RWC 2019 Warmup Games

[FLIP]

POM and Stander anonymous. Only time I'm seeing them is when they're doing their best matador impression. Olé!

[D4surfer]

At least we’ll have Ross Byrne for the start of the season.

[Oldschoolsocks]

Holy moly that’s some u14 defending on show here.

Big big problems ahead

[tingman]

Men against boys here.....shocking stuff....

[wixfjord]

This is incredible stuff really. We are so far off the pace.

Pack being absolutely taken apart.

[Ruckedtobits]

Beirne for Hendo at 43-10 is without doubt the most stupid substitution in Joe Schmidt's Irish career. Stander has been anonymous throughout the 60 mins so far and although JVdF has tackled, none of them has been dominant

[FLIP]

Beirne for Hendo at 43-10 is without doubt the most stupid substitution in Joe Schmidt's Irish career. Stander has been anonymous throughout the 60 mins so far and although JVdF has tackled, none of them has been dominant

POM should have gone. Jdvf is the only back rower worth it on our side

[Twist]

Let’s just withdraw and get everyone back to the provinces to prepare for the Heineken Cup, cos this is looking like a waste of time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[OTT]

England look like they could play a World Cup final tomorrow, only a couple of months to keep that going. Should be easy.

[Pilotman123]

We should let Conor Murray take the kicks, I was watching him take kicks in Portugal and he was kicking them over the bar easily from the halfway, I’d say he could get a kick from 60m out because the ball went atleast another ten meters when he kicked it over the bar.

[OTT]

We should let Conor Murray take the kicks, I was watching him take kicks in Portugal and he was kicking them over the bar easily from the halfway, I’d say he could get a kick from 60m out because the ball went atleast another ten meters when he kicked it over the bar.

How is he at calling the lineout?

[Keith]

That was like watching a tier 2 nation play a tier 1 nation. I won't panic too much as this is in reality Irelands first game. That Italian game was a complete and utter waste of time.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The attitude is almost what worries me most, we've given up. Who gives a f**k if the game is gone? This isn't a tournament, it's about building fitness and getting sharp etc so we should be trying hard regardless of the score. Jack and Dev both made token efforts at clearing rucks at times, and considering they were subs I don't think fitness should have been the reason. Kicking to touch when Cronin was down injured was very sloppy as well, as was Jack casually throwing a ball over Luke's head when we had a penalty and were looking to get to the mark quickly.

The lineout and midfield defence have been shocking. The midfield defence is hardly a new thing, I don't really envisage Sexton and/or Robbie fixing it completely, but Robbie's linespeed could make a difference alright.

I wasn't too worried during the first half. We were losing the physical battle and had those issues defensively but I liked that we were at least mixing it up with our kicking game instead of constantly looking for rucks and figured we'd be sharper in a week or two. The second half was such a collapse though that we just look totally screwed.

Thought Ross had a decent first half, but the kick on the full was just so bad that it might have cost him his place there and then.

Gutted for Healy, if anyone deserves to go to the World Cup and show us what he can do then it's him but it really didn't look good.

I think we're at the stage now where anyone in form has to start. No second chances, no loyalty to the experienced players, just try and hope that two or three form players can spark something within the rest of the team. So I'd have Rhys ahead of POM and Conan (assuming he's in better nick than CJ) at 8, and I'd certainly look at dropping Best now. Aside from that one run in the first half he was anonymous and his throwing appeared to be shocking.

[LeRouxIsPHat]

We should let Conor Murray take the kicks, I was watching him take kicks in Portugal and he was kicking them over the bar easily from the halfway, I’d say he could get a kick from 60m out because the ball went atleast another ten meters when he kicked it over the bar.

How is he at calling the lineout?

Tbf he did catch a few of them last season and I'd say he's a better option than Kleyn.

As bad as our lineout was I did think Itoje challenged it illegally. I can't believe that they let him away with the last one, not because of the contact, but you can't throw yourself across the line like that. Can't understand how they missed that as they viewed the replay to judge the contact, and it wasn't the first time he did it either.

[Hippo]

The officials missed quite a bit, but FFS that entire effort was embarrassingly off the pace. Not sure where we go from here.

[tomthefan]

It feels different to previous world cup build ups, that can only be a good thing.

[tomthefan]

England just maybe getting a little carried away with themselves bringing on their kids at the end like they'd won the WC?

[LeRouxIsPHat]

The officials missed quite a bit, but FFS that entire effort was embarrassingly off the pace. Not sure where we go from here.

I'm not having it that the hit from Tuilagi on Larmour was legal. His arm was out but that is not the same as a wrap. He flew in shoulder first and if Larmour hadn't got the ball high up on his chest then it would have been a shoulder to the jaw. Really dangerous and he does it all the time.

[Experimental]

The first half was acceptable considering its our first real game, but shocked at how off the pace we were in that second half, we gave up, and thats really not like us. There were some positives, but not many

[Fan with smartphone]

Post match interviews - joe said they’d heavy legs from their training and jones said England had tapered their training off to perform in this one. So it’s apples and oranges we are comparing really out there. Joe teams often start slow in a season too and I don’t think they looked too worried in the coaching box in this one. Also, a good performance/result in the first World Cup game and this is forgotten. I only really remember warm up games in the past for injuries..Murphy, Wallace.

But.

That was indeed really, really bad. In terms of analysis to improve like, there wasn’t even a starting point to get your teeth into. Just no cohesion at all. They can only take it as a fitness hit-out, cross fingers for Healy and start again. Although I liked the look of JVDF. He gave something to build on.

England extremely impressive, but their pool mightn’t be a cakewalk either.