Ireland Team v France

badger's back and**gykev are one and the same- there cannot be 2 such mindless apes out there.

good man galwayman

and what tax do you pay, that happens to be my field and ive yet to meet a tinker that pays any

France have been hit by a triple blow ahead of their RBS 6 Nations clash against Ireland with the news that Aurelien Rougerie, Luc Ducalcon and Benjamin Fall have all been forced to pull out of the side.

Marc Lievremont had initially included the trio in his squad for Saturday's game despite them carrying knocks.

Rougerie lasted only a few minutes of France's impressive victory over Scotland in their opener at Murrayfield, and the Clermont Auvergne wing has been replaced by Brive's Alexis Palisson.

The 22-year-old, who has five caps, was dropped from the squad when it was cut from 30 to 25.

Reports suggest Rougerie could be sidelined for up to three weeks.

Toulouse prop Jean-Baptiste Poux replaces Ducalcon with the 30-year-old coming back into the France squad for the first time in two years.

There seemed to be better news about Fall, who was initially pronounced fit, but the Bayonne wing has now been replaced by Clermont's Julien Malzieu for the clash in Paris against the Grand Slam champions.


;\

Big mistake leaving Sexton on the bench.

Instead of criticising somebody for correcting grammar, you would imagine that the author would be grateful. You never know when you might be writing an important letter to somebody.

It could make the difference between obtaining a job or having your letter put in the bin!

I would of imagined the author would of been grateful too clerkmore. Amazed that he seems to of taken of fence to your petty corrections. Shame you couldn't of taken a red pen to his post really.

is this no.6 A.n.other any good?

idiot 10 Feb 10:15
I would of imagined the author would of been grateful too clerkmore. Amazed that he seems to of taken of fence to your petty corrections. Shame you couldn't of taken a red pen to his post really.

clerkmore-surely you spotted this mistake :)

I would also be firmly in the 'Sexton should have started' club.

Yep, we could well be wondering what it would have been like IF ONLY sexton had started at around 6 on saturday evening.

Still, Sexton not fully fit. No experience in 6 nations AT ALL. Never played in Paris. OGara playing his best rugby for Ireland in 2 or 3 years imo (actually found touch a few times at croke park on saturday!). Would have been very hard for Kidney to pick Sexton based on all of that and despite his fantastic performances in the Heineken Cup and against the springboks.

Imo not a risk worth taking on sexton and you can always bring him off the bench but only time will tell I suppose...

For once ICBD I have a firm opposing opinion.

Sexton a big miss in terms of beating the French . Irelands best option will be the traditional tight "Munster" game , tactical kicking by O'Gara and BOD ( practising it last week I suspect ) , and hope the French beat themselves in frustration . Not pretty , loads of recycling etc . And boring . But you have to cut your cloth ...

Is Sexton so important to play a running game. Has his influence on Leinster's performance been one of game control or one of open running? I think the former. His one abiding contribution to the HC success wsa his excellent drop goal.

spot on Kelly - went to Paris with an open game plan for the past 2 - 3 visits and have been crucified in the opening half hour each time. Best plan is to keep it tight for first half, frustrate the French and the French crowd. O'Gara is the man for this - there will be a time and place for johnny, but opening half in Paris not it.

Indeed KK 05, v rare for us to disagree! I find myself doubting myself now!

I just think that Sexton earned his place vs SA on merit, played exceptionally and, I believe, would have started against Italy, if fit. For me, he is superior to ROG in every aspect of the game. Ok, France away is a difficut baptism for someone so relatively inexperienced, but from what i have seen of him so far, he has BMT in spades. ROGs well known frailties remain.

That said, its great to have such options.

France team to play Ireland in the RBS 6 Nations at the Stade de France on Saturday at 4.30pm:

C Poitrenaud (Toulouse); V Clerc (Toulouse), M Bastareaud (Stade Francais), Y Jauzion (Toulouse), A Palisson (Brive); F Trinh-Duc (Montpellier), M Parra (Clermont); T Domingo (Clermont), W Servat (Toulouse), N Mas (Perpignan), L Nallet (Racing Metro), P Pape (Stade Francais), T Dusautoir (Toulouse), F Ouedraogo (Montpellier), I Harinordoquy (Biarritz).

Replacements : D Szarzewski (Stade Francais), S Marconnet (Stade Francais), J Pierre (Clermont), J Bonnaire (Clermont), D Marty (Perpignan), F Michalack (Toulouse), J Malzieu (Clermont).

