which he then ran back effectively. Heaslip slipped a couple of tackles.

One thing we really noticed is just how much ruck inspecting we do as a team. Maybe ned to be a bit more clinical in how many we commit to the ruck when some of the players aren't really doing anything there.

[ribs]

I wonder if we played less of a kicking game, would we suffer fewer injuries?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

Speaking of clearing out, Mike Ross was outstanding in that department for the first hour or so. His workrate was brilliant and he was putting in some huge hits as well.

[kendalgerty]

Yeah, he was LeRoux. It almost made us question whether he does too much around the park and should save himself for some serious scrummaging. News just in: Mike Ross working TOO HARD in the loose. Never thought we'd say that!

[Armchair]

I had Reflink on Saturday - I definitely heard Walsh say that he was happy with the shoulder to shoulder part - all the time he was looking at the replays on the big screen - tbh I'm not entirely sure what he can can't do during a TMO in the 6N - but he was definitely definitely leading the TMO

Scrum was poor - giving away the same free kick/penalty time and again is dumb - that said the scrum that Walsh turned over to France before their try looked a bit oiffy to say the least. Also Murray or Heaslip, think it may have been one each had options to get the ball out of a couple of scrums before penalties/free kicks were given - seemed completely stupid not to given the way the scrum had been going

The contact between Debatty and Earls was in the field of play and therefore was not something that the TMO should have adjudicated on anyway. Is that not right? Anyway I seem to be the only person not to think it was a penalty.

The decision by Walsh on the scrums that lead to the French try was a joke. The "through 90 deg.....scrum to France" was because the French TH whipped the scrum around backwards while the LH moved Ross forward less than a meter. Healy ended up on the ground cause there was no French scrum to push against. The following Scrum the French TH just stood up.

So our tactics to play france were Kick the ball - hope the opposition make mistakes and the driving maul. Half the reason why we've been so poor in the second half of games this season i think is that our tactics are so one dimensional once our opposition get to grips with them we are found out for having no plan B. With over 70 minutes on the clock and the match level one of our pack can be heard 'kick it paddy' why on earth we thought with time running out hoofing the ball would yield us a result was beyond me...kicking the ball when chasing the game is bad enough, kicking away posession with 4 or 5 minutes left on the clock is just idiotic.

Our tactic of kicking the ball away was spot on and showed we had learned from the English game. Ironically it was the French adoption of the same tactic in the 2nd half that brought them back in to the game. Their own supporters might have been booing them when they kicked it away but it was the right tactic.

i'll have to disagree with you. Any team which reverts to kicking the ball away in the last 5 minutes in the hope the opposition will make a mistake does not deserve to win.

That drove me mad! We needed to score to win and we kicked everything away instead of keeping ball in hand and trying to get close for a penalty, drop goal, really dissapointing

[Golf Man]

Bless, you're so desperate to get Heaslip out of both the captaincy and the team you'd throw your own man onto the barbed wire. Even if that means throwing in two 6 Nations debutants into the area of the pitch where Italy are strongest, both on the pitch and off the bench. Its a suggestion of utter daftness and as you aren't daft, then its obvious what you're up to!

Moronic post - where exactly do you get the idea that I want Heaslip out - literally no basis whatsoever - the little monkey in your tiny mind is obviously just set to start pedalling if you see a Munster fan post. I said thaat firstly I wanted Henderson to start - if thats a straight swop for POM no issues. SOB has probably been our best forward in the 6N but we are not making teh best use of his qualities playing him at 7 - I don't think there are many would disagree with this. If Henderson is playing 6, and I don't want to drop SOB (who I also don't want to play 7) then there is only one position left for him - 8. This is not anti Heaslip - its anti SOB at 7. if Henry was fit I'd play him.

Do you think people will buy for a second that your dropping of Munster's current PENO and Ireland's current captain is not a biased call?

Give it a rest.

Refer to the post above and maybe try reading before you post your biased cr@p

Put a flanker into his least favourite and worst position so you can drop your Captain who just had a decent game.

Works for me.....

You think SOB's least favourite and worst position is 8 - didn't know you knew him that well. He played far more 6 and 8 before being shoehorned into 7. It isn't working - with Ferris in the team its more likely to work, because he is such a freak. Take him out and SOB is being asked to do everything, but he is focussing on the aspect of the game that is probably his weakest (breakdown instead of carrying)

People on here are way way too protective of Heaslip. I've no issue with him and thought he played pretty well, but if I have to pick our go to players in the back row its Ferris and SOB before him - hence the whole making the most of SOB

[Xanthippe]

I've re-watched the match to see if I could confirm something I though was strange earlier. When Steve Walsh went to Nigel Whitehouse for the Earls 'try' he said:
"Nige, we're looking for try/no try AND possible foul play preventing try"

A couple of minutes later Whitehouse could be heard saying "bear with me Steve, bear with me" to which Walsh replied "Nige.... I'm quite comfortable with the shoulder to shoulder"

So, how did he get from asking if there was foul play to stating he was happy with the shoulder in the space of about a minute? Did he use the big screen to make the decision and if so is this allowed? And, did saying he was happy with the shoulder encourage Nigel Whitehouse to say it was a 22 drop out rather than a penalty to Ireland?

