the spoofer wrote:I admired the questioning of the Irish Players afterwards by the girl from TV3 , most aggressive performance by an Irish person on the night!
Yeah she really stuck it to D'arcy! Did she use the word desperate or was it disgraceful!
Ireland played like a bunch of amateurs. The fault lies on EOS door! We'll need to pull three rabbits out of the hat for the next matches.
TBH I think the amateur Irish team from 1995 RWC would have beaten that Namibian team by the same score. So best prepared Irish team ever...my bum
Trevor Dempsey wrote:The blame has to lie at O'Sullivan's door... The preparation all seems to by gym based... Get the lads pumping iron & have them looking like body builders. Except, they're supposed to be rugby players!!! They looked like they hadn't been introduced to each other never mind been part of the same team for the past number of years... EO'S has a hell of a lot to answer to!
Just thinking that. They looked like a scratch team. Has to get better. HAS to.
All i can say is it brought back the feelings i used to have in the late 80's early 90's every time ireland took to the pitch, a mixture of incredulity anxiety and growing dismay.
ok, we were atrocious, and made a huge amount of errors and it was embarassing to watch. But they are still our national team. As one analyst said, you don't become bad players overnight. This team has got big results before and i still believe that they have what it takes for more big performances.
In an attempt to be positive, it looked like we were holding back any sort of line out calls and set piece moves so as to give away nothing. The players look liked they had had a full training session yesterday and look tired and fatigued. Hopefully this is all part of a masterplan to peak in 2/3 weeks time.unforced errors were 18, if this was say 5/6 we would have scored 5/6 more tries, won by 40 odd points and well things wouldn't be so bad. These errors can easily be put right.
But lets put this one behind us, the same way the players will hopefully do and let's get right behind them and shout and scream and let the post mortems really take place when our world cup is over.
"its a sunday, if you want to go to church, go there and worship Brian O'Driscoll". - Stuart Barnes 22/1/06
Leinster til i die wrote:As one analyst said, you don't become bad players overnight. This team has got big results before and i still believe that they have what it takes for more big performances.
I have an awful feeling that the team has jumped the shark. At this moment in time all the evidence is certainly pointing that way.
I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Leinster til i die wrote:ok, we were atrocious, and made a huge amount of errors and it was embarassing to watch. But they are still our national team. As one analyst said, you don't become bad players overnight. This team has got big results before and i still believe that they have what it takes for more big performances.
In an attempt to be positive, it looked like we were holding back any sort of line out calls and set piece moves so as to give away nothing. The players look liked they had had a full training session yesterday and look tired and fatigued. Hopefully this is all part of a masterplan to peak in 2/3 weeks time.unforced errors were 18, if this was say 5/6 we would have scored 5/6 more tries, won by 40 odd points and well things wouldn't be so bad. These errors can easily be put right.
But lets put this one behind us, the same way the players will hopefully do and let's get right behind them and shout and scream and let the post mortems really take place when our world cup is over.
b*%&!x to that...
The plan according to Next Lions coach E.O'Sullivan and Captain Brian O'Driscoll was to rack up a huge score on these guys. Forget about peaking in two to three weeks if you can't even string a few passes together.
Completely unacceptable!
'Oh miss PacMan, i'd sex that bow right off your head!'
'Eat those dots, you naughty, naughty girl!'
thecoolfreak wrote:
Just be 100% honest with yourselves here lads but do you honestly think that anyone on our bench other than N Best or Fla could have made any sort of a difference tonight.
I do actually.
Hickie was clearly out of sorts and should have been spared.
Stringer was lamentable all night, should have been taken off after half time for Boss.
ROG was missing kicks, sitting too deep, but still no sign of Wallace - now fair enough he was being killed by Stringer but we can't say for sure as Stringer was never subbed off.
Leinster til i die wrote: As one analyst said, you don't become bad players overnight.
You're right they don't... They have been in the process of becomingt a bad team since the 6 nations!!! Players need to play - Injuries are an occupational hazard... Having 15 lads take the field in desperate need of match fitness is negligent!
'No rest until the Heineken cup is the possession of BOD almighty!'
Leinster til i die wrote:As one analyst said, you don't become bad players overnight. This team has got big results before and i still believe that they have what it takes for more big performances.
I have an awful feeling that the team has jumped the shark. At this moment in time all the evidence is certainly pointing that way.
We peaked to soon. As simple as that.
Marcus Horan, John Hayes, Simon Easterby, David Wallace, Peter Stringer, Ronan O'Gara, Denis Hickie and Girvan Dempsey are all past their peak and it seems that their level of performance is getting worse by the week. I know that's not true, but still, they've all seen much better days.
thecoolfreak wrote:
Just be 100% honest with yourselves here lads but do you honestly think that anyone on our bench other than N Best or Fla could have made any sort of a difference tonight.
I do actually.
Hickie was clearly out of sorts and should have been spared.
Stringer was lamentable all night, should have been taken off after half time for Boss.
ROG was missing kicks, sitting too deep, but still no sign of Wallace - now fair enough he was being killed by Stringer but we can't say for sure as Stringer was never subbed off.
And then there's the tactics...
Could've done with Wallace, Murphy and Boss all coming on with a meaningfull amount of time lef ton the clock. We could've changed the tactics and the attack with these players and possibly taken pressure off the players that were still on given the amount of errors they were making.
'Oh miss PacMan, i'd sex that bow right off your head!'
'Eat those dots, you naughty, naughty girl!'
I really really think that Boss would have been just the tonic in that game. His more livewire style, sniping and checking the opposition backrow, and upping the pace (not to mention the dignity of the team by not flapping his arms and whinging to the ref at every breakdown) might have had a big impact. We will never know - EOS just doesn't seem to rate him, preferring to leave Stringer on in the hope that he improves.
Duff Paddy wrote:I really really think that Boss would have been just the tonic in that game. His more livewire style, sniping and checking the opposition backrow, and upping the pace (not to mention the dignity of the team by not flapping his arms and whinging to the ref at every breakdown) might have had a big impact. We will never know - EOS just doesn't seem to rate him, preferring to leave Stringer on in the hope that he improves.
I agree with you...I couldn't have said it better. This arm waving, appealling for penalties and ponderous approach of Stringers has got to go, along with him from Irelands gameplan. You don't want 3 pointers when playing against Namibia you want quick ball to use your strengths - power, speed, agility- so that you can score points. Boss would've been just the tonic...as would the intro of Wallace who could've attacked the gaps more as the Namibians tired, presenting us with a 1st and 2nd 5/8 combo & more attacking rugby.
'Oh miss PacMan, i'd sex that bow right off your head!'
'Eat those dots, you naughty, naughty girl!'