Sexton was exceptional against SA for sure but Paris in the 6 nations is a completely different pressure cooker. I couldn't agree that he is better in every aspect of his game and the margin is not great enough to change from the tried and trusted imo. Too much was read into O'Gara's form early this season. I thought he was excellent last week.

I thought Sexton showed plenty signs of pressure in the Heineken Cup Final last year. It's only natural and O'Gara went through it all before too. It will be much easier for Sexton to perform and take his chance if and when O'Gara's form drops.

It is encouraging to think that even though I rate him very highly perhaps I am still underestimating where he is in his devolopment.

Going to stick my neck out here - reckon Ireland at 3.05 are a great price for Sat. Would have priced it at 2.6 myself and as low as 2.5 if Ferris plays. THis is a massive match for Ireland and the season hinges on the result. Kidney has a habit of getting his teams primed for the big occasions. The days of Ireland not competing in France are behind us and nothing special about this French makeup to be frightened of.

You couldnt drop ROG , he was one of the best irish players on view last week. Rog is the record points scorer in heineken cup and 6 nations. His record is there for all to see. He isnt over the hill. Sextons time will come as will expierience at this level. I would imagine if ireland are losing after 55/60 min on saturday kidney will make changes and sexton could very well get his turn

Massive game v France in Paris - we must play ROG? Me boll*x. Where would we have been in 2000 with that attitude and BOD? If Harinordoquy breaks off the back of a scrum and starts running down the 10 channel, who would you prefer to be lining up the tackle?

3.1/3.15 Ireland well worth a punt for me here now- price is too big

Can see this being a one score game either way!

France in Paris is no baptism of fire for Sexton. He's proven himself to be up to the task at every level and I find it astounding that anyone could still question his ability to do a job for Ireland.

Both he and ROG can do a job when called upon and the man in form should be the man given the jersey. Coming into the 6N, I firmly believe that the jersey was Sexton's to lose. He was selected on merit and produced a couple of excellent performances that established him as No 1. But, injury took its toll and O'Gara came in and did very well against Italy. Just like Sexton in the AIs, he took his chance and the jersey is now his to lose once again.

Where would we have been in 2000 with that attitude and BOD? -

Can't see any comparison here.

O'Driscoll was getting his fourth 6 nations start in Paris. Ireland had lost all but one game in the year previous and were guilty of some of their worst performancs in history in that 'era'.

Putting someone of O'Driscoll's youthful raw ability into a team that poor and low in morale wasn't even a decision.

KK, in what aspect of the game do you think ROG is superior to Sexton at? Other than experience, of course.

I used to think that ROG was the worlds pre-emonent tactical kicker, but tactical kicking has changed in the last few years. The emphasis is now on length and ROG is no Hernandez/Steyn etc. The diagnal cross field kick to gain territory is a less attractive option than it once was as lineout accuracy has improved.

As much as Sexton deserved to keep his place after SA he lost it through injury. ROG stepped up and took his opportunity and hardly deserved to be dropped. The place was up for grabs in Autumn although I think Sexton was always going to play against SA to test him at the top international level.
He was unfortunate to pick up his injury but such is the quality of the Irish squad presently if someone takes the jersey in such circumstances he is liable to keep it. Donnacha and Leo is another big call on the horizon. If Cullen reproduces last weekend against France it would be hard to drop him too

Icbd - I do think it's a very tight call between them.

If Sexton was available the last day I would have had little quibble against him starting. However I think it would be too big a call to have put him in ahead of O'Gara after his performance last week and with the track record he has. It would have added extra pressure on Sexton and that just might have been that little bit too much.

Anyway, France are not a team that I would like to see Ireland hoofing long balls down to. It needs to be kept tight and tactical. If it reverts to that type of game we could be in trouble.

Unfortunately, it is difficult to be fully objective about all this as like most fans down here my judgement may be a bit clouded. However I've always been an advocate for sticking to the tried and trusted when it still shows good form. I also have always had the highest respect for Kidney 's choices.

Sexton's day will come soon enough.

In what aspects do you think Sexton is better then O Gara ?

Tackling for sure but not overly important for a 10.
His carrying ability is the only standout diffenece for me.