I had Reflink on Saturday - I definitely heard Walsh say that he was happy with the shoulder to shoulder part - all the time he was looking at the replays on the big screen - tbh I'm not entirely sure what he can can't do during a TMO in the 6N - but he was definitely definitely leading the TMO

The contact between Debatty and Earls was in the field of play and therefore was not something that the TMO should have adjudicated on anyway. Is that not right? Anyway I seem to be the only person not to think it was a penalty.

I agree on both of those counts. TMO couldn't rule on it under current protocols as far as I'm aware. He'd have had to say there was no foul play in the in-goal area.

What I missed out on when I posted the conversation between Walsh and Whitehouse was that, after instructing the TMO on what he wanted checked, Walsh could then be heard talking to Jamie - couldn't hear Jamie's question but Walsh clearly replied that he needed to check if it was in goal - so he obviously had a suspicion that the shoulder challenge may have happened outside.

Have no problem with any of that and felt that asking the TMO to check for "foul play preventing a try" was a very good decision but it's his actions after that which have me puzzled. Having asked for a ruling on foul play, it appears he then took it on himself to watch the replays on the big screen and then appeared to direct the TMO's decision by stating "I'm quite comfortable with the shoulder to shoulder".

My original question still remains - is a referee allowed to use a video replay to rule on something he missed. I think we all know the answer is no because wasn't this the excuse used when the Welsh cheated to score a try against us in 2011 - ref couldn't look at big screen and TMO couldn't rule on incident outside in-goal.

Would love to see some additional angles on the French try cause I still don't know how it could have been given by the referee - on any shot I saw there appeared to be a good possibility it was held up and the French themselves didn't appear to be celebrating and claiming the try until after the whistle went. I still don't understand why we put Murray back on when BOD came off for a blood injury just prior to the try - would have loved if Kidney had had the balls to give Cronin a chance. He was only gone for four to five minutes at the most and with a scrum in our 22 we could have done with having a bit more muscle on the line.

[Dexter]

Would love to see some additional angles on the French try cause I still don't know how it could have been given by the referee - on any shot I saw there appeared to be a good possibility it was held up and the French themselves didn't appear to be celebrating and claiming the try until after the whistle went. I still don't understand why we put Murray back on when BOD came off for a blood injury just prior to the try - would have loved if Kidney had had the balls to give Cronin a chance. He was only gone for four to five minutes at the most and with a scrum in our 22 we could have done with having a bit more muscle on the line.

It's the first time I've seen this mentioned. The ball seemed to be held up at first and I didn't see it being grounded on the replays, just presumed the ref could see what we couldn't.

[limecat]

Check out the number 10 of the week: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... ery&ino=10

stolen from boards

...also posted on the "In need of a laugh" thread...

[red49]

They probably stole it from rte!

[TheBear]

Check out the number 10 of the week: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... ery&ino=10

stolen from boards

...also posted on the "In need of a laugh" thread...

Ha! I also like the way that he is considered an 'amble' replacement.

[Xanthippe]

Check out the number 10 of the week: http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/rugb ... ery&ino=10

stolen from boards

...also posted on the "In need of a laugh" thread...

Ha! I also like the way that he is considered an 'amble' replacement.

Before we make too much fun of them we should remember that our stadium announcer said that Jamie Heaslip's try was converted by Paddy O'Brien!!!

[Hippo]

Would love to see some additional angles on the French try cause I still don't know how it could have been given by the referee - on any shot I saw there appeared to be a good possibility it was held up and the French themselves didn't appear to be celebrating and claiming the try until after the whistle went.

I still haven't had a chance to re-watch the game but this seemed to be the case to me as well; he was stopped well short of the line pushed himself along the ground a little, and even then I wasn't sure he made the line - it certainly wasn't visible on tv. It looked like a TMO at best, but when it was given I assumed it was Mr Walsh proving his independence and sure-footedness, being the maverick soul he is.

[TerenureJim]

Would love to see some additional angles on the French try cause I still don't know how it could have been given by the referee - on any shot I saw there appeared to be a good possibility it was held up and the French themselves didn't appear to be celebrating and claiming the try until after the whistle went.

I still haven't had a chance to re-watch the game but this seemed to be the case to me as well; he was stopped well short of the line pushed himself along the ground a little, and even then I wasn't sure he made the line - it certainly wasn't visible on tv. It looked like a TMO at best, but when it was given I assumed it was Mr Walsh proving his independence and sure-footedness, being the maverick soul he is.

Think the captain can still request that it go to the TMO though and I don't recall hearing that request being made so perhaps a clear grounding was seen.