Everything else is too close to call

Itcanbe done has nailed it

itcanbedone 11 Feb 12:38


KK, in what aspect of the game do you think ROG is superior to Sexton at? Other than experience, of course.

ferris fit to play

cue price collapse



game on!!!!!!

Good news
SOME PLAYER
Is he the most gouged player in history?

Stephen Ferris will take his place in the Irish back-row when Ireland play France in the RBS 6 Nations on Saturday.

Ferris will line out alongside Jamie Heaslip and David Wallace after successfully coming through training today.

The 24-year-old was not named in the original team selected on Tuesday due to concerns over the knee injury that ruled him out of Ireland's opening Six Nations clash.

But the Ulster flanker has been given the all clear by medical staff and will now take his place.

As a result, Kevin McLaughlin, who started in the 29-11 win against Italy, drops out of the 22-man squad. Rory Best, Tom Court, Donnacha Ryan and Sean O'Brien will be the forwards substitutes.

Andrew Trimble, who was replaced by Keith Earls in the starting XV, also drops out of the match-day 22. Eoin Reddan, Jonathan Sexton and Paddy Wallace will be on the bench.

Ireland second row Donncha O'Callaghan is to leave the squad to continue his injury recovery with the Munster squad as part of their warm weather training this week.

huge bonus for Ireland that Ferris is fit. Ferris, Wallace, Heaslip has a world class look to it and should hold its own against the French trio. Biggest worry for me is the Irish bench which looks a bit lightweight compared to French. With a few injuries, our strength in depth looks questionable again.
Irish price still looks too high. Will wait for the anthems and if ROG does not have that purple look that he seemed to have constantly during the WC, will take a punt at 3.0+.

purple look? was he on the daq?

Maybe I missed something in the Ireland vs Italy match . Apart from nearly going to sleep in the second half when Ireland performed like settling treacle .

A world class back line (11-15 , maybe except Trimble --who was replaced ) should have looked good against the Italians . They were below average , but to me the problem is O'Gara . They looked better when Wallace replaced O'Gara ( and you all know how low I rate Wallace ) . O'Gara KICKED well , penalties certainly , but O'Drscoll's tactical kicking , when he indulged in it , was BETTER than O'Gara's .

So I just dont accept the "O'Gara the form man thesis " . But if Sexton is not fit , so be it .

So a couple of excellent kicks by an outside centre can take from a fly half's performance and is something worth judging him on? Not in my world.

And I think you missed plenty. O'Gara had a very good game against Italy. Like it or not but accurate KICKING (snap), in play or from penalties, is a major part of a fly half's game.

And can you really read anything into the fact that substitutes livened things up in the last 15 minutes of a game that was over before half time?

O'Gara's performance was certainly not perfect but I don't accept that he is not in form.

snowing heavily in Paris. Hope this game proceeds.

Great news about Ferris.STAND UP FOR THE ULSTERMAN!

Tackling is important for a 10, just not for Ireland it seems...

anyone rate tony buckley? is he far from making the irish team/
always thought he has lots of unfulfilled potential

hi guys - what is the general view on the match !
Heart says Ireland head isn;t so sure !!!

any constructed informed views welcome

Tony Buckley can't scrummage - pound for pound he's the worst in the 6N

KK05 o gara had an adequate game against italy, he ran the game well, kicked well thats it.

at no stage did Ireland look like opening up italy, the game was essentially won at half time yet the out half never threatened to open them up.

Sexton brings an element of suprise to the game, he has a break and can run thr ball, rog cant, sexton can tackle, rog cant.

Is ogara a poor outhalf? not by a long way, i do however feel that the last few years he has stagnated due to no competition.

id prefer to see sexton start, had he been fit against the italians i think he would have started both games.

KK 05 , maybe I am spoilt by having witnessed most of the really good Irish out-halves throughout the years . Kyle , Gibson , Ward , Campbell were all superb footballers . Some of them , notably Campbell were also excellent kickers , but they did not get their place essentially for their kicking ability . Again , unfortunately for the 4 mentioned they did not have 5 good / excellent players "behind " them . So they never tasted the success in an Irish jersey that recent team players have .

All O'Gara has ever brought to the current Irish team is place kicking and tactical kicking . If , as reported by one newspaper recently he is 6 foot tall and weighs 13 and a half stone , all I can say is that he does not punch his weight in anything construed as a tackle .

The main criticism I have of O'Gara is that he has proved incapable over many years of "liberating " some of the superb running talent we have behind the scrum . How many Triple Crowns and championships would we have won recently with Gibson or Campbell playing in his place ?

O'Gara is excellent at the level below International , great performances for Munster over the years . But at international level the other teams have him sussed as one of the weakest links in the Irish team ( and the Lions ! ) and that puts a bigger burden on the other players with scrappy ball .

Sexton on the other hand has demonstrated to me that he has a much better overall football game , he is bigger , stronger and he can initiate moves to give the back line space to demonstrate their ability . I think in time he may join the ranks of excellent out halves produced by Ireland . Excellent " green shoots" to date , hope he stays injury free .

The recent obsession with place kicking out-halves puzzles me . Some of the best place kickers I have ever seen did not play at out-half , no idea why it neems to be de riguer to have your place kicker ( who is often targeted , and cops a lot of hits ) at out half .

I will still be supporting O'Gara , hope he has a hell of a game and that we win , but I do expect to see him targeted by the French who can be quite cynical on these occasions .

Come on Ireland !

Its funny how different players are judged by different criteria

ballaman68 12 Feb 00:15


KK05 o gara had an adequate game against italy, he ran the game well, kicked well thats it.

When Sexton did this against SA he was the new Messiah

"he ran the game well"

is that all?

Just so you know I have always been a fan of ROG but accept that Sexton is a serious player. As I said in an earlier post Sexton deserved to keep his place afterSA but was unavailable against Italy due to injury. In much the same way as Donnacha will struggle to regain his place if Leo Cullen continues to play well JS will struggle to dislodge ROG if Rog's form holds up.

KELLY

Did you know that Leinster have scored 6 tries in 3 full and 77 mins Heineken cup matches this season when Sexton has been on the pitch and that they scored 12 tries in the other 2 matches and 3 minutes

I think in 5 or 6 years time when we ressurect this thread ROG will have retired and will have been replaced by a slightly more physical clone

In my opinion no outhalf on his own can tackle a hardinoquy or maybe a batrenaud--these guys need to be 2 man tackled. Jonny wilkinson has been the best tackler wearing the no.10 but he has suffered lots of injuries beacuse of it.
Every no.10 needs a pack thats on top so he can exert his influence.
I remember the campbell / ward debate there was no doubt at the time campbell was the surefire kicker whereas ward had more flair.
Mike gibson wouldnt have coped in the modern era he would have been too light
I dont think anybody is doubting sextons talent but he is 22 and ROG is still only 32 and is the man in form and has the jersey . ROG was 22/23 when he got his ireland spot so sextons time is almost upon us if thats a guide.
Its the pack we need to get on top that will enable us to win so lets hope we keep penalties to a minimum and the referee to be fair to us.

Kelly - All O'Gara has ever brought to the current Irish team is place kicking and tactical kicking .

All?? It's amazing how easily you can dismiss two of the most important attributes so easily. Cross field kicks and *****that brought a triple crown at Twickenham, a Grand Slam last year and that glorious Horgan try at Croker to name but a few of a great number.

And why not ignore the fact that he has ran in 14 tries and is in Irelands all time top ten try scorers (and that is not even one of his strengths!). And what about his crucial drop goals and superb temperment? And it seems that his pass to Trimble last week not only failed to stir your memory bank but slipped past it altogether.


The main criticism I have of O'Gara is that he has proved incapable over many years of "liberating " some of the superb running talent we have behind the scrum .

The top 5 all time try scorers for Ireland have all played outside O'Gara. Hardly restricting.

I think in time (Sexton) he may join the ranks of excellent out halves produced by Ireland .

I agree and O'Gara is definitely one of them (imo of course).

And anyone that thinks his performance against Italy was just "adequate" is not worth debating his merits with.

Good post KK. I am steaming that someone could include Wardy in the pantheon of great Irish 10's. Kelly, was it the hairy chest that swayed you?

P.S. the only ones who rated Ward ahead of Campbell were those who failed to understand the game!

Itcanbedone , pretty obvious my "ratings" of Irish outhalves is chronological . Campbell was much better than Ward in my opinion .

As for Mike Gibson being too light for modern game , the list by that logic would include all the greats from the past including Gareth Edwards . Mike Gibson was as tough as nails , always fit , punched well above his weight ( of which I am unaware ) and he tackled ferociously players O'Gara would have been knocked over by ( and we have seen plenty of that activity over the years ) . Plus he was the superb footballer and reader of the game . A Lion first of firsts pick in a good era , not a make up player .

Scoring records points wise mean nothing to me . Statisics can be turned to advantage by most observers . Does not replace what the eye sees and the mind stores . Someone has to pot the penalties and convert the trys . It is a significant element of the game , but in rating a footballer it comes down the list with me . Chris Patterson would by that measure be among the best players in the world .

I repeat , O'Gara has been great with Munster and he has had good games for Ireland , but cant rate him as an international great , which some people on here obviously think . Unfortunately for most rugby afficionados , Munster traditionally ( and recently ) have played a certain way , maximising the talent at their disposal . If that involves constant recycling / keep ball and tactical kicking , so be it , only warms the hearts of die hard supporters . O'Gara fits into the mould in that sort of game , does it superbly , but its not the sort of spectacle that excites a lot of the purist rugby followers .

Sexton potentially looks the part , O'Gara never has . Someone has had to play No 10 . Humphrys was a much better all round footballer than O'Gara and an extremely intelligent individual with a double uni first , , but he was older than O'Gara and not as favourably looked upon as the Munster man . Have my own theories on that one . Sexton still has to prove it , but he has 10 years up his sleeve , which is a long time to be converting scores and penalties .

I repeat , hope O'gara has a good game tomorrow , I will be cheering him on along with the other 14 , but I cant help feeling there will be occasional glances over the shoulder to the subs bench ( assuming Sexton is fit to play ) . Time will tell .

I see on rte sports page a interview by the french scrum half parra , his comments should ignite the irish--he said ireland are **s, they ** every weekend, they are the best **s

Humphreys better than O'Gara? What my eyes have seen and my mind has stored makes me chuckle when I read this.

Have to say, I largely agree with Kelly. Personally I dont consider ROG to have been 'an international great' despite the fact that statistically he certainly qualifies for that label. By great, I mean of legendary stature. Bit unfair on him, perhaps, but thats just the way I feel.

Was always in the Humphrey's camp, now my strong preference has shifted to Sexton.

Hope O'Gara doesn't shirk the tackles again tomorrow.

Bastareaud will probably have a field day.

Vive l'Irlande.

Humphries quicker, better balanced runner, better eye for space and could take advantage of a gap. Far better defender obviously. Both equally good passers, a quality of ROGs sometimes overlooked. ROG may have been statistically a better goalkicker, and perhaps a better tactical kicker, but all in all, I would say Humphreys was the better all round natural rugby player.

Can you explain statistically a better goalkicker?

I'll concede on the better balanced runner but that's it in my book.

Sorry and better defender without the far ;)

humphries a better defender!!!! has he become a sloicitor or something

How about this

O Gara's kicking game
Sexton's defence and
Humphries running

Leave it at that

Ward's Hairy Chest
Dean's or Campbell's Tackling

Tried to find out Mike Gibson's weight , no luck so far , but turned up a couple of interesting comments re him .

Peter Bill ( dont know him from Adam ) but he makes sense , picked his Lions "Dream Team " prior to the ( poor) 2009 Lions Tour . Surprisingly he has 6 Irish in his 15 which is :

1. Fran Cotton
2. Bryn Meredith
3. Ray McLoughlin
4. Martin Johnson
5. Willie John McBride
6. Lawrence Dallaglio
7. Fergus Slattery
8. Mervyn Davies

9. Gareth Edwards
10. Jack Kyle

11. Tony O'Reilly
12. Mike Gibson
13. Jeff Butterfield
14. Ken Jones

15. JPR Williams

Not necessarily my team , but only contentious in about 4 or 5 positions . He said he had no goal kicker on the team , if so you wanted to select Barry John for Kyle , which I would agree on , not just for the goal kicking .

"He had to include Gibson , one of the most brilliant all-round rugby players the world has seen for the last 50 years . Gibson was a genius , for Cambridge University , Ireland and the Lions ".

On the Lions Tour of 1971/72 , the Kiwis said Gibson was the greatest rugby player they had ever seen . Colin Meads said that Gibson,on his own , foiled approximately 80% of their attacking moves . ( Barry John and Gareth Edwards were also on that team / tour ) .

either hoping 3s is too big on us! Sod history, sod the paucity of options; sod the stultifying Ialian semi farce (at times). Win. Dont care how. Win!

peter bills is a rugby correspondent
To me he favours the players from the amateur era where rugby was much different to what the modern game is.
I think there is a dearth of good scrum halves
We have a truly world class 15 in kearney
Heaslip is still learning but he is a fine player with potential to be a one of the best
POC is world class
Rog stats are there for all to see and they dont lie
BOD proves his effectiveness time and again
This current line up is the best team we have ever had i think

Agree Macrocky with you that current squad is the best we have ever had . Fewer weak links in the squad than ever in the past . BOD had the potential to be really mega , but the All Black treatment put paid to that in my view . He has come back well , but just lost a little edge when that took place . Hard to get back to a stellar platform .

Kearney is world class , hope he betters last weeks performance , may have been our least effective player . Overall last week was terrible , lets hope it was lying doggo instructions . Looking forward to tomorrow , but more in hope than in certainty .

You saw Kyle pay did you Kelly.

Well done on being at least 80 years old, still having your mentals and being capable of usuing internet forums.

Did actually , Redroar , and I am not 80 . Check his dates . Was not present in 1949 ( I think ) when Ireland clinched their Triple crown in Ravenhill , but still remember the roar when Ireland scored ( we lived within hearing distance of Ravenhill ) .

Have to head off now , we oldies need our sleep .

Carter / Hernandez / Giteau / Wilko -- all big tackling outhalves. There's nowhere to hide now, 7s can only do so much. In 25 odd years, I've never been so confident on the eve of a game in Paris... If he's wearing green tomorrow, I don't care what size / shape or number he is - lets do it!

really fancy ireland minus 5

I predict Stephen Ferris man of the match and next Irish rugby great.His moment has arrived.

on winning margin ire under 12.5 at 4.3....

Ddont share a lot of the Irish optimism re outcome . I think it will be a rough , tough , match and the French are quite cynical in these situations .

Dont think Ferris or O'Gara will survive 80 minutes , them apart it may come down to substitutes performing well on either side . Not a match to wager heavily on . Lets hope we do well . This is the big one .

Dont think Parra wil survive 80 mins either :p

I think it'll be tight anyway and have had a speculative punt on Ire at the prices ;)

More than a little ironic parra calling us **s after what happened in this very stadium a few months ago !

Shambles so far

Agreed BJG .

Ok - I'll settle for someone to knock parra about a bit - midnight in a Stasi cell style

embarassing

O COnnell wud want to stop appearing in the backline - makes a balls of it every time - very rarely breaks the gainline

A perfect 10 from france, they were brilliant in defence against scotland, scotland never looked like scoring a try and there were brilliant today.
However the game turned on the yellow card imo, 3 games now in the 6 nations and they have been pivotal, wales got a yellow before halftime against england and it cost them 14 points. Scotland had the game won today and yellows later they lost the game in the last minute. Today cian healys yellow cost us 10 + french confidence .

i lost count of the irish players that knocked the ball on--knock ons meant lost ball and we never had control of the ball.

Fair dues to france they only gave ROG 2 penalty chances one of which tomas o leary spurned

Agree Macrocky , France were excellent . But I think we made it easy for them by making so many fundamental mistakes which cost us dear .

Individually our players made huge efforts , but collectively those efforts came to naught , our try incorporated a forward pass I am sure .

Gordon D'Arcy was the only one who threatened danger consistently , and as for the slow recycling of ball , it never leads to progress against a well marshalled defence . Need a new approach on that one in my view .

We will still beat or run close our Triple Crown adversaries , but I think we need to use the rest of the season to consolidate for World Cup . France are up and away with the Six Nations .

v.poor effort,probably wouldn't have beaten france even w/o errors

France are good when they get their tails up, every man and his dog knows that. Ireland had a chance to make it 3-3 with Healy in the bin, but a mental abberation from our hooker resulted in France going 10-0 up, which, in turn, spurred on the crowd and gave France the impetus to go for the jugular.

Everyone is allowed an off day at the office now and then, but Jerry Flannery is an utter disgrace to the jersey. I don't know how he could look anyone in the eye in the dressing room after that performance.

To be fair flannery deserves a holiday , that was as bad a foul as i have seen , if the shoe was on the other foot we would be citing id say

it was f**cking freezing there.i would say it was a factor in handling errors. do any irish rugby players were gloves or did quinlan end that ?

BTW did anyone read stephen jones in ST today?. Levat MOM 9/10 when we made sh** of their lineout.

People are saying the turning point was Darcy's near miss. Lucky the ball bounced his way, unlucky goalpost got in the way.
I thought the most decisive moment of the match was the penalty reversal for Flannery's lunge. Instead of Ireland having a lineout in the French 22 the opposite happened. As a result instead of playing down the sinbin clock in possession in their territory we were defending scrum after scrum on our own line which eventually led to the french scoring 7 points.
Yellow cards at this level are crucifying. Some commentators say Healy saved seven points. You could say he handed The initiative to the French. Whereas the game had been pretty even until then with both sides having their moments, once the sinbin occured all the momentum and initiative was with the French.

As a Munster fan I sometimes might express a one eyed opinion of the various merits of the mighty men of munster, but Tomas O Leary stretched my loyalty on Saturday. It was so frustrating to watch him at the base of any ruck looking up to check if the French defence had realigned before he looked to play the ball. Rarely did he look to play quick ball which obviously asks more of any defence.
His decision making in the run up to halftime was poor. Deep in injury time under the posts take points. I've no problem with a sideline penalty being put to touch but O'Leary's try against italy has obviously given him a misguided sense of unstopability (new word).
The slow ball he gave to the backs left the backs at times looking bereft of ideas . In a scrum you have 6v6 in open play but with the slow service provided by O'Leary and Ireland's over committal of players to win the ball it was often 7 v 11 in open field with obvious consequences

spot on yummy, he would make any outhalf look bad , they have no space to move
I have never been a fan of his, his box kicks are very poor, what happened the outhalf getting to kick for touch
Unfortunately reddan is no better but he deserves his chance because tomas has played so poor, we need to find a really good scrumhalf for the next world cup

when to take a ball from a ruck or maul is probably the most important decision a scrum half has to take during a game. The quicker a 9 takes the ball the more confident a player has to be in his own decision making. As you say Macrocky both O'Leary and Reddan are very alike in this respect.
I wouldn't fancy any team to score off 1st phase against comparative opposition where as I said equal numbers of attackers and defenders face each other with relative space. The best way of unsettling defences is by not allowing them reset.
Healy's yellow card is a perfect example of this.The defence had not reset and had to commit a game changing foul instead.

I wouldn't fancy any team to score off 1st phase against comparative opposition where as I said equal numbers of attackers and defenders face each other with relative space.

There are of course certain advantages with 1st phase ball. From lineouts u get 20 clear metres in which to play, from scrums 10 metres plus the length of the scrum. No forwards cluttering the pitch, plus a one man advanatge given that the opposing FB lies deep. Its a 2 man advanatge if the blindside winger decides not to track his opposite number because of the position on the pitch, i.e he prefers to remain and defend a dangerous blind side.

To my eye we havent had a top class scrum half for a very long time , stringer/ reddan or o leary have never cut it.
o leary is slow passing, his passes are soft and they are telegraphed, what happened the dummy to catch a guy offside, cheap penalties are invaluable

itcanbedone


How many tries to you see off first phase in a game involving 2 comparable sides? Watch the 6 nations , the remainder of the Heineken cup, schools cup , aib league and come back to me.
Just watching the highlights now . The Irish try was the try of the match. It came from a series of phases all of which were quick ball. When the French ball was slowed down they generally looked to kick whereas we turned slow ball into slower ball , didn't cross the gain line off slow ball and ended up taking tackles on their terms, i.e.on the backfoot
Watch Wallace's try again and again ...............quick ball=go forward=unset defence

Itcanbedone

Teams practice set piece defence ad nauseum. Unlike in broken play you actually know where everyone is be it a scrum or lineout. Unlike soccer where a large percentage of scores come from set pieces , I would wager that less than 5% of tries in professional rugby come from set piece plays. The extra yardage created by moving the offside line at a scrum back 5 yards gives teams more space to run into but actually makes it harder to outflank sides

Not trying to claim that 1st phase ball is better than quick ruck ball when defences are stretched. Its not. But it does present significant opportuniy. There are plenty of tries scored off 1st phase ball for reasons outlined.

When

19 tries this 6 nations I think
How many first phase off a set piece

From what I have seen this season , the only scrum half in Ireland playing a different type of game is Boss . Nationality apart , presumably he is eligible . If so who views him as not worth a try in a full international ? Italy would have been the match .

11:44 Tánaiste due to meet O'Leary

Jaesus he wasn't that bad